It’s a week of first issues, as Jim Gordon begins a hunt for the Joker and Bluebird hunts for evidence to convict Punchline in The Joker #1, with a lead story written by James Tynion IV, drawn by Guillem March, colored by Ari Prianto and lettered by Tom Napolitano, and a backup written by Sam Johns and James Tynion IV, drawn by Mirka Andolfo, colored by Romulo Fajardo Jr. and lettered by Ariana Maher.
Then, over in DC’s new Bat-themed anthology, we get a variety of tales featuring characters from all over the Batman universe in Batman: Urban Legends #1 featuring:
“Cheer” starring Red Hood and Batman, written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira with flashback art by Marcus To, colored by Adriano Lucas and lettered by Becca Carey
“New Roots” starring Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, written by Stephanie Phillips, drawn by Laura Braga, colored by Ivan Plascencia and lettered by Deron Bennett
“The Caretaker” starring the Outsiders, written by Brandon Thomas, drawn by Max Dunbar, colored by Luis Guerrero and lettered by Steve Wands
“The Long Con” starring Grifter, written by Matthew Rosenberg, drawn by Ryan Benjamin, colored by Antonio Fabela and lettered by Saida Temofonte
Matt Lazorwitz: So, I was hard on the idea of a Joker title when it was announced. I didn’t think it would work. And if it was a title that was Joker running around doing Joker stuff, I think I would have been right. But this? This is not that, and this is one of the better Batman-related comics I have read in quite some time.
Will Nevin: A better title would be that there first subhead we’ve got, but DC probably figured that wouldn’t sell as well as sticking Joker right there on the book. I unabashedly loved this. The brooding tone. The weight of Gordon’s entire career pressing down on him. The Joker occupying his thoughts during the day and his nightmares when he sleeps. This is the good shit right here.
ML: As for Urban Legends, well, it’s an anthology, so you take the good with the meh.
WN: And the “mehs” in Urban Legends were all better than the Punchline backup in Joker, and that’s probably the only thing I can say about it without snarling.
Jim Gordon: Manhunter
ML: In your introduction, you mention the weight of Gordon’s career pressing down on him, and that feels like the central theme here. And boy, that could have made for something ponderous. James Gordon has a litany of reasons for hating the Joker. I mean, most people in Gotham do, but Joker has taken a personal interest in fucking with Jim Gordon second only to his interest in fucking with Batman. But while we feel that weight, it never weighs the story down. It focuses on the aspects that readers need to know. They mention Sarah Essen, Jim’s second wife whom Joker killed, but Tynion doesn’t spend time rehashing that incident of fridging, which is probably for the better. The narrative makes even the unfamiliar reader know there’s more history here than just Killing Joke, even if we don’t see it, and that is effective storytelling, my friend.
WN: This is the advantage of using legacy characters rather than creating someone like Joker-Finder or Cop Man or [insert some other terribly named but plausible-sounding Tynion creation here]; we care about Gordon because we know all the trauma he’s been dealt. That history gives the whole enterprise meaning, and without that, I don’t think this first issue would have been nearly as good. One thing that surprised me: Between Infinite Frontier, Batman #106 and this, it seems like the whole line is focusing on A-Day and what it means moving forward. Were you surprised to see that brought up here, and what do you think this sort of cohesion means? And the focus on Bane’s “death” isn’t an accident, right?
ML: Absolutely not. The Bane thing was dropped back in the Joker War Zone special, with Joker and his vendetta against Bane, and the fact this was seeded that long ago? No, there’s something long-term going on here. Especially when you factor in that Tynion introduced Little Santa Prisca as what could have been a throwaway line in the story where Harley gets an apartment, but in fact was setup for this, means Tynion is playing a long game. I like a long game, as long as it’s played out well. Grant Morrison’s long game fell apart because of editorial changes (CoughTheNew52Cough), and Tom King’s long game fell apart due to all sorts of issues with the planning. I hope Tynion has the time and the step-by-step planning to pull this off.
WN: Since you brought up our favorite former spook, I got the feeling that Joker is the book that Batman/Catwoman aspires to be — but that latter thing continues to be an unreadable mess. Even though I have problems with his Batman run (mostly his insistence on creating new and shallow characters I can’t wait to forget), he deserves a lot of credit here for making what feels like a story for adults and giving it an air of prestige without being a pompous ass about it.
ML: Hah, yeah, I can definitely give him that.
The opening scene of this book does a phenomenal job of setting its tone. The old chestnut of the old cop who is giving advice to the young cop can read played out, but Tynion really does a good job of giving it an air of menace.The cannibal serial killer thing is a bit on the “grim and gritty” side of things, but the more I think about it, the more I have to imagine someone who has been a cop for as long as that guy seems to have been needs something that extreme to make him a real nightmare. The whole thing, with Gordon’s reaction and eventual reevaluation, is spectacular character work.
WN: That was another thing that really worked to set the adult tone from the first few pages. While I have a quibble down in the notes about how that old fella is referenced after that scene, it was one of those moments that set this issue apart as something special.
ML: I also want to dig a little into Gordon’s interactions with Batman in this issue, and what it says about him as a resilient character. Both Lucius Fox and Jim went through some manner of torture at the hands of Batman’s enemies because of Batman; Lucius by Punchline poking at his brain and Jim by the Batman Who Laughs infecting him with crazy Joker toxin, making him a villain. Lucius is now on the road to working with the Magistrate, while Jim is back to hanging out on fire escapes with Batman. This isn’t a judgment on Lucius but a reminder that there are real civilians in Batman’s orbit, and Jim Gordon isn’t one of them.
WN: Gordon — aside from that brush with the toxin (And how was that ever resolved, by the way? Did someone just waive their hands at that?) — is an incorruptible figure in Gotham, a symbol much in the way that Batman is. There’s a reason why his backstory on the force involves putting bad cops away: It’s to show that he’s different; he’s better. The city might fall to hell, and Batman’s sidekicks may fail, but Gordon will always be there as an ethical and moral center. But that looks like it’s going to be tested in this series. And I’m here for it.
ML: I know we’ve talked about him as an artist on Batman, but how do you feel about Guillem March in this book? Because I’m still not a huge fan, but his work seems more suited to this more horror-tinged book than it does to the traditional superheroism in Batman.
WN: There was a moment or two that I thought the inks were a little off (How many heavy creases does a man need in his dang forehead?), and the flashback scene with the cannibal was maybe a little messy in what it was trying to do, but on the whole, I thought this worked. Ultimately, I’m not too hard to please when it comes to art in cape books: Meet a bare standard of professionalism (which has been difficult in the era of double shipping) and don’t give me confusing layouts. Hit those low bars, and I’m happy.
Red Hood Revisited
ML: We could call this week, “Matt goes back and reevaluates stuff he has said.” Within the past month, I said I’ve never cared for Jason Todd since his resurrection. Well, this is a far more interesting take on Jason Todd than we got in “Future State” and more nuanced than anything we’ve gotten in a Red Hood ongoing pretty much ever.
WN: I thought Big Daddy Chip wrote a real banger here, and it was more proof that you don’t need some Gotham cataclysm to make a good story. We got two legacy characters in Bats and Red Hood, and they’re going to team up to bust up a drug ring — the setup is simple, but the excellence is in the execution.
ML: Absolutely. It’s easy to write Jason as this ball of rage and not much else. But the story gets right up into his head, gets past the smark and bravado that he puts on for the world, and digs into who he is. This isn’t the first time someone has tried this: Three Jokers tried to play on Jason’s internal struggle, but it was so full of sturm, drang and angst, it made you not care about him. Here, Jason feels like a person, not a plot point or an EXTREME Bat character. And by adding in a kid whose life is echoing Jason’s own, it adds that extra wrinkle, that thing that Jason has never had before: a chance to look at life through Bruce’s eyes, to see what Bruce might have seen when he found Jason trying to jack the Batmobile’s tires.
WN: That emotional beat there at the end felt real, too. Zdarsky has a great, chaotic online persona, but he can write straight as hell.
ML: Flashbacks are often a cheap trick in storytelling to help a writer show in the telliest way why the characters are interacting the way they are. Here, those bits really worked for me. I think people remember Jason as this shitty kid and think he was that way for his entire existence, but he was that character for only about 20 issues before he was killed; before that in the pre-Crisis times, he was just a Dick Grayson clone. Giving that young Jason a little more story, a little more room, helps me feel more for him. Add in the fact you have two veteran Bat Universe artists, Eddy Barrows on the main story and Marcus To on those flashbacks, and I’ll be happy if we see a bit more of this throughout the six issues this is running.
WN: I am so starved for Alfred content in these dark times, I will allow for any and all flashbacks. I joke (a little), but not having him as an active agent in these books just shows how he’s really the moral center of Batman’s universe.
ML: Yes, a thousand times over. I’m Matt Lazorwitz, and I approve this message.
A Love Story in Thorns and Laughs
ML: This story feels like it’s bridging the gap between what we’ve been seeing in Batman in recent issues and where new Harley ongoing writer Stephanie Phillips, who wrote this as well, is going to be taking the character.
WN: Absotively, given that we’re given the teaser for follow-ups in both Batman and Harley Quinn. And here’s a general question for you in light of how we’re seeing something similar with the Damian Robin story: How many books is a fair/reasonable demand by DC for readers to follow if they want to track their faves?
ML: Oof. That’s a very good question. Listen, I know not everyone has the same time, disposable income and sheer pigheadedness as I do to buy all the in-continuity Bat books. I usually stand by the idea that every series should stand on its own, and reading multiple titles should just make for a fuller experience. That is naive, I absolutely admit. I think two to three is fair for a character as big as Harley. This is just a one-off, after all, and more flavor than a major driving narrative for her and Ivy. I think if you need to read more than Harley Quinn and Batman (and the Harley stuff in Batman should inform her character and plot in her own book), then DC is cash grabbing too far.
Say what you want about him personally, and believe me I have plenty I could and none of it complimentary, Chuck Dixon was the master of this in his ’90s Bat books. If you wanted to know Tim Drake or Dick Grayson and follow their lives, you read Robin or Nightwing, respectively. Their stuff in Detective or Birds of Prey (all four titles that Dixon was writing at the same time), or when they’d guest in each other’s books, was just additional flavor to that central story in their own books.
WN: So was it writing four titles simultaneously that turned Dixon into a prick?
ML: I think that definitely contributed. I might be a little off on the timing: It might be only three ongoings at once, but one way or the other, naw, I think he was just edited really well by Denny O’Neil, who kept his baser instincts in check, and when he got out from under Denny’s view, things went wild.
But back to Harley. I can’t think of any time in the main Bat titles where Harley and Ivy have been this much a “couple.” That has usually been reserved for AU books like Injustice or over in Harley’s own book when it was more removed from the main Bat-line, and there it was very much a free-wheeling, non-monogamous thing. Here, they feel like a committed couple.
WN: The thing that strikes me is how this feels so genuine and authentic. Twenty years ago, this would probably feel gross and come off like it’s written for the male gaze, but here, it’s sweet and sad and really gives this thing some heart. I’m trying to remember the specific moment (“War of Jokes and Riddles”?), but when was it that Ivy was sidelined? How long has she been out of action?
ML: OK, so Ivy had that three-issue arc where she took over the world with plants in the run-up to the Batman/Catwoman wedding, then was shuffled off to Heroes in Crisis, where she was killed and resurrected. There was a Harley and Ivy miniseries that followed up on that, but it was … weird and I’m curious to see if anyone follows up on the stuff that happened there, or if it winds up a footnote. So while she’s been around, Ivy hasn’t been a major force since Batman #43.
As we talked about in the Joker section above, that feels like a more mature, prestige sort of story. And so does this. It’s on a much smaller scale, but not only is it all the things you said, or maybe because it’s all the things you said, this really strikes a cord as a mature story in all the right ways, not in the “mature readers” way that comics usually use those words, which usually means “boobs and exposed brains all over the page!”
WN: How do you think this ends? With a reunion and Ivy struggling with a decision on whether to be a heel or a face? Or somewhere else?
ML: I think the former. I think that’s the plotline in Batman where Harley is really going to be tested. Ivy had one other brief appearance in that same “Joker War” one-shot where Joker confronts Bane, this one where Ivy was basically, “Screw humanity, it’s time to get serious about this whole saving the planet by any means.” And last time she got close to that, in the King Batman, Harley talked her down. I think we’ll be seeing a story that puts her farther along, and whether Harley can talk her down again.
Bat-miscellany
- The other two stories in Urban Legends struck me as fine, but not as meaty. The Outsiders story is a big action blockbuster, and Grifter is fine. The Grifter one is bringing in more aspects of his history to the DCU, with characters like Lynch and more teases of the HALO Corporation.
- I will say, of all those Wildstorm allusions, the one that got me was the mention of “Carver.” That would be Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips creation Holden Carver, the lead of Sleeper, their first longform collaboration and a series on par with their creator-owned stuff. I hope it was just a nod and that we’re not going to see Holden, as his story, like that of Jack Knight in Starman, is completely contained there, and he should just be left where he is.
- The language on suicide has evolved, and The Associated Press has taken the position that “committed suicide” is a phrase that should be avoided, given that “committed” implies wrongdoing. DC editorial would do well to follow that guidance.
- The Punchline backup is very much not good and brings down Joker overall.
- I wish I could disagree. The general idea about online radicalization in a superhero world is a good one, and I like the other characters in it (I am possibly the world’s biggest Leslie Thompkins fan), but it is just flat and does nothing for me.
- If you are a Guillem March fan, or you really did like his work in Joker, this was a good week for him. He also launched an erotic horror title, Karmen, over at Image.
- [Ed. note: Matt forgot to mention he’s starting a Batman podcast.]
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
