I like those free playing cards...I
noticed nobody's talked about them..
DC Comics' seems to be on the verge of planning a funeral for itself...how many more paroxysms can it take within a single decade? There's a rumor that 2021 might be the year that longtime fans might want to consider dusting off the free black armbands that were bundled with copies of Superman #75 from 1992 and I'll leave it at that:
I must note how some of the ongoing storylines have a weird, metaphorical quality; Scott Snyder's incomprehensible mini-series, Dark Knights: Death Metal, revealed that Batman and Superman are cadavers, keeping themselves alive to fight 'till the fight is won with mystic paraphernalia, to put it simply. In the main Batman book, Batman is acting oddly out-of-character, leaving his entire fortune in the hands of Lucius Fox, an employee, albeit a trusted one, via a conservatorship, but this is all preamble to establish one of Lucius' sons becoming the replacement Batman in an upcoming storyline, rather than heir apparents Dick Grayson or Barbara Gordon or his own son, Damian...well, it's your money, Bruce.
Let's get to the real meat among the potatoes: having finished reading Batman: Three Jokers, it is my belief that this mini-series is the last good Batman comic book we are going to see for a long time, if ever again. I'm not really writing this in stone by putting that statement in bold italics, but it feels that way right now; if there are any good Batman comics forthcoming...it's all gravy to me; I can't really see anything as good as, or better, than this mini-series; I don't believe it was intended as a finale or last Batman comic, but...I'm not sure we'll see anything better. We'll see, right? Meanwhile, I mean it with sincerity that this was the best Batman comic I've read since Mad Love. And I enjoyed it more than The Killing Joke. More on this in a bit..
Years ago, I remember an editorial from an issue of Comic Buyers Guide that described 2 types of Batman vs The Joker stories:
1) The Joker steals the Batmobile:
2) The Joker tortures Batman over a pot of tea:
Three Jokers was teased as being like the first, but is really more like the latter. The tease came from scenes in 2 crossovers that are not particularly required reading:
Eventually followed by the formal announcement:
When it became clear the mini-series was going to be a sequel to The Killing Joke, everyone wondered if this was going to stick the landing. I'm not a big fan of Killing Joke, though I'm aware every dark take on Batman and The Joker takes it's cues from that story; fans of Oracle hate it, even though it's the only reason Barbara Gordon remained in a wheelchair, as a callback to that story. And Alan Moore is no fan of it:
The only scene I like is that whole "speech" Batman gives at the beginning - variations of which have been pastiched for decades since:
So, Three Jokers is revealed to be a sequel in that it changes the fate of a character that appeared in The Killing Joke...technically, 2 characters, really. Aside from that twist, the real focus is on the psyche of the 3 heroes featured: Batman, Batgirl and Red Hood - Batman's ethics & morality, Batgirl's ambivalence and Red Hood's neuroses. Each of the 3 Jokers correspond with each hero in different ways; the Clown has the same capacity for violent impulses as Red Hood; the Criminal is as ambivalent and pragmatic as Barbara; the Comedian, like Batman, holds more cards than he lets on and plays them close.
Jason Fabok's artwork is fantastic, Geoff Johns scripts are his most deftly-crafted; this is a love-letter to the pre-Knightfall Batman comic books of the late-80's - early-90's, right before Batman: The Animated Series began to permanently set the style; there's a nearly-forgotten era of deceptively simple, gothic tales by Alan Grant & Norm Breyfogle, Marv Wolfman, Peter Milligan, Jim Aparo, Jim Starlin, Christopher Priest and Dennis O'Neil in the ongoing issues of Batman, Detective Comics and Legends of The Dark Knight, read by many who were brought into comic shops by the success of the 1989 Batman film, where the stories were told from a street-level/rooftop-level perspective, and the ethos of the film's story structure seemed to be echoed by the writers and artists. It was a golden time to be reading Batman comics. It's an amazing triumph for Three Jokers. It even offers a happy ending! There's a punchline for you...
It was better than good...better than good enough..
