Comic Review #2: Batman: Three Jokers (2020)

 

Continuity is a weird thing with me. I like the characters having relationships with each other and the togetherness of the universes, but I'm not one of the guys who go OH NO THIS CLEARLY CONTRIDICTS ISSUE 402 OF THE BOOGIE WOOGIE WOMAN WHEN SHE CLEARLY SAID SHE WOULD NEVER MARRY CHARLES CHANCE, THE GREATES TAP DANCER OF ALL. These stories have been going on for 8 decades. The amount of things that have happened in our real world since 1934 when DC Comics first came into business is insane. The amount of stories they have published is insane. They would have to get an entire group of people just to keep people from complaining about minor facts. That and all kinds of reboots happening. Oh and a lot of recons are much better than their original story, I'm sorry but Magneto being the father of Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch works about 5,000 times better than their dad being The Whizzer (yes that his name and yes he actually has a yellow costume) I guess I'd rather just enjoy a story then having to pick it apart because one small factoid contradicts another. I guess in the end my feelings are like Grant Morrison and that all the stories matter even the stories that contradict other stories.

I don't know why I ended up buying this comic. I felt the idea was stupid from day one. The Joker doesn't need to be turned into three guys because his personalities were all over the place. That's one of the unique things about the Joker, the guys a fucking crazy madman who dresses as a clown. You can easily have him be methodical, or a goofy bastard who wants to put smiles on Fish, or a monstrous lunatic who bashes Jason Todd's face into goop. Having them be 3 guys takes a lot away from him. Also Batman knowing who the Joker is at the end of this story is another thing I don't like. I like the Joker being an enigma even to Batman. Something that even the Batman can't figure out. He's like the one mystery he can't figure out, to give the Joker a concrete origin has never been a great idea in my mind. 

This is going to be a shorter article because honeslty I didn't hate reading this as much as I thought I would. I was just bored to tears mostly. Nothing thrilling or fun about this story. No unique ideas for the most part except for having Joe Chill want to apologize to Bruce Wayne for what he did, but I just wish that idea had been put in a better story. Nothing. Oh I do have to rant about the "IT HURTS WHEN I LAUGH" scene. That's The Joker. Not a flip flappin 16 year old emo myspace teen from 2006.  The art is pretty good too but I'm sure I can see this guys art in a more enjoyable story. 

FINAL VERDICT: This story was mostly pretty boring honestly. The Joe Chill stuff was interesting but the HEY WE GOTTA HAVE 3 JOKERS NOW stuff was dopey as hell. I don't recommend reading this and I think Geoff Johns needs to give comic books a break for a while...