Jack is Out And Joker's Wild
My first review-wow, I gotta admit, I'm kind of nervous. I feel like Kevin Smith right before the "Clerks" release; if I fuck up my first there's really no where to go from here. I'll give it my best shot. Here goes;
I was kind of apprehensive about reading this book. I'm not a huge fan of giving the Joker a backstory in general (Moore's "The Killing Joke" is an exception, but that's just cuz it's Alan freaking Moore), and when I heard that this book went even more in depth with who the Joker was before the green hair and red rictus grin, I considered maybe letting this arc pass me by. That is until I found myself with a few extra bucks burning a hole through my pocket at my local comics store and I figured, what the hell? If it sucks, I'm only out a buck fifty (it was 50 percent off day at my store; gotta love mom and pop shops).
Well, to cut right to the chase, I friggin' loved it. The writing is amazing, Michael Green has written some of the best comic dialogue I've ever read in my short history of affiliation with the medium, the art is awesome, Denys Cowan really brought a more raw, gritty feel to the world of Gotham and Batman. We get to see a little more of Bruce Wayne in this comic than in some others I've read. He comes across as much more human than other portrayals, which usually use the Wayne persona as more an act to hide his true personality, which is the Batman character. I'm not really a big fan of that, I prefer a more Werewolf-esque portrayal where both sides are given equal legitimacy, it's just a question of which is in control at the time. I digress. Anyway, that's what you get here, along with a suprisingly well-handled love story that deals with Bruce Wayne's budding relationship with a charming art historian (kind of a pre-Vicki Vale, pre-Catwoman sort of thing, kind of like what the new movies did with Rachel Dawes).
The real story here of course is the Joker. Gotta say, I like how they handled him. With again the exception of "TJK" and maybe "Arkham Asylum," I've never seen the Joker written with this much intensity, passion, and complexity before (I'm talking in comics terms, not the movies). In this book specifically, he has a fairly small roles, but it's still very well written, and it doesn't really give away anything at all as far as his life before Gotham is concerned. He arrives like a force of nature, no one knows who or where he comes from, just that he's a criminal. So, yes, no Rob Zombie-like scenes of a young Mr. J torturing small animals and killing school bullies in the playground, just the Joker maybe a few months or so prior to the "accident." There's also a great cameo by a character we all know and love, someone very close to Mr. J. I'll let you guys read it to figure out who, in case you hadn't already guessed.
Definitely give this book a look-see, I can't wait to get the next few issues. It's a really great read, you won't be disappointed.
