Nice touch
(Images) is another story of the Jokers orgin that never quite made it into the dc continuity . It has a retelling of how the joker and the Batman first crossed paths and the orgins of the infamous Joker Venom.
While Alan Moores: (Killing Joke) potrayed the Joker as a man driven into a psycotic killer due to tragic events in his life Alan Grants: (Images) depicts the villian perfectly as the sadastic mass murderer we all grew up with having followed the characters in such storys as ((Death in the Family)) where the villian beat the second robin to a bloody pulp and killed him blowing up a warehouse ((No Mans Land)) where the villian manged to manipulate Bill petit into killing his own men before killing him , kidnapping the childeren of gotham with the intention of killing them, and killing Gordons Second wife in the process and of course ((Batman Year 1)) where he terrozied a group of disabled children while beating up a Batman impostor. With deeds as vile as these could the character really have had a good soul once apon a time? Well Alan Grant wastes little time asking these questions and through the story we see the dastardly villian exploit his mentally retarded cousin Melvin into making the Joker Venom by promising to buy him plastic surgery for his "small problem" before killing the boys pet cat by feeding it the venom, and then later killing his own cousin all just for the satisfaction to fool Batman. "Yes This Is The Joker We Grew Up With Alright" which is made possible in part thanks to brilliant artwork from Bret Blevins . While most artists have depicted the joker as silly transitioning into sinister, Blevins concept gets it just right making him look very much like the chilling psychopath we envisioned him to be with easily one of the scariest grins you can think of. The addition of Jokers idiot cousin Melvin is a good touch as we see the joker cruelly manipulate him into making the Joker Vemon without remorse or human empathy, however in many ways it also spoils the whole concept of Jokers origins being a mystery. By all means this story has its flaws preventing it from being the definitive Joker story the main ones in particular being,
a) That Batman would not instantly piece together Jokers involvement with a group of criminals and
b) That Batman would believe the Joker when he says he is an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire and let him go, however the story redeems itself later and Alan Grant does a great job getting the Batman character right in the end. illustrating his qualities as the Worlds Greatest Dectective. He shows him to be Resourceful, Collected and most of all in Control something that writers such as Jeph Loeb while they did good stories never quite got right. The diaologue from start to finish is priceless whether it be Joker "Deducting six points" from Batman for use of a chair during battle or giving the Dark Knight a "Six point five for a boring punch" Grants on form here.
The Good
.Impressive Artwork of the Joker by Brett Blevin
.Good storyline
.Well written dialogue
.A Truly melevelant joker
The Bad
A Batman that lets the joker go in their 1st meeting without being suspicious of his presence or motives
Overview
Alan Grant gives us a Joker story thats well worth reading from start to finish
Score 8/10