Madness has never been so dull
I never heard anything about this comic but was immediately entranced by the amazing cover. Sadly the cover is where you should stop reading. From its inception this comic is horribly dull, Jonny Frost (the story teller) is the most stereotypical power hungry bad kid. His name is ridiculous even by comic book standards and rather than pitying him, which the comic tries so hard to make you do, you will find yourself praying for his horribly out of touch narration to end so you can get to the joker.
Once there however the blandness and boredom shall continue. I'm not sure how you can make a character like the joker boring but somehow this comic manages it. Even the kid friendly tamed down joker of ye olde has more life and character than this one. Its literally a whole comic of talking with character development so ham fisted that you end up resenting every character not because of their nefarious deeds but because they are such horrible interpretations of amazing characters.The joker as a character deserves so much more subtlety and nuance when trying to examine his humanity. The clumsy way this book goes about it turns joker from a madness fueled sociopath whose mere mind delves the darkest depths and perverts the concept of humanity into a two bit thug juggalo posturing like he is "crazy maaaan you don't wanna mess with him, he craaaaazy" There are very few good moments but in general the joker's actions are ridiculous in their attempts to be dark and gritty.
The graphics aren't necessarily bad and in some scenes almost salvage the comic but overall I think they are held back by the character design which is planted firmly in the dull attempts to be realistic as with the story. I think the over arcing flaw that ruins this comic is its attempts to be gritty and realistic. It does practically every stereotype of a 'gritty' reboot whose attempts at breathing humanity into characters are done so clumsily that they backfire horrendously. I have to say the only decent depiction of a the characters in gotham is batman and even then it is a bit strange. Honestly this book should have just taken the cover and made it a poster. It would have saved paper and time for us all
