Joker done Vertigo?
Both of the main men that worked on this Original Graphic Novel are famed for their works as Vertigo Stall-worth's. Lee Bermejo is stunning in anything he creates. Mostly known as a cover artist, it is a rare treat to have him work the interiors of a book and Brian Azzarello has been lucky now to have him work on this as their third project together. Other Past projects these two have work on are Batman/Deathblow: After the fire and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. Brian Azzarello is famed for his crime stories and has succeeded in a feat most Vertigo series have not in arriving at one hundred issues in his award winning series 100 Bullets.
Brina Azzarello is also know stranger to Batman. He wrote a gritty noir tale known as Broken City that followed after Jeph Loebs and Jim Lee's successful Hush. In late 2009 he was also a major player in spearheading the Firstwave plup style book which has a newer version of Batman. One who is seem more human and has returned to using guns.
Opinions of book varies on is it a rip of of the Heath Leger Joker? The smile on the cover suggests to some degree of a Glasgow Grim which Heath Leger has made famous. It is an opinion that is normally likely for those not familiar with comics and only movies. The Joker has been going into the direction of the Glasgow grim with Grant Morrison's Batman run as well. This Joker we are presented is for more of a mature audience and it should not be a book given to young children. The visuals alone can scare them, let alone if they can read, Brian Azzarello is a crime writer, all is fair game.
This book is nice because it is narrated in the eyes of one of Jokers henchmen. The begining is the place where this book loses the .5 star, how could the Joker walk out of Arkham so easily? After I ask that question, Lee Bermejo's art be comes so visually captivating with Brian Azzarello's plot that I forget that question only until the moment I am writing this review.
The Batman is best used in this stories as the mythical monster that stocks the shadows and Brian Azzarello knows this. While reading the story there are times where you think if Batman is somewhere around.
Classic whimsical Joker you will not find here. His is a mob king Joker that only Brian Azzarello can write. This maybe a nice gateway comic to the works of either men. Being a long time Vertigo Fan, I enjoyed the fact to Vertigo guys got to create a "Vertigo Level" Joker story like Frank Millers Dark Knight Books and Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum: A Serious place on Serious earth. So pick this book up if you are a Joker fan. Heck, pick it up because it is a must.
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