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scans_daily... written by Chuck Dixon.
(That said, it's a strong contender for Greatest Joker Story Ever Ever too, at least in my book.)
One of the few Joker-related things done by the New 52 leadership that I absolutely agree with is their including Detective Comics #726 in the Joker: A Celebration of 75 Years TPB. I find Chuck Dixon to be one of the most criminally underrated Joker writers of all time, and they probably couldn't have picked a better representative of his Joker writing than this one (Robin #85, while delightful, is a little too continuity-heavy, and most of the others are too long).
This is a tight little yarn that depicts the Joker at his most primal - no purple suits, no laughing gas, and he doesn't even leave Arkham. And yet he's instantly recognizable in every panel, not just because of the white skin and green hair, but because Dixon gets the heart of the character: that sneering, sadistic edge, always (always) cut with a genuine comedic flair. It's a lesson that certain other Joker writers would do well to take to heart.
Let's take a look.
We begin with this kickass cover, courtesy of Brian Stelfreeze. Fair warning - Stelfreeze's layouts in this issue are untouchable, but I don't really care for his linework. He's a master of minimalism, which is very fitting for the story, but he also gives his characters some very silly, smushed-looking faces, like they've just gotten back from a round of plastic surgery or five.
Context that you don't really need to know but I'll blather on about anyways: The "Aftershock" banner was something plastered across Bat-comics released directly after the "Cataclysm" crossover, when the editorial plan was just to have Gotham recover from a recent 7.8 earthquake without too much fanfare. Most of the "Aftershock" comics did address the quake's aftereffects, but tended to use the Mad Max-esque Gotham as more of a backdrop for traditional hero-vs-villain stories.
... buuut not this one. I believe it was the last "Aftershock" comic released before editorial decided to go the No-Man's-Land route instead, and it shows. No-one mentions the quake, most of the action takes place outside Gotham City, and it's an overall timeless story ripe for adaptation to almost any medium (wink, wink). The only element that might clue a reader in is that Bruce is riding a motorcycle instead of the Batmobile (which I think was lost when the quake hit the Batcave), but that's a minor thing.
Our story begins on a cheery note: a girl's been kidnapped, and her kidnapper's just hanged himself. Bruce and Jim Gordon are out of leads, save for one:
While the Joker's setup here is gold, I don't really care for the punchline - that it's the five-year anniversary of Jason Todd's death. Dixon was always a little fonder of referencing "A Death in the Family" than I'd have liked, even though I find him miles ahead of Jim Starlin. Plus, it's one of the few factors that makes this story a little less timeless. Bah.
Anyways, Bruce slaps Joker around a bit, but Joker just laughs it off and demands to know what's in it for him if he helps:
(By the way - I can't really show it here because of the scan limit, but part of what makes this story so distinctive is the pacing: every two or three pages, the Batman/Joker interaction is cut with a flash-forward of Batman beating the shit out of an army of goons. That's another part of what makes it such prime adaptation material - you can stretch out the action however long you want to not bore the kids with shorter attention spans, with all the heart-pumping music that that entails, while framing the Batman/Joker interaction with creepy silence.)
I love that page. Too many writers think that the Joker should be a mindless engine of destruction, when he can be as great a detective as Batman when he feels like it.
But Bruce, ever the World's Greatest Detective, figures out that Joker communicated with Stroud through Morse code.
Now that's something you wouldn't expect of this era: Batman, in full grim-n-gritty clenched-teeth mode... humbling himself. Intentionally. In front of the worst man he's ever known.
I know that a lot of you probably hate this and how it ups the Joker's Villain Sue-ness through the roof, but I dig it. It's unpleasant on Bruce's part, no doubt, but it's a minimum-risk gamble (the Joker isn't really scared of him to begin with, so I don't think it changes anything on a practical level), and it gets him a heavy reward: Joker decides that the "game" isn't fun anymore.
So Batman goes to the ferry. Where the aforementioned army of goons is waiting for him. And after breaking about a hundred lowlifes' bones, he finds the girl - not really safe or sound, but at least breathing.
Good God, that ending. I know of only one other Joker story where Joker knowingly, intentionally did a good deed, and as awesome as that story is, it doesn't really come close to this one.
And yes, I know this might be another breaking point for those of you who prefer an eternally optimistic Batman (who is, ideally, rewarded by the Universe for said optimism), but I appreciate how Dixon puts all those words in the Joker's mouth. So maybe he's right, or maybe he's just shooting his mouth off and waaay mis-reading Batman as usual. All depends on what take on Batman you prefer.
(I know of at least one Bat-fan who posits that the Joker himself doesn't really know why he flat-out told Batman, and only made up the spiel about hope on a lark. It should probably surprise no one that she's a Joker/Batman shipper.)
Okay, so overall, it's not exactly perfect. The setup is a little convoluted (the idea that anyone could be the Joker's cell neighbor these days is kind of a stretch, since he's usually in a super-isolated cell in the Triple-Max Security wing). And it's never really explained why there's such a huge army of thugs protecting the ferry (to say nothing of how the hell Stroud got the girl in the car in the first place). But really, I can't bring myself to care.
If this were the only Joker story Chuck Dixon ever wrote, I'd still call him one of the greatest Bat-writers in history.
(That said, it's a strong contender for Greatest Joker Story Ever Ever too, at least in my book.)
One of the few Joker-related things done by the New 52 leadership that I absolutely agree with is their including Detective Comics #726 in the Joker: A Celebration of 75 Years TPB. I find Chuck Dixon to be one of the most criminally underrated Joker writers of all time, and they probably couldn't have picked a better representative of his Joker writing than this one (Robin #85, while delightful, is a little too continuity-heavy, and most of the others are too long).
This is a tight little yarn that depicts the Joker at his most primal - no purple suits, no laughing gas, and he doesn't even leave Arkham. And yet he's instantly recognizable in every panel, not just because of the white skin and green hair, but because Dixon gets the heart of the character: that sneering, sadistic edge, always (always) cut with a genuine comedic flair. It's a lesson that certain other Joker writers would do well to take to heart.
Let's take a look.
We begin with this kickass cover, courtesy of Brian Stelfreeze. Fair warning - Stelfreeze's layouts in this issue are untouchable, but I don't really care for his linework. He's a master of minimalism, which is very fitting for the story, but he also gives his characters some very silly, smushed-looking faces, like they've just gotten back from a round of plastic surgery or five.
Context that you don't really need to know but I'll blather on about anyways: The "Aftershock" banner was something plastered across Bat-comics released directly after the "Cataclysm" crossover, when the editorial plan was just to have Gotham recover from a recent 7.8 earthquake without too much fanfare. Most of the "Aftershock" comics did address the quake's aftereffects, but tended to use the Mad Max-esque Gotham as more of a backdrop for traditional hero-vs-villain stories.
... buuut not this one. I believe it was the last "Aftershock" comic released before editorial decided to go the No-Man's-Land route instead, and it shows. No-one mentions the quake, most of the action takes place outside Gotham City, and it's an overall timeless story ripe for adaptation to almost any medium (wink, wink). The only element that might clue a reader in is that Bruce is riding a motorcycle instead of the Batmobile (which I think was lost when the quake hit the Batcave), but that's a minor thing.
Our story begins on a cheery note: a girl's been kidnapped, and her kidnapper's just hanged himself. Bruce and Jim Gordon are out of leads, save for one:
While the Joker's setup here is gold, I don't really care for the punchline - that it's the five-year anniversary of Jason Todd's death. Dixon was always a little fonder of referencing "A Death in the Family" than I'd have liked, even though I find him miles ahead of Jim Starlin. Plus, it's one of the few factors that makes this story a little less timeless. Bah.
Anyways, Bruce slaps Joker around a bit, but Joker just laughs it off and demands to know what's in it for him if he helps:
(By the way - I can't really show it here because of the scan limit, but part of what makes this story so distinctive is the pacing: every two or three pages, the Batman/Joker interaction is cut with a flash-forward of Batman beating the shit out of an army of goons. That's another part of what makes it such prime adaptation material - you can stretch out the action however long you want to not bore the kids with shorter attention spans, with all the heart-pumping music that that entails, while framing the Batman/Joker interaction with creepy silence.)
I love that page. Too many writers think that the Joker should be a mindless engine of destruction, when he can be as great a detective as Batman when he feels like it.
But Bruce, ever the World's Greatest Detective, figures out that Joker communicated with Stroud through Morse code.
Now that's something you wouldn't expect of this era: Batman, in full grim-n-gritty clenched-teeth mode... humbling himself. Intentionally. In front of the worst man he's ever known.
I know that a lot of you probably hate this and how it ups the Joker's Villain Sue-ness through the roof, but I dig it. It's unpleasant on Bruce's part, no doubt, but it's a minimum-risk gamble (the Joker isn't really scared of him to begin with, so I don't think it changes anything on a practical level), and it gets him a heavy reward: Joker decides that the "game" isn't fun anymore.
So Batman goes to the ferry. Where the aforementioned army of goons is waiting for him. And after breaking about a hundred lowlifes' bones, he finds the girl - not really safe or sound, but at least breathing.
Good God, that ending. I know of only one other Joker story where Joker knowingly, intentionally did a good deed, and as awesome as that story is, it doesn't really come close to this one.
And yes, I know this might be another breaking point for those of you who prefer an eternally optimistic Batman (who is, ideally, rewarded by the Universe for said optimism), but I appreciate how Dixon puts all those words in the Joker's mouth. So maybe he's right, or maybe he's just shooting his mouth off and waaay mis-reading Batman as usual. All depends on what take on Batman you prefer.
(I know of at least one Bat-fan who posits that the Joker himself doesn't really know why he flat-out told Batman, and only made up the spiel about hope on a lark. It should probably surprise no one that she's a Joker/Batman shipper.)
Okay, so overall, it's not exactly perfect. The setup is a little convoluted (the idea that anyone could be the Joker's cell neighbor these days is kind of a stretch, since he's usually in a super-isolated cell in the Triple-Max Security wing). And it's never really explained why there's such a huge army of thugs protecting the ferry (to say nothing of how the hell Stroud got the girl in the car in the first place). But really, I can't bring myself to care.
If this were the only Joker story Chuck Dixon ever wrote, I'd still call him one of the greatest Bat-writers in history.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-20 09:46 pm (UTC)Frankly, I think one of these things can't really exist without the other. Like, if you have a teeth clenching gritty antihero who takes shit from no one, there has to be a point where he casts aside his pride and starts taking the shit for the sake of saving someone, or else he's a crappy hero and kind of a cartoon character.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-21 02:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-20 09:57 pm (UTC)Originally Cataclysm was supposed to be just another disaster that hit Gotham, which had proven to be ridiculously often hit by disasters, with the core team of writers of almost a decade, Dixon, Moench and Grant, just supposedly continuing on after that. However, because the Bat-book sales had dropped dramatically over a few years, the editorial decided to do a huge gamble and change the creative team completely to completely new writers who didn't have that much background in comics to create something spectacular that became No Man's Land. Although I've heard rumors that they actually wanted to keep Dixon around as a writer, but he left out of loyalty to the other two.
Anyways, this lead Aftershock having a very different purpose than originally meant with the three or four issues being farewell issues for the old writers. Grant's issues were almost petulant, Moench's issues wildly varied in quality, as did all of his comics, but Dixon really focused on the relationships he had fostered during his run. So this issue was in a lot of ways his farewell to Batman and Joker, and their twisted relationship and deep understanding of each other.
Sorry about the long lecture, this was the time I started to read Batman books, well shortly after this during NML, and I've afterwards been facinated how I managed to pick just the correct time to dive in to it.
And while the Mankins fight made no sense, the coreography was absolutely stunning with Dixon once again proving that he understands action sequence dynamics so I don't mind at all.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-20 10:48 pm (UTC)One thing, though - I wouldn't be too hasty in calling this a farewell issue for Dixon. Yes, Aftershock largely marked the end of Moench's and Grant's work at DC, but Dixon stuck on with Robin, Nightwing, and BoP all through NML and beyond. Heck, Robin #85 came well after NML, and it's another of my favorite Dixon-penned Joker stories.
(Dixon himself relates that he was indeed preferred to stay. At various points, he's either said that editorial was forced to sack him too so it wouldn't look like favoritism, or that he was offered the Batman title post-NML but gave it up when he learned that he'd be competing against his mentor Larry Hama.)
no subject
Date: 2015-06-20 11:24 pm (UTC)And while I did love Dixon's Batman run, I am actually kind of glad that he did not stay along as it gave Rucka/Brubaker/Grayson an opportunity to really find their own voices and vision for Batman and allowing the character to again grow and evolve. Similarly to Snyder really rising to the level once Morrison relinquished his hold on the character.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-20 11:02 pm (UTC)"He was a sailor" isn't so much something either of them could find out, as something that ANYONE could find out. His former occupation would be on his records, so not sure why that's a seen as remotely a big reveal to either side.
As I've said before, I completely disagree with the Joker's point about Batman always assuming the victim is already dead. In fact i can't think of a single example ever of Batman having that outlook.
Of course he dares hope, he hopes every single time. What drives Batman IS that very hope (however slight or ridiculous it might be) that those he is trying to save will be alive and he will exert every erg of his being to save them.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-20 11:21 pm (UTC)The Morse code gimmick is admittedly hacky, though. No arguments there.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-21 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-20 11:08 pm (UTC)I'm not opposed to Joker trying to do something nice for Batman in his own twisted way, but this one doesn't really work on that point, because as others have pointed out Batman never assumes the worst going into a situation like this anyway.
For Dixon stories, I like the one I posted a while back with him going up against Az-Bats.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-20 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-20 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-21 12:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-21 02:24 am (UTC)Basically Joker takes over a television studio on live TV, and begins threatening to kill people while not actually doing it, the whole time, the director refuses to do anything to help them or call the cops because he wants the ratings of Joker killing someone on live TV, eventually the director goes into a frothing rage waiting for the Joker to kill someone, but he never does; As it turns out, the Joker was filming the director the entire time, and shows it on TV.
Those are the kind of Joker stories I like; where writers remember he's more than just a murderer with plot immunity, and that he's actually supposed to be a smart and unpredictable criminal mastermind.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-21 07:46 am (UTC)Most good jokes, you don't see the punchline coming, after all!
no subject
Date: 2015-06-21 09:14 am (UTC)I always liked the prose story in "The Further Adventures of the Joker" (short stories about Mr J, came out in the early 90's) where an injured Joker is stuck in a hotel room. He can't go out for a long while because A) he's injured and B) EVERYONE is looking for him this time, and so he's got nothing to do whilst he recovers.
So he phones a party line (Do they still do those these days?) where people are randomly linked together and can start chatting for fun, romance, sexy talk, whatever.
He ends up linking to a shy, lonely and somewhat depressed young woman, and he then gives a masterclass in evil, by first flirting with her ( as "Joe" I think), and then using every twisted pick-up artist line to break her down again, and to encourage her to go through with a suicide attempt he's managed to get her to admit to.
Just as she's agreeing to hang up and do it, they are interrupted by a drunk college guy at a party who phoned through on a dare, and he basically manages to undo everything that "Joe" had achieved and invites her to the party he's at if she's interested, and even dares "Joe" to come too, so he can be shown what college guy and his friends thinks of people who'd be that nasty to a girl for no reason.
The girl, realising what had been happening to her, then tells "Joe" what a creep he is and hangs up on him too.
The Joker is left frustrated and furious. He evens ponders going to the party and killing them all, but he can't (for multiple reasons including his injuries and everyone being on the lookout for him) and even if he did, where would the joke be? He'd KNOW he'd only be doing it because some drunk fratboy got under his skin and that would just be too much.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-21 05:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-21 07:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-23 01:44 am (UTC)