Today we turn our attention to her less-popular, criminally-insane former lover: the Joker. For roughly a year, Joker had his face surgically removed in Detective Comics (2011) #1, and then disappeared off the face of the Earth. Around 2013, he came back with a renewed sense of purpose: to revive his relationship with the Batman by killing off his family tree and support network. In his eyes, the Batman had grown weak by building a family of superheroes in Gotham City, and who better to remedy that than the person who's known him the longest...the Joker?
The "main" story is in the Batman title, from the start of the Joker's crime spree to the end. This Joker-centric collection is more in an anthology style with the Joker parading around Gotham City to harass the various different people that Batman's networked with. Here's the cliffnotes for the various stories:
- Detective Comics 16-17: The return of the Joker inspires all the crazies that were already there in Gotham. One such group is called "The League of Smiles," a group of Joker fanatics performing murders in his honor. Batman has to figure out who the "Merrymaker" is, orchestrating their actions and stop them from murdering more innocent people. It's a clever, tightly-done 2-issue mystery that you see coming from a mile away, but still a great vignette on just how much the Joker has warped the people of Gotham City.
- Catwoman 13-14: Way too quickly-paced, with the Joker placing Catwoman in an absurd amount of death traps. They needlessly shoehorn Catwoman into the story, adding some baggage from a previous issue that's going to confuse any new readers. The only purpose of these issues is to contrast Catwoman's independence from the Batman, against Joker's fixation on the Bat, all delivered in the final page of the story.
- Suicide Squad 14-15 (portions): Harley has her reunion with Joker and, a reckoning. In the year that had gone by, despite their love for each other, they're just not what the other needs anymore. The Joker still thinks he can convert Harley to his way of thinking by...subjecting her to death traps, but Harley's not the person she used to be. Worst of all, he purposely exposed the hyenas they raised together to rabies, and she has to kill her babies. Of course, Harley lives to fight another day and the Joker moves on with his plans, but definitely an important storyline to check on.
- Batgirl 14-16: The Joker kidnaps Barbara Gordon, Barb(Batgirl)'s mom. Apparently it had been years since she last saw her mother, who fled Gotham City to protect her from her psychopathic younger brother James Jr. Ensue the death trap, and ensue the insane plotline: the Joker proposes to Batgirl, and even more insane: Barb accepts. This story could have been Barb's chance to find closure for the events of The Killing Joke, and some scenes skirt around that but never see it fully ripen. The story cuts a little short in my opinion to serve the main story, when the Joker defeats her and takes her to his lair, but otherwise a decent read.
- The Batfamily titles all end on the same cliffhanger -- with Joker about to unveil a hidden dinner plate, presumably their faces cut off. I've already read Death of the Family several times over, but I can't even remember what was in the dinner plate! It made for a suspenseful read throughout the trade. The Red Hood and the Outlaws team up with the Teen Titans to save Gotham City from a Joker poison outbreak, all a distraction to lure Red Robin and Red Hood to Joker's lair. The Joker somehow knows everyone's secret identity and uses Dick Grayson's personal relationships to defeat Nightwing in the circus and end up in Joker's lair. Of particular highlight is Batman & Robin 15. Bruce keeps Damian, the current Robin, in the Batcave to keep an eye on things, but Damian can't help but venture out and try to help find Alfred. It leads him to the Gotham Zoo, an obvious trap, where the Joker orchestrates a dramatic fight between Damian and someone who looks an awful lot like Batman. The coloring is fantastic and the Joker's never been more terrifying than here. I'm just a sucker for shadows. Check out this two-page scene as Robin enters the zoo.
- The storytelling is great in this issue. It's easy to get caught up and only want to read the "main" line of Batman comics, but this issue is a great example of just what exactly you miss out on, if you do only that.
- Eventually Batman confronts the Joker in Batman 17, in which the Joker sets up another death trap, imploring the Batman to choose between his family, and his true family of the villains that he won't ever kill. You can guess how it ends.
- The story ends with Batman & Robin 16/17, another vignette-style look at Gotham Manor, after a harrowing night. We get a peek at the dreams of Alfred, Damian, and Bruce, and it's interesting being a part of those dreams and seeing how it informs their feelings.
Reading this tome is a lot like eating potato chips. When you're hungry, you can't really think so you just grab the whole family size bag of potato chips. The first 15 minutes are great, because you're finally getting rid of that hungry feeling. But around the middle, your stomach is starting to hurt. You've already gotten this far, and it still tastes pretty good, so now you're eating just to keep that taste in your mouth. By the time you finish, well, now you have cramps and your stomach is full...with regret.
OK that last part isn't so true for the collection. It's still a solid Batman story, but the middle of the collection just gets very repetitive. You're thrust in the middle of the books of supporting characters, who have their own supporting characters you're supposed to care about, but they've already had a years' worth of comics to build those relationships and the emotional stakes. Any reader coming into those books cold just aren't going to feel the emotional impact of the Joker killing/jokerizing/imperiling them like a reader who's been following them the whole time. But I will admit, there is the occasional gem in the collection, the kind of gem that's so good, well, you have to read the rest of the series. Batman & Robin shines as the best example, though I bet there are some other decent ones out there too, like Suicide Squad, Batgirl, and Detective Comics. The best comic is the kind of comic that gets you to read more comics, and this collection throws so many stories at you that a few of them are bound to stick.
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