THE JOKER #1 - A Complete Surprise

 This issue was written by James Tynion IV, with artwork from Guillem March

 

When I first saw the slate of titles that DC were going to be releases as part of this “Infinite Frontier” era of storytelling, I will admit that I was very sceptical about the idea of a Joker solo title, as I was not sure that this would be tailored towards such a character, what with him being one of the biggest bads in all of DC Comics, and I thought that his adventures separate from Batman or some other hero would be pointless and unappealing.

Of course, that was all working on the idea that the Clown Prince of Crime would be the sole focus of the entire narrative, for however long this series goes on for. Having not really read much information about the story, only really having seen the cover and pretty much decided there and then that this would be a disaster, I was unaware of the direction that James Tynion IV would be taking for this newest endeavour, being pleasantly surprised to say the very least. Instead of this having the Joker as some horribly twisted version of what we would expect a protagonist to be, this first issue focusing on establishing Jim Gordon as the seemingly main focus of this first arc, as he hunts down the man that allowed him to be open to the concept of evil in this world, that has tormented him for a vast number of years. This was some of Tynion’s best work in recent times (at least with DC, I don’t really read many other works, although I definitely should), with everything from the setting to the tone to the themes all being done to near perfection. For some reason, we also had yet more of the attack on Arkham Asylum focused on here, for far longer than I believe it needed to be, considering that Tynion was the writer on both portions of the Batman story in Infinite Frontier #0, and for the story in Batman #106, albeit for a slightly shorter time there. This looks as though it was focused on here in order to tease that it really was not the Joker that caused the attack, with this looking to have been confirmed on the final page, as Joker is in Belize reading the latest edition of the Gotham Gazette.

Despite the heavy reliance on what has been going on with the Joker and Jim Gordon in recent times (only understandable, it would be pretty pants if it had no history), I feel that this first issue does a great job of catering to the new readers of DC Comics, who may not necessarily be up to date on the happenings of the Joker or Jim and were perhaps disappointed that the Clown Prince wasn’t focused on straight away. The recaps and references to Jim’s pat were done perfectly, often in conjunction with a scene that was not during that particular time but shown through perhaps a photograph or a flashback with somebody that was a part of the analogy. Examples of this would be when Jim is telling us, through his inner monologue, that Bullock approached him about being a private investigator alongside him, with Jim claiming that he refused due to the idea of  “taking pictures of cheating spouses” making him feel uncomfortable, due to his own infidelities earlier in his life with the likes of Sarah Essen. While I am sure that Jim has made peace with himself since that time, I like that he is still holding himself accountable for his actions, acknowledging that “good people can be weak”, and does not want to be the one to “profit off that”. We are also given references to the Joker’s attack of Barbara Gordon during “The Killing Joke”, and her subsequent paralysis and recovery from it over the years, framed by a scene of a conversation between she and Jim discussing his decision to retire from the GCPD, after a torrid time as of late, in particular being turned by The Batman Who Laughs, although this is not explicitly referenced. The only story reference that I was unclear about was with Jim Gordon Jr. having been driven to his own death by Joker, apparently after years of trying to keep himself on the straight and narrow and being there for his family. From a small amount of research, this story seemingly went down very recently within the pages of Batgirl but considering that I stopped reading that book during the “Year of the Villain” nonsense, I have not actually read that story just yet.

With the main portion of the book out of the way, I will just touch on Punchline for a tiny bit, just to say that it was not the most enthralling ten pages that I have ever read, and this first issue probably could have done without a backup story, but I can sort of understand why it was there, considering the intrinsic ties that both characters have with one another. Having not read the Punchline Special that came out in around October or November of last year, I did not really have too much context for what was going on, but if DC Universe Infinite ever comes to the UK, I will make sure to read it, that is if that book is even on the service. IT seems that this is going to be a recurring little segment in the title, but I feel that it would maybe be better as its own standalone thing, just so that more focus can be put into it.

THIS VERY FIRST ISSUE OF JAMES TYNION IV’S “THE JOKER” WILL BE RECEIVING A “B-“ RATING, WHICH IS HONESTLY JUST FOR THAT MAIN STORY, AS I DID NOT FEEL THE BACKUP WARRANTED BEING INCLUDED.