Hosted as always by our good friend Bill “Jett” Ramey, the hardest working Batman fan on the planet, at Batman on Film!
This issue is all kinds of diabolical.
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Hosted as always by our good friend Bill “Jett” Ramey, the hardest working Batman fan on the planet, at Batman on Film!
This issue is all kinds of diabolical.
Comments are closed.
I have all kinds of feelings about this issue. I was really impressed between the actual book and some of the recent interviews with Snyder… He really seems to “get” that the Joker isn’t just a clown, he’s a court jester: He mocks Batman and he mocks society because he thinks civilization and justice and all that have gone to our heads and he wants to remind us we’re not as great as we think we are. That’s what made “The Dark Knight”‘s Joker so great and what makes this take on him so great. I think we’re in for a heck of a story. It’s already promising to be a modern classic.
The throwbacks and references to the Joker’s first appearance were great (it’s still one of my favourite Joker stories) and I’m thrilled they were able to include Harley Quinn in a way that doesn’t cheapen the Joker or make him less frightening (like tended to happen towards the end of “The Animated Series”)… his interaction with her makes him even *more* frightening!
My only problem with what Snyder’s doing is that it has a lot of uncanny similarities to a Joker story I wrote as part of a Batman fan comic that some friends from BOF and I are working on but haven’t released yet. lol I worry anyone who reads it might think we just ripped Snyder off even though we came up with the idea before The New 52 was even announced. We take the idea of the Joker longing for the good old days in a slightly different direction, but it’s just weird to come up with an idea and then see it in one of the actual comics. If only they’d take our idea for how to get rid of Damian! lol
Hey, Alex,
First of all, it’s awesome that you’re writing Batman stories! Please let me know when it’s out, because I’d love to read it. And I’m all for any solution that involves getting rid of Damian, ha. And don’t feel bad if Snyder’s story has similarities to yours. Tell your tale, and it’ll stand on its own. I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with.
You hit the nail on the head about Harley. I didn’t talk about her in my review because I wanted her appearance to be a surprise, but you’re entirely right that Snyder found a way to make her work without cheapening her or the Joker. I continue to believe that the Joker is Batman’s number one fan who just wants what’s best for their rivalry, and that involves bringing things back to basics. The Joker sees killing Batman’s family not as a punishment but as a favor. Crazy. And scary. And awesome.
I don’t know when the comic will be released (we’re trying to get a fair-sized backlog of stories before releasing anything), but I’ll definitely let you know when it is.
The comic is its own continuity so it’s allowed us to take some characters in some pretty different directions. I’m actually interested in seeing what people’s reactions will be to seeing our interpretations of characters more than anything. We’ve tried to include a lot of D-list villains in it too, so it’s been fun to try and take guys like Killer Moth or The Crimesmith or Egghead or Mr. Camera and make them cool. haha