On the same night, at the same time, the Joker kills a crime family, murders a comedian on a live stream and dumps a trio of Red Hood lookalike corpses at Ace Chemicals before making off with a tanker full of the green stuff that turned him into who he is. But Joker couldn’t have done all that by himself - unless there were… Three Jokers!
It’s been over FOUR YEARS since Geoff Johns teased the Three Jokers storyline in DC Universe: Rebirth, the only storyline from that bumper issue that hasn’t been fulfilled - until now. And this first issue (of three) wasn’t bad considering this is Geoff Johns.
When I first heard about Three Jokers, for a moment I thought it was going to be an examination of Joker’s character metaphorically - exploring his many sides, addressing the changes to the character over the years, keeping the mystery behind who he really is but also digging down into the core of the guy - which would’ve been interesting to see. And then I remembered this was Papa Johns and of course we’re going the literal route. There are actually three Jokers putzing about Gotham for this storyline.
And this is DC anyway where the Multiverse is real with multiple Earths and on each Earth-# there’s at least one Joker, so there’s always the possibility that two (or maybe more?) Jokers are from one of these other Earths. It’s still an intriguing premise though. Is Joker a mantle that gets handed down a la James Bond/007 (in the movies)? Was Joker always three people - and why three anyway? And what are they up to…
The theme of this issue (besides the number 3) is past trauma haunting the present. The opening sequence shows Bruce’s numerous scars from battling his performance artist rogues gallery over the years, while the other two characters joining Bruce on this jolly - Babs Gordon/Batgirl and Jason Todd/Red Hood - both bear the legacies of brutal injuries inflicted on them by the Joker from The Killing Joke and A Death in the Family.
Fair enough - doesn’t make for gripping reading though. Besides drearily reminding us of the familiar (to all but new readers) ways that the Joker’s made our trio of characters miserable, there’s ANOTHER bloody rehash of the night Bruce’s parents were moiderized, a lot of Harvey Bullock doing his Ben Grimm-esque dialogue, and a whole bunch of boring, stupid, overlong fights. It feels like what it is: Johns streeeeetching out some pretty thin material to get three large-sized comics.
The scene with the three Jokers was good though as was that final scene, which I suppose was shocking but let’s be real here: deaths in superhero comics have become an inside joke at this point. I don’t know anybody who takes them seriously anymore and, after decades of DC and Marvel pulling these stunts then hastily reneging on them, why should anyone? And also, this storyline in particular is a numbers game AND this is the first issue so, y’know - I especially don’t think this is any kind of definitive moment. Maybe it gets people talking and that’s the point? Eh.
By far the best part of the issue is Jason Fabok’s beautiful art. Fabok is always good - he’s such a great Batman artist. His style has that appropriately polished, clean look of a major title and you really feel the physicality of Batman - this is how Batman should look. He also draws an excellent Joker, reminiscent of Brian Bolland, and his action scenes read very smoothly and kinetically.
It’s not the most impressive beginning but Johns does just enough to keep me wanting to find out what happens next. Coupled with Fabok’s masterful art and you’ve got a decent comic. We’ll see whether it was worth the 4+ year wait but, with Three Jokers #1, so far, so meh-k.
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