Three Jokers becomes two in, er, Three Jokers #2! After the dramatic finale of the first issue, Red Hood is on a rampage, chasing down the remaining Jokers with Batman and Batgirl hot on his tail. Meanwhile, a judge is found beaten to death by a weapon covered in Joe Chill’s prints - the man who murdered Bruce Wayne’s parents. But Joe’s been in the Blackgate medical wing being treated for terminal cancer for months - what do the two remaining Jokers (or are there more…) have planned?
I wasn’t expecting to be this impressed with Three Jokers but this is a miniseries that’s turning out to be shockingly good. Besides the enigmatic multiple Jokers conundrum, this is also a stealth Red Hood story with Jason struggling with past trauma that he’s realising he’s never fully confronted before. And I really liked how Geoff Johns continues to throw Jason at the Jokers to keep facing this, but also how he introduces the possibility that this is an elaborate plan to turn Red Hood into the new Joker, kinda like Joker started out as Red Hood himself, and playing into Jason’s continual metamorphoses over the years. It’s a story with a lot of twists and layers to it and I appreciated that.
The B-plot is also interesting as Batman and Batgirl attempt to track down Joe Chill and see what the Jokers have used the vat of chemicals for - perhaps hinting at what the Joker really is: a mantle, passed down from criminal to criminal, via this gruesome ritual. Except now Joker is going overboard with it, perhaps as a diversion. I like that Johns keeps us guessing. And that last page is a tantalising stinger for where this story is headed.
There were a couple of little moments that stood out to me: Batman, facing Chill’s cell, saying “You know who I am” but faltering with the first attempt because he’s momentarily taken back to being a kid again - that was excellent. And Babs kissing Jason - these two always made more sense to me as a couple than Barbara and Dick Grayson. C’mon, girls like the bad boys and Jason is definitely that! I think a relationship between these two would be vastly more interesting than pairing two “good” characters, y’know?
Jason Fabok’s art continues to shine. All of the pages look stunning but I loved what he did with the visual of the Red Hood mask - the painted-on Joker smile and the shattered right eye. It’s so perfectly symbolic of what’s going on in the story. Batgirl kicking down the door with the storm raging behind her looked really cool, as was Batman and Batgirl being swarmed by Jokers. I can’t fault Fabok one bit - his Batman art is superb, full of everything you’d want to see in this title.
The opening scene is creepy but pointless and felt like filler. And, considering there’s only one more issue left and the number of plates Johns has set spinning so far, I’m worried he’s not going to resolve it all in time, or end up rushing it, so things like this feel extraneous. Batman takes Red Hood murdering a Joker much too easily. The dialogue he has with Babs is slightly convincing in this regard - but not totally. And Jason overplays the sad boy role after Babs kisses him, almost whining when he says “I’ve never felt like anyone cared” - no wonder she turned away from him. Nobody likes a sad sack wallowing in self-pity!
Still, Three Jokers #2 is a much better comic than I thought it would ever be and I’m glad to be pleasantly surprised like this. Decent writing, a compelling story, all presented in top-tier art - Three Jokers #2 is a great comic. This miniseries is turning out to be Geoff Johns’ best work in years.
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