SPOILERS!
Three Jokers became two… becomes one. Batman, Batgirl and Red Hood race to the dilapidated Monarch Theatre for the final act in Jokers’ insane plan, involving Joe Chill - the man who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents. There can be only one Joker - but which one?
The third and final part of Three Jokers is… not bad. Which is a shame because I’d hoped it was going to be a barnstormer of a finale and it kinda fell flat.
Everything before the Monarch Theatre felt repetitive and useless - Bruce and Jason yelling again over the pros and cons of shooting Joker(s), yadda yadda yadda. And the final confrontation is fine but sorta underwhelming for the most part. Joe Chill’s “confession” isn’t earth-shattering but obvious, and Joker’s explanation for making all these Jokers in the first place didn’t make much sense.
The idea of making a “better Joker” only really clicks from our real-world perspective - that is, if Joker was really someone from Batman’s past, then his relationship to Batman would seem more tragic/villainous/poetic; being the cipher he is can seem a bit of a cop-out to some, but I think that makes him a better character.
I think it’s a decent idea though, particularly in the context of this being a sequel to The Killing Joke. Killing Joke is viewed by many as being the definitive Joker origin story so it makes sense to make the sequel, Three Jokers, also revolve around origins - the origin of a new Joker. Hence threatening to turn Joe Chill into the new Joker, whose murder of Bruce’s parents would make him a more meaningful Joker to Bruce - or even turning Jason into the new Joker, a former Robin and current Red Hood.
Unfortunately, the story plays out in a way that’s just a tad too neat: Batman saves everyone, the problem of multiple Jokers is solved, the possible Barbara/Jason romance is swiftly dismissed, and that’s that. Done and done! I hadn’t realised this was the sequel to The Killing Joke until those final few pages which might be controversial to some but didn’t mean that much to me anyway and ultimately felt unnecessary. The comedian’s wife and son are alive and well, living in a secret location far away. Also, just like Joker knows his true identity, Batman apparently knows Joker’s real name and has done since the first week he met him - not that he’s telling!
The callback to The Killing Joke with Barbara smashing the Joker’s camera into his face and yelling “Smile!” as payback for what he did to her in that book - that was a cool moment. And Jason Fabok’s art is spectacular as it’s been throughout this miniseries. The gradual lead-up to the Monarch was creepy - all those ominously silent panels - and the action in that final confrontation looked amazing, from Joker knife-fighting with Batman against the inferno, to Batman staring at Chill in the alleyway; there’s not a weak spot in the visuals here.
And it’s not a bad comic, it’s just that the conclusion is an underwhelming one - everything Geoff Johns set up doesn’t really amount to anything much. The revelations are pointless, the motives are weak and it feels like a wasted premise - it doesn’t really tell us anything much more about the Joker. Three Jokers is just another done-in-one Joker story rather than building on Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s classic book in any way and that’s disappointing.
Three Jokers #3 is a perfectly ok, if weak, ending to this surprisingly decent miniseries. I suppose not even Geoff Johns is allowed to tell us too much of Joker’s true origins but I had hoped for more than we ended up getting - it’s like we were being teased to start with and we’re still leaving with blue balls! Superhero comics really are all middle-story and Three Jokers is no different.
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