Some thoughts about Joker: Year of the Villain #1

Is the Joker insane?

The Joker has gotten himself a new pawn and he's willing to make him play with his demented plans but they might not be as crazy as everyone think.

I honestly wasn't expecting John Carpenter of all people to work on a DC comic but hey, it actually happened and is all for the better. Famous for many films, particularly The Thing, Carpenter is going to tackle one of the most famous villains in comics and I must say he does a surprisingly masterful work at it.

Let's get this out of the way, the story doesn't have anything to do with the Year of the Villain event and thank God for it since that storyline itself is not interesting at all and is lasting for too long. Carpenter actually focuses on the relationship between the Joker and one of his new minions which reminds me of Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo's Joker graphic novel, in fact Carpenter's work here touches many of the same themes from that work but does it in a different style.

Carpenter is not afraid of playing with the inherent silliness of the Clown Prince of Crime and this is especially obvious once that he includes the Condiment King of all villains into the story which leads to the Joker and his new partner dressing as Batman and Robin, is all in typical comic book fun but of course, this is just to hide the horrific implications that are inevitable going to happen.

Working for the Joker can only go so well and it leads to a massacre in this mad adventure where the sidekick realizes he's just an insecure man who is not really made to be a criminal. Even better, this creates an interesting contrast between the Joker and him which puts into perspective the sanity of the former and even plays with the classic homoerotic fixation that he has with Batman. The idea of madness is constantly brought and creates a satisfying resolution at the end.

I was pleasently surprised by Philip Tan's work here, he has never been one of my favorite pencillers but he does a pretty good job at recreating the chaotic nature of the story and characters while depicting appropriate homages like the Joker beating Jason Todd when it was necessary.

Excellent read, one of the best this week.