Some thoughts about Batman: Three Jokers #1

Who is the Joker?

Batman's nemesis is back, once again he's not alone but what makes it different is that there's somehow three versions of him. Who is the real one and what's actually happening is up to Batman to find.

Here it is people. The long-awaited Three Jokers storyline that was teased since the beginning of the Rebirth initiative way back in 2016. Geoff Johns has certainly been busy with his multiple projects so I can understand why this took so long and in retrospective it could have taken even longer (I mean, when is that Aquaman's Rise of the Seven Seas storyline going to release anyway?).

Sure, Johns is using the already overused Clown Prince of Crime and considering how derivative the current Joker War crossover in the Batman books is, I was not particularly claiming for more of him but I have to give it to the author, he's actually doing different with the character at least.

If there's something that I can appreciate about Johns is that, while he used to denigrate Batman a lot early on (which was understandable considering how overly-used he was in the 90s and early 2000s), he knows how to do something new whenever he takes him seriously. Take for example the early pages where we see Bruce's scars and we see how each one of them was produced by a different member of his rogue's gallery which builds-up for who produced the most of them, the Joker. This is pretty solid character work that involves multiple cast members and perfectly sets-up the plot. Bravo.

The good character work doesn't end there though since Batgirl and Red Hood also star in this book in interesting ways. We see how Barbara overcompensates the use of her legs as a symptom of what the Joker did and, while I was afraid that the author was making Jason more violent than usual, there are actually good justifications for it in story.

The mystery of the Three Jokers is still being explored with intriguing set pieces here and there that makes readers wonder where the story is going and who is really behind all of this and ends with a cliffhanger that is just shocking.

It wouldn't be a Johns' book of course if he didn't include obscure concepts and here we see Gaggy, Joker's original sidekick, back (and this is part of a joke to boot). Joe Chill also makes an appearance in a flashback but this time we see a bit of his personality since there seems the possibility that he actually took pity of Bruce and that's why he didn't kill him along with his parents. Good stuff.

Jason Fabok handles the art and I was missing his work too. Great and detailed artstyle that creates beautiful characters and delivers a pretty precise storytelling that follows the script perfectly.

Great beginning. Doubt anything will come close this week.