Some thoughts about Punchline #1

Can people trust Punchline?

Joker's war on Gotham City caused a lot of deaths and Punchline was responsible for many of them. However, she believes that she can make people believe in her innocence.

To respond the initial question: No, people shouldn't trust Punchline. Any rational people shouldn't trust her after all the sh*t she did during the Joker War event but, of course, since she's James Tynion IV's Mary Sue, he's going to try to find a way to make characters buy into her innocense in the story and is as stupid as you might think.

First of all, I don't want to write about this. I don't want to give this creatively-bankrupt, transparent pet character any more attention than she deserves, I believe I already did with all her overexposure during the last derivative event that Tynion created. That being said, this is mostly a warning for people who for some reason want to give her a chance because she doesn't deserve it from either a story or money perspective.

Let's talk about the plot. As I already mentioned, Punchline wants people to believe that she was being manipulated by the Joker during the whole war and if this happened in the real world, people would laugh at her and throw her in prison for life. Unfortunately, this is written by Tynion and now tons and I mean TONS of people trust her for some reason and claim for her to be free of charges. You just can't get more Villain Sue-ish than that, is such a classic trait that I can't believe the writer doesn't notice it.

She's not the only focus though since Harper Row returns and this is fine, I never particularly found Harper an either bad or great character but what is terrible is that her brother is suddenly a Punchline supporter and Tynion tries to explain why he would be but such explanations are worth crap since no sane person should do it. It just makes Cullen one of the most unlikable characters in the issue along with the one on the cover, especially because he treats Harper terribly because of it.

Oh yeah, and I truly appreciate the overwritten narration to describe how much of a victim Punchline is. Thanks.

Mirka Andolfo is the saving grace in this disaster thanks to her beautiful pencils that depict the script as clearly as possible.

Not enough to salvage it though, skip this and never talk about it.