Some thoughts about Batman Annual #5

Who is Clownhunter?

Joker War caused many losses, especially to a young man who had no choice but start enacting the kind of the justice he was looking for.

I don't give two f*cks about Clownhunter, let's get that out of the way.

I don't give two f*cks about any of James Tynion IV's creations while we're at it. They're just extremely derivative, redundant and creatively-bankrupt ideas and they're pushed to really annoying levels because Tynion just doesn't want his pet characters to be ignored.

For that reason I wasn't anticipating this at all, there's just so much Tynion self-pandering that I can tolerate... but I was surprised to see that this is kinda decent?

Yes, this is the secret origin of the very beloved Clownhunter and just like every single of his works, Tynion doesn't do anything groundbreaking here but there's actually a few positive aspects. For example, Leslie Thompkins is the protagonist just as much as Clownhunter and because of this the story is much more tolerable, Leslie provides a more interesting perspective to the murderous nature of Tynion's creation, plus her background as a doctor who helps anyone in need is appropriately explored too.

Clownhunter is actually the weakest link here not to anyone's surprise. His backstory is yet another "Kid who loses his parents to serve as a reflection of Bruce", the only difference is that Clownhunter is a killer, not to mention that I would say he didn't react to the death of his parents as you would expect, one would expect the kid to immediately break down in tears instead of quickly asking for revenge... then again, that could be a good explanation for his violent tendencies but Tynion clearly wants us to sympathize with him so this is a missed opportunity but not much of a shock considering how much Tynion wants to force his Mary Sues.

James Stokoe's artwork is pretty good though with a pretty distinctive style that elevates the script to new levels, even the more lackluster scenes.

Passable, just because of the Leslie segments at least.