Joker

If you are a fan of the Joker, I recommend getting it. Not only the story in great, but the book itself is very interesting piece on my shelve.

The product was delivered on time and in excellent condition.

10/10 Artwork10/10 Story10/10 QualityVery good addition to my collection.

The art in this book is freakin' AMAZING!!! The story is very disturbing though. The Joker in this book is not your father or grandfather's Joker. Be ready for possible triggers as far as the graphic violence and sensitive adult content. FYI, the artist created the look for Heath Ledger's Joker in the actor's last film. Very sad, but what a great role to be remembered for.

The re-making of the Joker into the ultimate dark villian is fairly recent and is mostly due, I think, to the grand performances of the late Heath Ledger and the upcoming one by Joaquin Phoenix. Which is very much unlike how the character was portrayed by Jack Nicholson or the very campy 1960's show. It seems that as comics become a mega-industry they grow less and less playful and much more, well dark, as in Dark Knight.The comic is unusual as it explores the relationship between the Joker and the OTHER Batman villains, building up his uniqueness as the Clown Prince of Gotham while also being 'loyal' to the truthfulness of the other characters. If you read and re-read the work you begin to notice just how smart it is in the way the art and dialog combine to direct the flow of the story. This comic is epic, the art is superb and the world it describes is 'complete' - and it'll stick with you long after you finish reading it.

The story for The Joker is phenomenal. Brian Azzarello creates a well crafted masterpiece. Lee Bermejo’s artistry perfectly encapsulates the Jokers insanity. Together they weave a short but coherent and impactful story delving into the Crown Prince of Crime’s madness. The hardcover also introduces the other creatives involved on the project along with a brief CV for each person.The only negative is that of late DC has included artist concepts, renderings and variant covers of the actual comics issued. None of this Is present. It’s a nice extra that helps walk fans through their creative process and gives us unique insight into the characters they create. For true fans of the creators or of the original source material this book is fine. If you’re looking for more detailed production notes wait for the limited release.

I love this book because everything comes together so well. Brian Azzarello is a master storyteller, and he dialogue works on many levels with the action and the plot coming together. Lee Bermejo is an excellent artist, and he makes the grimy streets of Gotham and the world of the Joker really come alive.This is not the first time this dynamic duo has come together, and every time they do it’s an amazing collaboration. This is one of those comics you can read several times over and will notice something new every time, with it’s incredible yet subtle attention to details. The dialogue and images come together to create a compelling meditation on crime’s appeal to our culture, and however the end the payoff is rarely what we envisioned it to be.

The third party narration feels like it falls short for me... it’s the same with the John Constantine narration in Batman: Damned as well. You have an uninterested and disaffected third party narrating the Joker or Batman but they have no stakes behind them. The narrator feels like he isn’t really part of the world of Joker or Batman or Croc, he’s just some schmuck hired to drive the reader around like he’s running a criminal bus tour. There’s no real reason to care about the narrator, he never actually seems viably threatened, has the flimsiest of stakes with a wife he isn’t even invested in, has only a vague set of wants but never takes action towards or away from them except in one part of the story but because he makes a choice with so little consequences... be a goon to this person or that person... it just doesn’t seem like either outcome would have changed his lot. And maybe that’s the crux of it... the main character has absolutely no agency over the story, he is some rando henchmen who you know won’t be in any follow up stories right up front because he doesn’t have any name recognition... and the main character at no point pursues a goal, has any insight, or changes. Joker is more like a plot device for Jonny Frost to be dragged from set piece to set piece, but Joker in this story almost seems irrelevant to the tale of Jonny Frost, it could have been any psychopath. There could have been more Batman too. But I did like the treatment of Croc, I thought that was interesting. And the art is excellent. Something about the third party narration feels like it removes the audience from the emotion and investment in the story, in my opinion.