Current mood:	contemplative
Entry tags:	joker, reviews

Review #20: "Joker"
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Lee Bermejo
Inkers: Mick Gray and Lee Bermejo
Colourist: Patricia Mulvihill

Well, it is fitting that a momentous number in this journal's history (twenty reviews, whee!) should be marked by a book made significant due to all the hype and expectation and anticipation that has surrounded it. So here we go.

SPOILERS. Everything below the cuts? Be warned - I don't hold back. It's all there. You don't want to be spoiled? DON'T CLICK.

* please note that wherever I refer to "my Joker" I mean regular continuity Joker. I just can't be bothered typing out "regular continuity Joker" every single time.


A few days ago I fully accepted this was an elseworlds story and with that acceptance came a readiness to accept whatever was in it, the same as I would any elseworlds, if that is the strange future dystopia of I, Joker or the brain-boggling absurdness of Two-Faces or the groovy grittiness of Thrillkiller.
Put simply, I couldn't expect this to be a story about the character I'm so intimate with, that I love so much. It's not really him - but an interpretation of him, set outside continuity. It probably retains some characteristics or elements, but it's not MY Joker the way the Joker of Devil's Advocate is.
Likewise, this was not the Gotham I am most familiar with, or the Harley or anyone else. It's a twist on them, a new flavour. Even an experiment, if you will.
And I enjoy elseworlds stories. They're fun, because they do permit that flexibility with the characters and the environment. It's interesting to read these stories, like playing with a new box of toys.

With that approach, I could enjoy this story a lot.

Well, first of all, I'm not disappointed.

The story is very stylishly told, and paced very well too. It's not particularly long and is a very smooth read. Much like Tim Sale's art did for The Long Halloween, so too did Lee Bermejo's art accentuate the story-telling style; make it so snappy, sophisticated and intriguing. However, I should note here, Azzarello IS a better writer than Jeph Loeb.

But I'm not dazzled, either.

To be honest, I'm just… it's just a story. It's a violent story, yes, but I read From Hell a couple of weeks ago and with the violence of that fresh in my mind, this one just didn't seem to live up to the way Azzarello's been hyping it.
There's a high body count, and it's all very unpleasant and ugly, but it's also fairly ordinary gangster-movie fare without the added bonus of the complex psycho-social commentary of From Hell, which far, far outstrips this in terms of violence and gore.
I only say this because the ULTRAVIOLENCE is what everyone has been harping on about, and in all honesty? Pretty tame.
That's not to say it's * nice *, or I get a happy-funny feeling inside with the violence, it's just not as shocking as we're being told it is.

What people have been saying is true: it's just a gangster story, and the villains of the Batman mythos have been chosen to tell it. Joker just wants his territory back. It's a very typical my-cock-is-bigger-than-your-cock type of story, in which power, whether perceived or actual, is what bolsters these men, makes them feel strong, reinforces their ideas about themselves, gives them confidence. And that's all about 'owning territory' and 'having money'.
Yeah, not so much what the villains of Batman are really about, though of course theirs is often a pursuit for power too. They just do it in more unique ways.
The story itself is quite dull, in this way. I don't know if I'd go so far to say 'tedious', but just - yeah there's a feeling of having seen it before, many times.
Our narrator, Jonny Frost, a devoted henchman of Joker's, begins with aspirations to be like him but by the end realises he's in over his head and he was crazy to want that and oh god, what has he done. Ho-HUM says I. That's hardly earth-shattering.

The final climax with Batman feels stilted and anti-climactic, accompanying Jonny's realisation that the Joker, everything he represents and embodies, is something that can never die, that's been around since before Joker ever was - that it's the sickness of mankind actually. Again, hardly an earth-shattering realisation. It ties into what was said at the beginning of the book, but it all feels a bit rushed and half-formed to me as well. Like Azzarello decided he had to say something important, but didn't really decide what that WAS.
Like he just wanted to write the 'ugliest story' he ever could, with as many 'ugly' elements - drugs, violence, cruelty, rape, murder, strip bars - jammed in as possible and tried to elevate it by slapping this 'lofty' meaning on top. But it doesn't work. The plot is too messy, too shambolic, too lazy for it to work.

And my impression is that the story, this typical gangster story, was deliberately so in order to let the hardcore themes dominate. It has always seemed Azzarello feels the violence of this story makes it stand out. And that may be true - but not as a great story. Just a violent story.
Many violent stories can be tawdry and common. And this one is, at the least, common.
I have raved on and on about my dislike of shock-value taking the place of story-telling innovation and uniqueness, and this story exemplifies why. The violence and "grittiness" are intended to overshadow what is a very generic story. And NO story with the Joker should EVER be generic.
Writing a great Joker story takes a certain finesse, because while the character is ruthlessly violent, he also has great style.
But let's get into the Joker shall we…





I felt that this story took place after Joker's first incarceration in Arkham. Don't ask me why. It was as though it could take place not too much longer after The Dark Knight. Yeah, the movie I mean. This Joker reminded me of a more mature version of that Joker. Seriously. I know they swear up and down they didn't draw inspiration from the film and I'm sure the script was finished long before the film came out (well, we all know it was…) but truly, it's kinda uncanny. Maybe some sort of strange spiritual synchronicity going on there.
The Joker of this story is a gangster and a thug. He's neurotic, drug-addicted, psychotic and clearly has self-esteem issues. This comes back to the power thing I mentioned above. To me it felt clear that his hold on Gotham was very much connected to his sense of identity, because he was actually pretty damn insecure. In this way, he's extremely different to the Joker of regular continuity.
The drug thing - ahhh. It's funny. I found myself wondering how much of his insanity was drug-induced. I mean, the guy's an abuser. He's constantly high or stoned. At one point he sits in a chair for literally days, surrounded by pill bottles. When you're doping up that much, synapses start short-circuiting. So I found myself wondering if Joker had simply started life as a gangster and eventually went insane due to the drug abuse. It happens and it strikes me that this is what happened here. That all the episodes, and the paranoia and the twitching and the recklessness - his insanity was the culmination of many years of poisoning his body.

He owns a strip-joint called the 'Grin and Bare It', which made me smile. I think I may have to develop a show called that. And apparently, in his early days, he used to be a pimp. Now, I think regular continuity Joker would love to be a pimp. But not for the actual pimping. Just to wear the awesome clothes. But this Joker, in keeping with the fact he's not a 'villain' but a gangster, yes once upon a time he was a pimp. He's all about controlling the various underground business of Gotham - again, this is power to him. Very ordinary business. Very, very ordinary, all things considered. You know, illegal boxing, money laundering - gangster stuff.

He does have a few rather charming scenes and snappy lines. He's constantly making 'jokes' but they're not jokes like mu Joker makes. They're threats. And then he backs off and says 'kidding'. He's just trying to scare people, because every threat he makes - the person it's directed at knows he might do it. It's possible. He's amusing himself by frightening people.
Yes I found myself smiling, found myself seeing tiny glimpses of "my" Joker in there at times. There were some very entertaining parts. I enjoyed his constant goading of the 'Harveys'. In fact, primarily his interactions with the other major villains were the most interesting; the way he teased and tormented them.
The way he also cut a bloody swathe through Gotham's crims, killing them in various disgusting and mildly impressive ways, was reasonable. Our narrator makes mention during these panels that Joker views his work as an art. In the single-minded path he burns as he puts these crims down, he is certainly impressive. Definitely not one to be trifled with.

He's a power tripper. He messes with people. The shrimp scene for example is quite fun. The way he plays with the name 'Tommy Bang Bang', then blows him away. Looking as though he's about to hold out a hand to shake, then grabbing shrimp. Yeah, it's cheap and childish, but kinda funny to watch. A little sparkle of my Joker there.

Not so when he gives the finger to the city. Oy vey. Just so… ugh. My Joker would blow a raspberry. It's just as childish, but also subversive, cos the thing is, kids these days all try to be big and tough by giving the finger. Kids these days don't blow raspberries. But Joker would.

This Joker is a bully, and Azzarello has said that's what his take is. He's a bully who's nuts enough and ruthless enough to clamber to the top, taking out everyone else as he goes. But he's a bully who makes threats and calls them jokes and then who is frightened when he's alone, frightened and insecure. He's doing what he's doing not because he views life as a meaningless joke, but because he desperately needs to be great. He needs to be in control. He needs power.
This is mirrored in Jonny's own aspirations. Jonny sees Joker as his ticket to the big leagues, how he will make his name.
I feel that perhaps through Jonny we were meant to see the Joker as he once was. That maybe Jonny's journey was once Joker's - the upwards hike through the underworld for glory, power and respect.
And what differentiates them is Jonny can't make it there. He can't go where Joker has gone because the cost is too great.
So why then could this bullying, insecure, neurotic Joker?
Sheer will? Or lots and lots of drugs?

The 'feel my muscle' scene with Penguin is not Joker. Joker here is dependent on Croc to scare Penguin with his physical strength. My Joker? Knows how to fight - and if he can't physically overpower someone, he has plenty of other tricks up his sleeve to see him through. He does not rely on someone else like that. Except for Harley, but they work as a team, and more on her later.

And then there was other stuff. Like the rape. Yes, the rape. As I'm sure you all know, this story is told from the perspective of a devoted henchman. Joker rapes his wife. Why? Because Jonny didn't tell him about her - which left them vulnerable in dealing with Harvey. So he does it to even the score. To prove a point. It's to prove that he's top dog basically. He's the one in charge. It's the point at which Jonny realises he can never be what these people are and they don't see him in their realm either.
I have never thought Joker was above rape. He's not above anything. But rape is a common act and Mistah J doesn't like to be common. I've never thought it was his style and we know how important style is to the Joker. And this was… a very common rape. Horrendous thing to do, yes, but the reason to do it? To teach his lackey a lesson?
Well, as I keep saying, the Joker of this story is simply a gangster. His mind is fairly - unimaginative.
Rape is the domain of the vile little man who feels disempowered and is compensating. It's the way a stupid and dull mind tries to assert itself. And yeah, the Joker of this story is all about trying to get his power back.
And yeah, it's a FRIDGING. A woman devoid of almost any characterisation and personality is raped to strike at the heart of the male narrator. Well, well done, Azzarello, you get a prize for conforming to the most boring trope of misogyny in any form of media, ever. Take a bow, then go stand in line with all your colleagues. Sorry it's a bit of a long walk to the end, but there's just so goddamn many of you.
I'm not going to be precious about it, I'm not distraught by it or enraged - I'm just - to be honest, he's just reduced here. They've taken the idea of the Joker and reduced it into… into a common thug. He's made so ordinary.

And here's the rub: he really is just ordinary. Sure, he has a certain charisma and charm at times, but this depiction does not hold up against the truly great depictions of Joker. In truth it is an elseworlds twist and nothing more.

No, you wouldn't want to get on his bad side (and it wouldn't be hard to do) but I wouldn't want to get on the bad side of a twitchy teenager with a baseball bat either. Doesn't make the kid one of the truly great villains, doesn't make him blazing with creative fire and imagination, doesn't make him exceptional.

And really, if we're just going to tell a Joker story in which the Joker is a common gangster, why bother? THE Joker is exceptional.

Could he have been replaced with any other villain and no one could've told the difference?

Welll… to be honest, right now I'm not sure. But I'm inclined to say no, actually. There was something there - something that glimmered now and then - that was more Joker than anyone else. It was rare and it was brief, but it was there.





Bearing in mind this story is told through the eyes of a gangster, it is then fitting we don't find out Harley's backstory. However, my strong feeling is she is not Harleen Quinzel as we know her - his former psychologist. We don't know how he met her, how she came to fall in love with him or anything else.
She is silent, as they have said, but I now feel this was because the story was told through Jonny's eyes, and ALL of Jonny's attention is focused on Joker. He's aware of Harley as Joker's lady, but she is peripheral. He sees her as an extension of the Joker.
So, is Harley out of character? If this were an in-continuity story, I would say - yes in some ways, no in others. But this not in-continuity. It's an elseworlds. They could make her entirely different and it'd be okay. But she's not entirely different.
There is a definite element of playfulness to her, of tease and mischief. At one part, she is disguised as a gorilla in the zoo and has a huge smile on her face when she reveals herself.
Her strip scene?
It's a reverse strip scene. She starts off mostly naked and puts her clothes - no, not her clothes, her Harley Quinn costume - on. I like it. Yes I do. THAT'S Harley. Not perfectly, not all the way, but yeah, she's in there.
And she's clearly laughing after she's skinned a guy, having fun joining in with her man and playing heavy for him.
And Harley is not just his key heavy - she's practically his nursemaid. She anticipates his every desire and sees it met, even going so far as to put his sunglasses on his face at one point. Rarely are they apart and when they are it's significant - she's been sent home when he rapes Jonny's wife. He clearly doesn't want her to see that and considering she's around all the rest of the time, it's worth noting.

Harley's look is pure trashy druggie chic. I dig it in a way - it's got a cute style - but yeah there is that deviantART Nolanverse vibe running through some of them as well. The expressions Bermejo gives her lifts it though, make it far more powerful and interesting. Also, there is a certain b-grade camp movie quality to them, like she's deliberately embodying these cliches with her oversized sunnies and fluffed up do's. This is a very Harley touch, a further edge of playfulness and way of expressing that inner mischief she has.
Although it's very out of character for Harley to be silent, she manages to comunicate her personality in other ways. And it's vivid.

Harley as Joker's bodyguard is a role she plays in regularly continuity too, but here it's played up a bit more. It's subversive cos to look at her you'd really just think she's the cute girlfriend with nothing to do. She's fragile looking. Even distracted - until there's a threat, or even anticipation of. Then she's absolutely focused and ready to go. She's hardcore. She's clearly smart and a major league heavy. The fact she looks like nothing more than arm candy would just lull would be attackers into a false sense of security only to get an extremely rude shock.
As is standard with the best Harley depictions, you underestimate her. You make the mistake of thinking she's not very much at all. But she is, and Azzarello thankfully makes this clear. It's not a great depiction or a masterfully clever depiction - or maybe it would be, if only the story around it were so much better - but it's certainly good, and has subtlety.

Although Jonny barely registers her, we do. This is the deliberate dichotomy in the storytelling. Jonny may not be fully aware of how vital a role she is playing in the drama, as indicated by the fact she never speaks, but her actions and interactions with Joker make us, the reader, very aware of it.

It was much better than I expected, and it did work on that very subtle dual level.

But she too is a drug addict. She essentially spends the entire book wasted out of her mind, with lidded eyes and few expressions. It's as though the violence she enacts is the only thing that can get her blood racing, her adrenalin pumping - that's when she smiles.

Azzarello has said she has taken on the worst aspects of Joker's nature in her love for him, and yes, I can see this.

She's vigilant of her man and devoted. But I have more to say on this - shortly. Only Jonny comes close to having the same amount of trust placed in him.





It's his story, kinda, but he's not much of a character. He's very bland. Yes, we're "told" his motive - he wants to be great, he wants glory and power - but we're never given any insight as to why.
In truth he IS the disposable henchman we see so many of in these stories. He exists only for us to witness the Joker. I guess that's not really a bad thing as the story is about Joker, but because Jonny goes on a bit of a journey throughout the story (ostensibly, anyway), it would be nice to have a real connection with who he actually is as a character a little bit more. But maybe that would be distracting?
He hero-worships the Joker to the point there is some rather amusing homoeroticism between them. It got a giggle out of me.
This slavish devotion means that Joker trusts him. I also think Joker trusts him because he's a new face, a new and impressionable face keen to walk in Joker's shadow. A naïve and idealistic face.
So he trusts him more than anyone else - for a while.
Thing is, this Joker knows that Jonny is dazzled now, but things will change. He will learn. He'll toughen up, get a few hard lessons (his one with Croc was significant), realise he's not the big man he thought he was - and what then?
Joker trusts him, but he's prepared to stop trusting him in an instant. He trusts him, but he keeps a very sharp eye on him, waiting for the moment he knows will come when Jonny will either turn on him or run screaming into the night.

To be honest, I am not particularly compelled to comment on the rest of the characters. This journal is about the Joker, and to a lesser extent, Harley.
They are made "more realistic" and because this is an elseworlds, that's fine. I feel the majority of the criticism of these alternative depictions came about because people didn't realise it was an elseworlds. Once I realised that, everything became fair game. In an elseworld, you can do whatever the heck you want.
So I didn't find the alternative depictions particularly electrifying, and they're not a patch on their regular continuity (or BTAS) versions, but they allowed for moments of fun and wit with Joker.
You can see them in Nolanverse and I really do wonder if Azzarello was inspired to write this story by knowing a Nolanverse Joker would be coming out and whipping everyone into a frenzy. If he wanted to capitalise on that. Not saying he was inspired by the actual Nolanverse Joker, just that knowing there'd be one soon in the future - whenever he sat down to write this story within the last two years I guess it may have been - made writing a Joker story a good idea.

I know everyone's enamoured of this contrived sense of "realism" lately. Personally I think the only people who still truly believe drug use, swearing and half-naked women constitute gritty "realism" and "grown-upness" are teenagers. It doesn't impress me, and I find it very tedious when it's used to compensate for an actual story. If this is what "realism" is, then I'd rather go without it. Personally, I consider realism to be how compelling and how sophisticated the depiction of a character's personality, motives, urges, needs and feelings are, and not how many grams of coke he can shove up his nose.

But I'm wandering off track - what I'm saying is, the gimmicks, the silly costumes, the strange obsessions - all that weird stuff that goes into making a Batman supervillain?
I LOVE IT.
I don't want gangsters with funny code names, tattoos and gimpy legs. Ya-awwwwn.
I want SUPER VILLAINS!

But again, this is an elseworlds story, so hey, it's all fair game.

And here I just have to quote zhinxy as she's once again being brilliant:

And for fuck's sake, let's point out that Batman and his villians ARE pulp characters. You can't pulp up PULP. Real pulp, printed on pulp, in the fucking FORTIES. That's what batman IS, the last pulp hero, bridging the gap between that and the superhero genre. He and his world are an odd hybrid already. Joker was gangster pulp taken to another stranger level back when that was CURRENT, for god's sakes. Not only is there nothing new here, nothing that grown-up, it's not even good pulp fiction, really.





I thought this aspect would disappoint me the most, but it is actually what I loved best about this story.
Crazy, huh?
Not that I'm complaining mind you!

There is such an intimate level of non-verbal communication going on between them in this story. They work completely in tandem, with Harley anticipating Joker's needs and he trusting her to know them. They clearly collaborate in a very personal way and above all the others, even above Jonny, she has his back.

My sense was Jonny was the guy when she wasn't around, but when she was it was only Jonny's perception that he was the key muscle. This is demonstrated in how she is depicted hovering in the background, gun at the ready, at several points. Lurking there, while Jonny plays high roller. He's too naïve to realise she's on a level he can't get to. She's the Joker's lady, but Jonny doesn't realise what that means.

Take the strip scene for example. The second Joker pegs that man, she heads to the stage. She knows from the way he's talking to that guy that he's going down. She distracts and diverts him, teases him and dazzles him so he's lulled - unaware of what's in store for him. She beckons to him and Joker leads him backstage at which point she skins him.
They walk back on, her flanking him, and share a laugh as Joker slaps a dollar on the guy's skinless butt. No words are exchanged, but none are needed - they're working together.

And Harley enjoys it as much as Joker. Very early on, Jonny tells us he doesn't enjoy the bloodshed - just the fact he's on the side doing the bloodshed.

The exchanges between them are very personal. He touches her, arm around her. They have direct eye contact, he calls her sweet. As he goes in to rob a bank, he assures he he'll be right back. She waits, gun ready. She stands close to him and flanks him at all turns. He's clearly dependent on her, and not just as muscle. Connecting with what I have said about this Joker being neurotic and paranoid, she's there for him to lean on. Not literally, you understand - this Joker is all about playing the big man around the other boys - but it's all too clear she's bolstering him up too.
Of all the characters, she remains implacable in the face of the Joker's wild freak-outs and episodes. None of his behaviour is strange to her, or even frightening. She remains cool and collected. I think he needs this. She's a rock to him, his stability.

In one scene, Joker is on his knees before her, arms wrapped around her waist, sobbing into her tummy.
She stares down at him with an impassive, still expression. Reminiscent of the Madonna of the Renaissance gazing down at her child. In this moment, she is a receptacle - in this intensely intimate and powerful moment, she is calmly accepting and taking in his misery and fear. The emotions he never reveals to the men he is determined to overpower. She is not overwhelmed by them. She is not even surprised by them. She accepts them, as part of her man, and accepts her role as his confidante in them. This creature, who it has been made clear to us, is a 'disease' - a criminal of the highest order, a remorseless psychopath - and only this woman, who we don't even see speak, can take on his unhappiness, can stand there and hold him as he cries.

That's a strong Harley.

In the next panel, we see Joker's stricken face, and her expression is now tender as she touches his hair.

We all know Joker would never cry into just anyone's stomach. Much like the rest of their interaction, this one is deliciously subtle and very significant. It's almost the best moment of the book, but it did need to be flanked by Joker's violence and insecurity to make it so.

So even if this Harley was not once his literal psychologist - she actually still is.

This moment is witnessed by Jonny - but by accident. He walks past the open door. He is visibly startled by what he sees. The emotion of this man he idolises as he allows himself to be weak with his woman.

As I have said above, this Joker is all about power. He's all about asserting himself. He won't let himself be weak. He clearly fears it. Even his drug-induced rages and paranoia involve him concertedly lashing out at those around him, determined to frighten them into submission.

But he lets himself be weak, alone, with her. Clinging to her. Clinging.

She is his strut, and I honestly don't think I'm exaggerating that. Yes, it is subtle and is skewed through Jonny's eyes, but I do feel that we, the readers, are very much meant to see this and realise it - not least because Azzarello has claimed numerous times that what he has done with Harley is different to what anyone else has done.

Finally, there is one very critical thing of note in this depiction:

Joker does not once, NOT ONCE, raise his voice, speak harshly to, berate or hit Harley.

NOT.
ONCE.

Now, I consider the abuse an integral part of the relationship. So I find the choice to exclude it to be extremely interesting and I feel it proves the points I have made above concerning the depiction of this relationship.

This Joker lashes out at everyone around him in violent and savage ways. The Joker we know often does this to Harley too. Not this Joker.
It's curious not just because it's different, but because this Joker is such a thug - a raping thug - that he seems like the kind of guy who would whale on his woman, even if she IS silent (as I anticipate there will be the argument that he probably doesn't lash out at her because she keeps her mouth shut and I won't say that idea doesn't have basis - however, I think our perception of her as silent is actually Jonny's perception of her because she's just 'the moll', never realising, as mentioned above, what a significant role she is playing in the action - demonstrated by her being planted in the zoo) - that it does give me pause she is so excepted from his fury.

So yes. They HAVE done something different with Harley and this relationship, in this way. It is worthy of note.

You all know that I am a strong believer in this relationship as mutually loving (if extremely messed up) and very complex and that I love to discuss the subtlety of it, so what I have discussed above - that she is his rock, his partner, his collaborator, the one who sees his more diverse emotions, the one he really, truly trusts - I don't think IS new. I think it's there, in BTAS canon particularly, to see once you get past the knee-jerk ABUSE response, and I have provided evidence of it here.
What IS new here is the lack of outright abuse. That's not to say the relationship isn't abusive in other ways - two drugs addicts supporting each other's addiction, after all - but the kind of manipulative, concentrated, gleefully malicious abuse? It's absent.
And with it absent, all the other elements of the relationship - she as his rock and collaborator and confidante - becomes more clear.

Again, I say, this stuff IS in the animated canon and the comics canon, but the characterisation here is really quite different and so we see it in a new light, one that makes it more obvious.

So I eat my words. If my words were a hat, I'd eat the hat too. This story actually surpassed my expectations on this score, even if it's not JokerxHarley as I love them best (because DCAU continuity always pwns all). But damn, I liked it and I appreciate it.





I'm not an artist. I just know what I like. Heh. The art in this book is striking and beautiful. Bermejo, weaselly misogynist though he may be, is not only a fabulous artist, but a wonderful storyteller.
Butcha know, Chuck Dixon is a raving homophobe - and also one of the best Joker writers ever. Le sigh.
Really, the art in this book is just stunning. Each illustration is gloriously detailed and character's expressions and individuality shine through. The story-telling is masterful as well.
However, the difference in the inkers is obvious and jars. Obviously they were striving to get this book out and it's a damn shame because it does lead to a sense of inconsistency.
I think Bermejo has real mastery with facial expressions in particular - they say a lot with no words.

Look, that's all I can say on the art because I'm just not knowledgeable enough. Over all, it's one of the best parts of the book.




But the parts I enjoyed best, that I think really stood out?

Harley's characterisation and the depiction of the JokerxHarley relationship.

I truly thought these are what I would hate most about this book, so it's fairly ironic. I was so prepared to rage. I jumped the gun and shall eat my humble pie and lick the plate clean.

But I have to say I am quite happy to have been proven wrong. In an underwhelming and ordinary story of gangsters and criminality, these two elements stuck out as being quite fresh - almost jewel-like in their quality against the blandness of everything else that transpires in this story.

I didn't hate the Joker of this story, but he wasn't my Joker either. There are elements of him I dig, moments I find him sexy and appealing, times that I laugh or shudder, and even those occasional glimpses of my Joker - but it is not one of the greatest depictions of Joker ever. It is not even Joker at his worst (which would be at his best, by all rights).

Worth it?

On the whole my reaction to it is reasonably tepid. Yet it was entertaining. There are points of interest. There are worthwhile moments.

The hype is unfortunate; it builds this book up to what it can never be and caused a misperception of it as being in continuity which is problematic on other levels (I do NOT want this realistic ethic or scarred-face Joker taking over regular continuity thankyewverymuch) - but approach it remembering firmly it is an elseworlds story and yeah. I think it's worth it.

It's NOT worth hating. Not worth being frustrated by or annoyed at. It doesn't evoke that kind of emotion, truthfully. I will read it over the years, I'm sure. Largely because of Harley and HarleyxJoker, maybe.

I don't think Azzarello "gets" the Joker in the same way Rucka doesn't. But it did bring something new to the plate and hey, it's not in continuity anyway, so it can be freely enjoyed with no conflict.

Quoting zhinxy again because I think she nails it:

It's like Azzarello doesn't get Joker's soul...

I mean, he doesn't get his style, doesn't for the most part get his wit, doesn't even fully get his menace, but somehow does get his... um... heart?

Thinking about this book overnight, and I think there was some serious wasted potential in here. The trite plot, the lazy ultraviolence all worked to overshadow the few moments where Joker truly did glimmer through, where there was stuff there in the characterisation that could've made for a passionately interesting story.
His emphasis on Joker as nothing more than a swaggering bully worked against his moments of wit and insight and brilliance.
It makes these moments all the more cruel for the reader because there's the sense an amazing story is there - if only that pesky mob plot wasn't in the way.