Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth
With the two most famous Batman comics out of the way, let’s start swatting at the less obvious bats in the belfry. Arkham Asylum serves as a demonic tour through the cracked personalities of the infamous institution’s inhabitants. Commissioner Gordon calls upon the Dark Knight after the patients of Arkham rise up against their masters, taking them hostage. Batman obliges and quickly comes face to face with the Joker, who is threatening to blind a doctor unless he partakes in a deadly game of hide-and-seek. He has an hour to survive the chase with nearly his entire Rogues’ Gallery on his tail: Two-Face, Killer Croc, Mad Hatter, Maxie Zeus, and Clayface. During the pursuit, the dark origins of the Asylum are revealed, which should be familiar to anyone who has played the Rocksteady Studios game of the same name.
Looking to further the literary cred of the character in the wake of both The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke, Grant Morrison and artist David McKean were specifically hired in 1989 to apply a thick layer of artistry to the characters and world of Gotham City. The marketing department was practically screaming, “These aren’t your daddy’s comic books!” And they were right. Arkham Asylum does not feel like anything that came before. The comic unfurls like a phantasm shared amongst many broken minds. McKean’s dreamscape paintings breathe and bend with the liquid nature of the inmates as well as the flying rodent demanding their restraint. Anyone operating in this universe is bound to succumb to its madness.
Batman: Going Sane
This particular storyline was originally rejected by DC Comics editorial in the late ’80s because it was deemed too similar to The Killing Joke, but it eventually saw publication as a four-part series within The Legends of the Dark Knight comic in 1994. Writer J.M. DeMatteis crafts a scenario in which the Joker believes he has vanquished Batman via splattery explosion. Thinking that he is finally free of his archnemeses, the Harlequin of Hate attempts the life of an average Gotham citizen under the pseudonym of “Joseph Kerr.” Get it? Joe-Kerr.
What distinguishes this book from The Killing Joke is how it doesn’t simply state that the characters are two sides of the same coin but that one could not exist without the other. Joker’s identity is connected to Batman and vice versa. Chaos and order are a constant of creation. They’re destined to quarrel indefinitely.
Justice League Vol. 1 No. 5 – “Gray Life Gray Dreams”
DeMatteis is credited next to Keith Giffen in Joker, most likely for their work on a very specific moment in Batman lore. While the majority of this issue surrounds a frustrated sorcerer named The Gray Man and his dealings with Dr. Fate, the highlight occurs when Green Lantern Guy Gardner challenges Batman for leadership of the Justice League. The Dark Knight dismisses his co-worker as having more bark than bite, prompting Guy to remove his ring and wind up for a punch. Batman beats him to it with a quick sock to the nose, dropping Guy with a single blow. This one-punch blast cemented itself in the imagination of many comic readers and creators and has been referenced multiple times over the years.
The Man Who Laughs
Conceived as a pseudo-sequel to Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli‘s Batman: Year One, The Man Who Laughs details the first encounter between Batman and the Joker by adapting Batman #1 (1940) for a modern audience. On the eve of Arkham Asylum’s grand re-opening, a clown-faced maniac strikes against Gotham’s rich using a toxin that leaves the billionaire victims scarred with a rictus grin. Dubbed “the Joker” by the media, the killer boldly parades himself on television, stating that Bruce Wayne will suffer his next assault. Not so fast. Batman cooks a batch of anti-venom, which is administered into his system by his trusty manservant Alfred Pennyworth. The Dark Knight tracks the Joker to the Gotham reservoir, where he’s attempting to poison the water supply. Batman must consider his moral code. Kill the Clown now, and decades of horror could be silenced. How is there any other option?
Joker
The last name listed in Joker‘s end credits belongs to Irv Novick, who, along with writer Dennis O’Neil (not credited), launched the very first Joker solo title in 1975. I’ve dabbled in the run a little bit but never went full-hog. To sell the villain as the protagonist, DC Comics drastically toned down the threat of the character, leaning heavy into goofy theatrics with each issue concluding with the Clown Prince locked behind bars. The book feels more attuned to the Adam West (and Cesar Romero) era than any other Bat-book of the decade, and considering that O’Neil had just pulled Bruce Wayne out of the mod-era with his epic Neal Adams partnered run, his Joker feels like a massive step backward.
The Joker solo adventure I’d rather recommend is the one written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Lee Bermejo and published in 2008 shortly after Heath Ledger received his rapturous response in Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight. The book is seen through the eyes of the Joker’s chauffeur as he stands back and watches his boss murder his way through Gotham’s underworld. Igniting a turf war involving Two-Face, The Penguin, The Riddler, Killer Croc, and Harley Quin, the Joker flexes his muscles to position himself as the only baddie to ever properly concern Batman. All the other Rogues are mere distractions until these two titans can square off. And, yeah, that’s basically how we’ve seen it play out in the cinematic adaptations. They can’t escape each other, and we can’t ditch them.
Related Topics: Joaquin Phoenix, Joker, The Reading List, Todd Phillips
