Scott's Take: Batman: Three Jokers

Batman: Three Jokers by Geoff Johns is a DC Black Label title so it is meant for adult readers. This book took several years to create and that ended up causing it to be an elseworlds tale and not cannon. With beginnings that tie into Justice League: The Darkseid War published in 2016, this book took so long to complete that it ends up being designed to address the original question raised in that book. In that tale Batman gains the knowledge of a god and basically asks what is the real name of the Joker? The answer was there are three jokers.

 

Why has Batman faced off with such widely different versions of the Joker.  It was not because the Joker is crazy. Instead, there have been three versions of the Joker. The three depictions of the Joker commonly referred to as The Criminal (his earliest version and a crime boss), The Clown (a Joker who is more focused on being funny though still more violent than the earlier version), and the Comedian (who is the evilest version of the Joker who is more modern and more of a horror character). Most writers have a preferred version of the Joker that they use for their story and then use parts of each Joker to make their own version of the Joker. In this book, all three versions of the Joker are present and working together.

In this book all three versions of the Joker face off against the heroes they have most traumatized. Batman, Red Hood (who was killed by one of the Jokers), and Batgirl (Barbara Gordon who was paralyzed by one of the Jokers and in a wheelchair for several years and has since regained the use of her legs). Batman has a hard time just fighting one Joker. Taking on all three Jokers could he his most difficult challenge yet.

 

Since this is a DC Black Label tale, this is a violent more adult story. This is an action-packed read with frequent references to earlier encounters with the Joker as the characters attempt to stop the various Jokers. This book is very good though it would be confusing for newer Batman fans since there is a lot of discussion about other crimes that the Joker has committed and discussing which version of the Joker might have been involved. I recommend this for longtime Batman fans that have read cannon and non-cannon tales.

 

 

Batman: Three Jokers

Geoff Jones

DC Black Label

https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Batman:_Three_Jokers_Vol_1

November 2020

ISBN# 978-1779500236

Hardback (also available eBook format)

160 Pages 

 

My reading copy came from the Prairie Creek of the Dallas Public Library System. 

 

Scott Tipple ©2021