Scott's Take: Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo (The Deluxe Edition) by Marc Silvestri

Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo (The Deluxe Edition) by Marc Silvestri is billed as a Black Label story while being adult and gory plays it fairly safe. Outside of the violence and gore, this could easily be a regular canon Batman story.

Batman is forced to team up with the Joker who wants Batman’s help in rescuing Harley who has been kidnapped. To force Batman to cooperate Jim Gordon has been kidnapped and is being held by associates of the Joker. At the same time and possibly related, there are strange Joker like creatures around Gotham committing horrible acts.

This book has great art and is a fun tale in its own right. It is always interesting when Joker and Batman have to team up.  I just wish more was done to be different. An Elseworld that is pretty much the same as the canon universe just seems a little uncreative in my opinion. This book sets up a sequel if the author chooses to write it.

 

 

My reading copy came by way of the Hoopla App and the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2023 

Scott's Take: Batman: White Knight by Sean Murphy

 

Batman: White Knight by Sean Murphy is another Batman book that is part of DC Black Label line of books. As such, that means it is a non-canon Elseworlds tale and is intended for adult readers as it will be more violent and features adult content.

 

In this graphic novel, the Joker is cured of his insanity and becomes plain old Jack Napier again. He then decides to call himself the White Knight and embarks on a quest the city of Gotham. He intends to expose the corruption of the wealthy of Gotham, GCPD, and turn the city against the Batman. At least that is the initial premise of this tale, but of course things do not stay that simple for long.

 

Since this is an Elseworlds tale, the author was allowed to create different versions of the Joker and the Batman than commonly depicted by most writers. This Batman is more violent and is clearly a more traumatized Batman then what readers normally get to see. This Joker officially has a less violent reputation and is a more of a redeemable human being than most depictions of the Joker. The author tries to write the Joker as a more heroic character than normal while writing Batman as a loose cannon vigilante.

 

The supporting cast of this tale is rather large and includes various Gotham villains, and heroes. The main characters in this graphic novel are Batman, Harley Quinn, and The Joker. This is an action packed read that raises very philosophical questions about the DC universe and features detailed artwork. Batman: White Knight by Sean Murphy is very good and launched a series of graphic novels that are pretty good too. This series is continued in Batman: Curse of The White Knight.

 

 

My reading copy came from the Lochwood Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2022

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

Scott's Take: Batman: Last Knight on Earth by Scott Snyder and art by Greg Capullo

Batman: Last Knight on Earth by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo is a DC Black Label title that is an adult orientated tale and not for young kids or sensitive readers of any age. This graphic novel is by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. This creative team created one of the most well-regarded modern runs for a Batman series. They had an incredible decade long run with Scott Snyder writing the stories and Greg Capullo doing the impressive artwork. This book is billed as their last time working together on a Batman graphic novel, so they really pulled out all the stops.

 

Batman wakes up twenty years into the future in Arkham Asylum and quickly figures out things are way different then he remembers. He manages to get outside of the Asylum and ventures off into this broken new world to figure out what has happened to the planet and humanity. His traveling companion, who tells a good portion of the story himself, is Joker who is not all there literally or figuratively. Being decapitated can really screwup your memories and Joker has gaps. Joker was decapitated and had his still alive head stuck in a jar which was then subsequently buried deep in the sand for two decades. Batman and the bodiless Joker in a jar must faces various horrors to uncover the truth about this nightmarish world. They will encounter various heroes and villains and see some things.

 

Batman: Last Night on Earth is a great book featuring amazing art. I highly recommend pretty much any book by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo working together because they do a spectacular job when they combine their talents. This is a very good book, but it is meant as the epic finish to their prior work. While it could be read by itself, the read could be a bit confusing as it is meant for those readers who have been following on the entire series. Because it is designed as their grand finale, the book pretty much features every major hero and villain in the DC universe as well as everyone who is important to Batman whether they are a hero or villain.

 

It is a great read.

 

Batman: Last Night on Earth

Scott Snyder

https://www.dccomics.com/talent/scott-snyder

Greg Capullo

https://www.dccomics.com/talent/greg-capullo

DC Black Label

https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Category:DC_Black_Label

April 2020

ISBN# 978-1-4012-9596-0

Hardback (also available in eBook format)

184 Pages 

 

My reading copy came from the Timberglen Branch of the Dallas Public Library System. 

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2020