Generation Joker 1- How to Hijack a Batmobile

The following is a spoiler laden review of Batman White Knight Presents: Generation Joker 1; a DC Comics Black Label comic book written by creative team: Katana Collins, Clay McCormack, Sean Murphy, Mirka Andolfo, and Alejandro Sanchez.

Gotham, in most iterations of any Batman tale, is at best a place where one shouldn’t rest on the heels of a victory for long, especially when teenagers are involved. That goes double for when the teens in question are the twin daughter and son of The Joker and Harley Quinn!

This is where we find ourselves in the beginning of the next spoke in the wheel of the Batman White Knight Universe created by Sean Gordon Murphy, Generation Joker 1.

Though first, for those that haven’t found themselves reading from the Batman White Knight Universe, perhaps I should attempt to put it in a nutshell for you to make it a little easier to understand.

Batman: White Knight written and drawn by Sean Gordon Murphy with colorist Matt Hollingsworth and letterer Todd Klein; was an eight-issue non-canonical mini-series published by DC Comics from October 2017 to May 2018. The series was followed up by four mini-series sequels, not including Generation Joker, that have been met with widespread critical acclaim.

The concept of the series in the beginning was to ask the question, what if the Joker became sane and decided he was going become a politician under his real name of Jack Napier with his platform being that he wants to save Gotham from Batman; that Jack would be Gotham’s White Knight to counteract the Dark Knight Batman. What results is a series of stories that become a think piece on the nuances of mental health, relationships, history, and the criminal justice system relating to the effect they have on all facets of society.

Without getting too far into spoiler territory on how we got to this point with this story; by the time Generation Joker 1 begins there are a few things you need to be aware of to jump into the story:

Jack Napier is dead, killed by Harley Quinn when he was unable to suppress the Joker aspects of his character and was threatening their children; whom at the time of this character death, were only infants.

Everyone knows Batman is Bruce Wayne; in fact, at the beginning of the previous story he is doing time in prison due to this situation. He escapes from prison when he hears that a dangerous new bat suit is being used and he knows he needs to stop it.

Robins exist but the order is different. It might not end up being important to this story but it’s an elephant in the room that should be addressed. It happened, roll with it, it’s worth it.

Harley Quinn is recognized as being Harley Quinn, however, she is given the credit she deserves for being as intelligent as she is, and is also a hero in one of the mini-series of the universe. Other than that, she is a mom just trying to keep it together with one rebellious teenage daughter that reminds her too much of Jack.

Harley Quinn is married to Bruce Wayne. She cares for him, and when it came time for people to try to force her to testify against him, she married him so she wouldn’t be forced to incriminate him. I know what you are thinking, but their dynamic is beautiful together, and worth checking out before you knock it.

Bruce Wanye is offered an opportunity to work with the FBI on a project to potentially earn his freedom (a concept that gets brought up again in Generation Joker 1).

Jack Napier exists as an AI computer interface personality that was downloaded into a Batmobile.

Okay, that should do it, and is only just a few pieces of information to just keep you, the reader, from being confused if you happen to want to jump in with Generation Joker. I highly recommend checking out the universe that Murphy and team built when you have time.

Generation Joker starts with a scene happening in the future where we find that Jack in his AI form has somehow convinced his twin children, Jackie and Bryce, to go with him in one of the Bat-mobiles for a roadtrip of sorts to allow his children to get to know him. It seems like very much like an episode of “This is Your Life” except it’s hosted by the subject matter, Jack Napier.

Everything seems not as it seems in the first stop of his childhood home as we turn to a scene in the past setting things in the beginning up. Harley is worried about how to handle Jackie, her rebellious daughter, and how to deal with Bruce leaving almost immediately after the last fight that ended the Batman Beyond story with the FBI agent, Diana Prince.

Yes, Diana Prince. Up until now the Justice League has not been present in the White Knight universe, this all changed with the introduction of Diana in the form of an FBI agent looking for Bruce Wayne’s expertise involving a story coming out of a farm town in Kansas.

Now, Sean Murphy is notorious for playing much of his hand quickly, I am sure there are records in Google searches of his infamous spoiler slips with his own books, and in the end of the previous mini-series, he makes no mystery out of how this team of writers will likely play this Justice League entrance point.

Bruce is forced to say quick goodbyes to Harley and Jackie with promises to be there for them more upon his return. When Bruce is seemingly whisked away by the FBI, no one seems to pay much attention to confirm that Jack Napier’s AI is indeed shutdown as suspected.

Whoops.

Jackie, whom is the only twin that got to experience the presence of her father, does know of the continued existence of the Jack Napier AI program due to people not paying attention at exactly the right time to move the plot of this story forward, and ends up in possession of her father downloaded to a smart phone device. This is something that she keeps conveniently to herself just until Bryce expresses a desire to speak to their father. She then reveals to him that their father has been there all along like all good plot devices do, of course, and turns on the program.

Jack then reveals that, due to degradation in the program, he only has one week to spend with them and suggests the roadtrip with one of the Batmobiles. He’s driving; as Jackie and Bryce are at that age where they are still too young to drive, but old enough to go on an impromptu journey with their dead father as a computer program. Jack has even prepared a message for the computer to let Harley know where the kids have gone.

Hey, at least it took more effort than a post-it.

Harley reacts in a completely logical way for a parent whose pre-teen children have run away with their dead father that was The Joker at one time whom she killed to protect them when they were babies.

You know, how most parents would react in that situation.

She gets in contact with Bruce hoping he can help find them, and while he is unable to be there, he expresses to her in this subtle way how he feels about the situation. This conversation sends Harley into action, suiting up and grabbing the phone to call up Red Hood and Gan (Red Hood’s Robin) to come watch the pets.

This basically expresses the fact most people know, being a pet parent is probably much easier to get right the first time than being a human parent.

In the meantime, Jack and the kids are in their own pickle of a jam as the odd situation they end up in of the driving tour of the life of Jack Napier takes them to the building where Jack met Harleen. It’s a stop that proves that sometimes you can never go home again because Deuces Wild now appears to be a puppet theater.

I am pretty sure Jim Henson had nothing to do with this show as the puppets tell an all too familiar story, and the twins and Jack end up in a nefarious position that we may get to see exactly how much of their mother’s fighting spirit is heredity.

The cliffhanger for both Harley, and the kids with Jack, bring characters into the story that will complicate the story in potentially wonderful ways. I am glad we spent most of this first issue with the kids’ story and Harley, and that we didn’t get a lot of what Bruce was doing in Kansas yet. This story is firmly planted currently as a story about fatherhood and being a single parent. The focus is on the family dynamic and I am hoping the storyline of the beginning of the Justice League continues to be a side plot that will have its own time to grow.

Look at this as Jack’s weekend with the kids that skips the awkward trip to Denny’s.