The Joker #1

The Joker #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by James Tynion IV

Illustrated by Guillem March

Coloured by Arif Prianto

Lettered by Tom Napolitano

Following the events of Infinite Frontier #1, The Joker is the most wanted man in the world! But the Clown Prince of Crime is several steps ahead of law enforcement-and he’s on the run overseas. James Gordon, facing retirement, realizes this is the manhunt of his life and the last piece of a storied career…but what mysterious and deadly forces are also in pursuit of The Joker?

And in the backup story, following the events of the smash hit Punchline #1, DC’s most controversial new villain navigates the infrastructure of Blackgate Penitentiary-while on the outside, Harper Row takes up the mantle of Bluebird to stop her brother from falling under Punchline’s influence.

I will say it right here and right now this is the unexpected Gem of the week! I loved and I do mean loved the 1975 series which in and of itself was groundbreaking but with DC having gone so incredibly dark, I mean so dark nigh vision goggles don’t work, I entered this with some trepidation. I was more than pleasantly surprised that James is taking this opportunity to make this as much about James Gordon as it is about the Joker. While this remains rooted in the current Darkness it doesn’t feel as if they’ve gone too far into it where you cannot still see the light.

I like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. I found myself thoroughly delighted with who and how the characters are introduced. The character development that we see is phenomenal and it’s such that we’re seeing Jim ready to finally tackle his inner demons and it this takes him on a decidedly different path than we’re used to seeing him take. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, the characters and what we can expect is utterly fantastic.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and even continue into the back-up is some sensational writing. The way that we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow is magnificent.

The interiors here are phenomenally gorgeous! The linework we see is utterly exquisite and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create this level and quality of detail in the work is mind blowing. How we see the composition within the panels and how the backgrounds work within them to bring us depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book is breathtaking in what it displays. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is sensational! How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows an extraordinary eye and knowledge for how colour works.

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With the back-up feature being just as strong as the main feature and tying in perfectly it’s a delight to read them both. This may be one of my new favourite new series from DC because it isn’t totally dark and it combines the best of the old Detective style tales but brings us a new take and definition on who James Gordon is and who he’s going to be once he retires, if he retires lol. Leave it to James to pull me into the Bat-Verse again after so many years of not enjoying the direction it was going. This is what happens when you give something a chance because you like the creators on the book, you find something new that you enjoy.