The Joker #2

The Joker #2

DC Comics 2021

Written by James Tynion IV

Illustrate by Guillem March

Coloured by Arif Prianto

Lettered by Tom Napolitano

As the dust settles on Arkham Asylum and tragic recent events, The Joker is the most wanted man in the world-and powerful forces are lining up around the globe to hunt him...but where exactly is the Clown Price of Crime? Jim Gordon, facing his twilight years haunted by the madman, knows where to start the hunt, and he’s been given the go-ahead to pursue him...but will he be willing to pay the price? And what shocking revelation will Gordon stun Batman with before he departs?

And in the backup story, within the walls of Blackgate Penitentiary, Punchline has become the target of the Queen of Spades from the Royal Flush Gang. It’ll take everything Punchline has just to survive, while on the outside, Bluebird digs deeper into Punchline’s horrific past!

Yes, yes, yes a thousand times yes!!!! This issue has it all and it’s about damn time that certain information was revealed! God Bless James Tynion IV and I guess DC for letting this little nugget to come out in the open. There is only one thing that we see this issue that I do not like at all and that’s the reveal of who Cressida is. That bit could’ve played out a bit longer keeping us on the hook as the team works overtime to figure out who she is.

I am a huge fan of how 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 impeccably presented. Jim always seemed like the guy who couldn’t do things without Batman but this has given me more insight into who the man is than anything I have read before. This makes the character development far superior to anything I could have hoped for. The pacing is perfectly done and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story it’s just a completely marvellous experience.

How this is being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, strengthen and evolve along with the emergence of ones makes this that much more exciting than I was expecting to see. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as move the story forward is incredibly well done.

The interiors here are bloody mindbogglingly perfectly rendered. The linework that we see is perfectly laid down and with the varying weights and techniques we see being utilised to create this level and quality in the detail work we see is mind numbingly gorgeous! How we see backgrounds being utilised as a part of the story and how they work within the composition in the panels bringing us depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story is beautifully rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a brilliant eye for storytelling. The colour work that we see is just as impressive. How the various hues and tones within the colours are being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work are laid down exceptionally well. How we are able to see colour add depth and dimension to the work shows such a talented eye for how colour can work effectively.

What the backup does for me is say that Bluebird needs her own mini-series. She’s to me far more interesting than Punchline and she doesn’t get the kind of attention she deserves. Her and Spoiler actually would make a great dynamic duo of their own so let’s let James work on that series as well shall we. I mean Gotham has more female crime fighters than anywhere else in the world and it’s way past time they were featured accordingly.

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This is mindbogglingly brilliant storytelling with intelligent choices and the unexpected leads making this the hottest book on stands right now!