Batman #144: The Joke’s on Continuity

Batman #144 – written by Chip Zdarsky with pencils by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Andrea Sorrentino, inks from Stefano Nesi and Andrea Sorrentino, colors by Alejandro Sánchez and Dave Stewart, and lettering by Clayton Cowles – closes out the three-part detour of “Joker Year One,” delivering a conclusion to the Joker’s early days and the story of the far future. In the past, Gordon continues his investigation of the Red Hood Gang after getting a suspension, circling back to his precinct and the corrupt cops working for the outfit. At the top is the current police Commissioner, Loeb, who is outed as the Red Hood’s raid the evidence locker. The proceedings turn out to be a distraction for Joker as he tests his toxin on the officers while cleaning out the Red Hoods. 

Then, in the future, Batman continues to try and solve Joker’s sonic infection of not only Gotham but around the world. The Jokerized Batfamily is let loose and chases Batman through the GCPD until Joker makes his appearance. Revealing the true dynamic of his plan, Joker summons a bat to crash through the window as proof of his power over Batman. The bat’s echolocation sounds serve as the perfect counter to Joker’s sound-based corruption, freeing the world. 

The conclusion to this story reveals no clues or ciphers into its relevance to the “Mindbomb” arc or the larger Zur-En-Arrh story arc that preceded it. Instead, it reads as a heavy detour that is disjointed and steals the bombastic momentum of the last few issues from the larger arc. Zdarsky’s scripting can’t elevate the story past the poor pastiches of other Batman stories, making this mini-story arc read like a less essential backup. This is a confusing shame, as the backup issues have felt essential to this run thus far. 

A glaring lack of transition back to the present speaks to the disjointedness of the story, which started as a story Joker was telling Batman. Instead, it involved the flashback/flashforward, which made no sense narratively but made structural sense. Zdarsky isn’t a hacky writer in any sense, and the issue is well-plotted and paced, hitting the worn beats of a throwback story even if it doesn’t ultimately work. This final issue tried to tie together the two plots and both fell flat, even as they attempted a sense of looming terror to the Joker. 

Encapsulating the frustrating approach of this story is the use of the darker, horror-twinged version of the Joker seen in the past. This interpretation of the clown prince of crime was introduced in Tom King and Mitch Gerads’ story in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Zdarsky attempts to channel that sense of absolute terror from the other story into the character’s appearance, but the script never delivers. It’s the narrative equivalent of trying to put a square block into a round hole. 

Much of that clash in style versus idea occurs in Camuncoli and Nesi’s artwork, which tries to evoke Gerads’s design. On the page, it is distinctly that version of the Joker, but in execution, there’s a lack of styling that makes his look feel like a cheap imitation. The design is missing sinister anatomy and the sense of shading that Gerads brought to the otherworldly version of the villain. It’s the same issue as the duo trying to evoke Greg Capullo’s artwork from “Zero Year” to tepid effect.