Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo #3: A Team Effort

Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo #3 is written and drawn by Marc Silvestri, colored by Arif Prianto, and lettered by Troy Peteri. As each issue comes out, the more impressed I am with this creative team. Silvestri’s art is simply phenomenal and I am growing more and more impressed with his storytelling as each issue comes out. Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo #3 is incredibly well-paced. There is humor, suspense, and action and Silvestri gives them all room to be properly taken in. For instance, the first chunk of the issue is extremely suspenseful as we see Batman trying to solve a riddle. Two parents of a young boy are hanging above certain death. Batman has to choose which one will die. If he chooses correctly, both live. If he makes the wrong choice, they both die. The interplay between the out-of-sight villain’s dialogue with Batman’s thoughts really drove home the suspense for me. There is a countdown from the villain, but I got a real sense of danger with Batman’s quickening thoughts. Troy Peteri’s use of black boxes with a blue outline for Batman’s thoughts fit so well with the character and having them cascade down the page as the timer got closer to zero had my heart pounding. Though Batman answers correctly, the unseen villain still kills the parents.

I may need to reread a few more times but it felt a little out of character for Batman to move on so quickly after failing to save two people. There is an incredible page of Batman frantically and then angrily trying to break out of the space he was contained in, ultimately dropping to his knees in defeat. It was an extremely powerful moment and Silvestri’s art brings it to a new level of intensity, but the quick shift to the Batcave threw me off. Despite my issue with this, I still applaud the pacing. Whatever is turning people into Joker-like creatures is able to adapt quickly and take on new hosts, which is scary considering Batman had two teeth from one of them lodged in him. So, things are obviously getting interesting. We learn more about what is turning people into monsters and Batman receives more instructions for the Joker to follow. At this point in the issue, I could see that we are entering the second act of the whole story. For a seven-issue story, Silvestri has readers in a great place in issue #3. 

Donald Simms plays a major role in this issue. I’m not totally sure if he is a pre-existing character in the Batman mythos. For me, it works so well either way. Silvestri introduced him in issue #2 and is able to show his relationship with Bruce Wayne, his thoughts on Batman and  with that a potential motive and involvement in the bigger story. On top of Silvestri sprinkling in the reveal that Simms has something to do with it all, we are reminded that Harvey Bullock is a player in the story while investigating an incident in the subway. By the end of the issue, we get the Simms reveal, the police searching the tunnels, a hooded figure, and his collection of corpses that all have a connection to Batman or the Joker. Finally, we have Batman and Joker jumping out of a plane. Although it isn’t that exact order.

In other books, Batman and Joker falling from the sky would be the last page of the book, but Silvestri inserts the bit about Simms last. He reveals just enough information that things aren’t on a total cliffhanger.