I'm breaking from my dollar bin-centric format this post to be a rare ray of light in a grumpy comics world, and focusing on a more recent book. As most Batman collectors should be aware, writer Tom King recently ended his 85 (give or take) issue run on Batman. I, like most of the community, was not a fan of his malarkey, but you can travel to other parts of the internet to hear the anonymous masses spew their ire.
Instead, I would like to focus on my favorite issue of the run, essentially a silent, stand-alone story. Batman #86, titled "All The Way Down", was, in theory, part 5 of a longer arc called "Knightmares", but I call shenanigans on that. The whole arc was just a bunch of standalone silliness masquerading a as an arc to compile into a trade in a few months. But I digress!
Short story shorter, this issue is simply an extended chase scene with a great ending. The art by Lee Weeks and Jorge Fornes make it special. It begins with Batman standing on a rooftop with the body of a recently murdered fellow as well as the recent murderer, clad in a mask, fedora and trench coat, staring him down. The chase begins as they crash through the city, through apartments, pubs and eventually the sewers, and every time the killer escapes the caped crusaders clutches, a foreboding "beep beep" sound effect is heard.
Eventually, deep in the bowels of the Gotham City sewer system, Batman finally catches and unmasks his quarry. Surprise, it's the Joker! We then learn that the murder victim on the rooftop was named William Ernest Coyote. And when Batman presses as to why the murder and the chase, Joker simply pulls out a small cartoony horn from his jacket and it replies "beep beep". The final 2 pages of this issue quickly elevated it to one of my favorite Joker stories of the past several years. No grand schemes, no mass homicide, no wearing his rotting face as a mask (gross). Just a dastardly crime to give Batman a merry chase and a ready punchline. The fact that he's referencing Looney Tunes is all the better. I practically feel this issue could be used in any upcoming collected Joker trades.
Otherwise, King's take on the Joker in his run was quite forgettable, and I found Scott Snyder's take in his previous (considerably better) run to be overly ghoulish, replete with his own creepy font when speaking. One my favorite Joker scenes is 2009's 'Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?' written by Neil Gaiman, where he swears he won't kill someone because there simply wouldn't be any humor in it.
Joker's main motif is comedy, albeit usually extremely dark, and I wish more writers would lean into it, instead of having him as a generic mass murderer who happens to look like a clown. Since day one in 1939 his shtick was to kill or at least incapacitate victims with a smile on their faces. He was pretty grim back then I'll admit, but I'm glad he's lightened up but still retained his menace (Obviously, Batman: The Animated Series nailed this characterization). And please use him more sparingly, it should be a fun event when Joker shows up, he's become as ubiquitous as Harley Quinn in the comics lately. As it was once said, dying is easy, comedy is hard. Until next time, catch you by the spinner rack!
