Jet-Lag
The hunt for the Joker continues this issue, where we previously saw Commissioner Gordon trying to get sidelined by his daughter Barbara, Cassie Cain, and Julia Pennyworth. You see, these three were going to continue our former Commissioner's quest by taking his place, but old Jim wasn't about to let that happen. To make sure everything went the way he wanted he's contacted Harvey Bullock to back him up and the two are on their way to the Sampson Family Farm to confront Cressida, the woman associated with the Court of the Owls, and also...... hopefully stop the Sampson Family from eating the Clown Prince of Crime. Let's jump into this issue and see where our story goes.
The majority of our story is strange in that it takes place on three planes. Vengeance, the Daughter of Bane trying to make her way to where all the action is, Barbara Gordon and Cressida doing the same, and Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock following suit. It's on the latter two planes that we get all our exposition about what's been going on and how things are going to go down, much to Barbara's chagrin because it seems that the Bat-Family's plan isn't going to work out the way that they had hoped. That being said, though it seems that Jim Gordon is in momentary control of the situation as he's figured out who was actually behind A-Day and this revelation, while it may be really cool for a lot of people, really feels like it goes against everything we've seen in a bunch of books and comes off out of nowhere.
As for our Punchline backup, the day has come for Alexis Kaye's trial and while it finally feels like things are coming to a head in this backup, there's just a lot of retreading in what we've already known and it also makes Bluebird look pretty pathetic as a superhero, which is a shame but at least this chapter feels like it's finally getting somewhere.
All in all, the art in both the main story and the backup continue to be great but the main Joker story and the Punchline backup aren't really cutting the mustard for me in different ways. The main Joker story seems to be running in place, while it feels like the Sampson Family have had the Joker for so long now, while nothing has happened to him and the big revelation about what's actually going on here feels so out of place that I hope that it can make itself work with what's been going on in the rest of the DC Universe because as of right now, it just feels like it's completely forced and only playing in its own sandbox. The Punchline backup though feels like it's finally getting somewhere but at the expense of Bluebird looking like she should actually be a part of the Bat-Family since how green she comes off here and ineffective. The Joker book is still good overall, but the long-drawn-out nature of the series makes it feel like this actual story could have taken place completely with room leftover in a twelve-issue maxi.
Bits and Pieces:
While things are coming to a head in the Joker hunt, the revelations in this issue left me wanting more because they seem out of nowhere and don't feel like they fit with anything we've seen from other books in the main DC continuity. The art is great and the backup feels like it's finally getting somewhere interesting but the swerve in this issue and the constant meandering leaves me wanting more.
Of course this would never happen but I say let the Sampson family kill the Joker then go bust them. Kill two birds with one stone I say.
ReplyDeletethe big A-Day reveal this issue has me really losing a lot of interest in this book.
DeleteSo if Bane is alive, who was that in Arkham?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's going to go into the whole clone lab bit or what. I just know that A-Day seemed to be something that Simon Saint and Scarecrow were a part of, made it look like the joker to cause fear.... and now we have a living Bane in this book and a zombie one in Task Force Z.
DeleteI think they going say that task force z Bane is a Bane clone with all his memories. It's funny because I know that before Task force Z some people including me thought the hulking guy following Cressida around was Bane but we were thrown off the scent.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I totally thought that it was Bane when we first saw him next to Cressida, but the need to be all covered up like the Invisible Man made me think that he was the dead Bane, resurrected with Electrum by the Court of Owls. Then When he showed up in Task Force Z that theory went out the window. With this Bane, Task Force Z Bane and Vengeance: the Daughter of Bane it seems like our hulking Batman foe will be having his own Clone saga.
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