October 6, 2020
Three Jokers #2 arrived this morning, so took a break to read it. Better than #1, but there is still something about it that feels so completely unnecessary. The fact that Batman is in his Earth-1 costume does make me think it’s an alternative universe, but given the marketing and the original teaser for the series, that doesn’t make any sense. It’s been a very long wait for this, given the teaser was at the end of Darkseid War back in 2015/16, but this still feels like an idea was rushed out without an overarching goal.
I did enjoy the moment between Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) and Jason Todd (Red Hood). They were both victims of the Joker, both being massively broken from experiences with the Joker. If that is the focus of the series, the two of them dealing with what happened to them, then I feel it could have been handled better.
Who knows, maybe the final issue will add clarity to this whole thing. Also, please stop aping Alan Moore, the story already references The Killing Joke, you don’t need to mimic Brian Bolland’s layouts as well. There are ways you could have layed this out more effectively.
I don’t want to do a full deep dive into each issue until the entire story is out, but I do want to just document the immediate thoughts here. I’m wondering if the final issue will drasticaly change how I feel about the first two issues.