September 15, 2020
The idea of Three Jokers was teased way back in the 2016s The Darkseid War, when Batman gains access to the Mobius Chair and asks it for Joker’s true name. This happens prior to the Rebirth initiative of 2016 and was left as a lingering thread until the later half of 2020. This long delay between set up and the beginning of the pay off has built some great expectations. However, it also means that people who were looking forward to the story might now find themselves ambivalent about it all.
The premise of the book is exploring how there could possibly be Three Jokers running around the DC Universe, however, this first book focuses heavily on how the Joker has affected Batman, Batgirl and Red Hood. While this is a compelling situation, and certainly a conversation worth having, the full set up of there being Three Jokers seems to have been skipped over. That pacing and structure has been sacrificed to get this first event down to a set number of pages. This wouldn’t be as bothersome, if the book hadn’t shoe horned in a number of intertextual references. Call backs work well in certain places, such as during the conversation between Joker and Jason Todd, but others, such as the scar list, and, yet again, a recounting of Bruce’s origin, feel arbitrary.
Hopefully, this is something that will clear up as the story continues. Perhaps these minor notes will add up to important plot details later, but currently, the book feels like a first draft.