There is a fine line between brilliance and madness. With this issue, readers walk along with the legendary villains journey to insanity. Zdarsky crafts two equally impactful stories with his strong writing. The art teams deliver on the haunting scenes that amplify the rise of evil. This will be one to watch for at the LCS this week. Read Full Review

Batman #143 works well, thanks to probing captions and a good balance of subplots that take us into the character's unique perspectives. This story balances a surrealist nightmare future with the enlightening origins of Joker while cleverly cementing his role as Batman's greatest villain. Read Full Review

As an allegory for the Frankenstein's Monster fable, it works so well. Whilst any story set in the past is inevitably framed by our knowledge of the present, we still get a genuine sense of danger from this book. Read Full Review

Camuncoli and Sorrentino deliver some fantastic art throughout the issue. I continue to love the visual contrast between the two styles. Read Full Review

Batman #143 is still a bit confusing but does a very creative job of showcasing a possible reasoning for the Three Jokers that connects well with Captio, Batman, and Zur. Moreover, the future plot thread illustrations and the possibility involving that story have crafted a narrative that appears to be ripe with potential. And with this storyline coming out weekly, we wont have to wait long to see whats next. Nevertheless, we really dont get a ton this week and the illustrations from the most interesting aspect of this storyline are a bit too dull and cartoony. Overall, Batman #143 shows readers that the story is getting a bit better but it still needs something more to truly hook fans and comb through some of the choppy, confusing parts. Luckily, it is weekly and we will certainly be getting more soon. Read Full Review

The second chapter of “Joker: Year One” opens up the story and really gets to grips with both its central characters. Once again led by two incredible artists, Chip Zdarsky's attempt to explore the history of The Joker is blockbuster stuff. Read Full Review

Batman #143 is a surprisingly taut and engaging continuation of Joker's Year One story. Continuity purists may take issue with Zdarsky's retcons, but at this point, if DC doesn't care, there's nothing to be done about it. Regardless, Batman #143 is a dramatic read. Read Full Review

Batma #143 is unable to fix the filler vibe The Joker: Year One story has. The story here is just a reminder that this is all a distraction to buy time before the next chapter in the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh narrative. Even when there are connections made to Batman of Zur-En-Arrh they just leave you wondering if it was necessary for Joker to be involved. Luckily this story will be don before this month is over. Read Full Review

The result is something that feels cheap and a little messy and whose purpose remains a question. Read Full Review

In the use of vastly different coloring, inconsistent art, and tepid writing, Batman #143 slightly improves on the previous issue without escaping from the story arcs larger pitfalls. Zdarskys scripting connects interesting dots and for every strong idea, an equally bland story beat is employed. That uneven scripting is echoed in the illustrations for the issue, oscillating from the bland artwork by Camuncoli and the expressive linework by Sorrentino. With two issues down and one to go, little has inspired hope for a stuck landing for the story arc. One can hope Zdarsky can pull off the conclusion and tee up the modern-day plot, but based on these two issues, that hope is fleeting. Read Full Review

The second chapter of Joker Year One is an emphatic declaration of how incredible it believes the Joker to be. It's exhausting listening to everyone's narration, both past and future, about his unrivaled and unfathomable mind. Nothing is a step too far as what was once a chaotic clown who commits crimes is elevated to narrative godhood that the world revolves around. Maybe his sales numbers justify this culmination to decades of power creep, but his seeming omnipotence only makes him less interesting and more annoying. Read Full Review

Batman #143 is terrible. It's two confusing timelines with no plot motivation, razor-thin character motivations, and mental gymnastics that try to explain-away Joker's craziness, thus taking away any mystique the Clown Prince of Crime had. WHO CARES if Joker underwent the same training as Batman? Read Full Review

A slight step up from last issue. I still question what the point of this story is.

I'm not a fan of defining the Joker's past but the story of the past timeline does have my interest and presents some interesting ideas but I'm not really into the future timeline. The final issue has a lot of work to do to make this a worthwhile story and I really hope he sticks the landing.

I think this was a step-up from the previous issue, but there's still a lot to be desired here, unfortunately. I still don't really get why we're getting this story at this point in the series instead of it just being a separate limited series or something. However, the story itself also is still a bit confusing and I'm not sure how I feel about Sorrentino's art suddenly becoming hyperrealistic in certain places and not others. It's great art, don't get me wrong, but it's just a bit strange to me.

A slight improvement over last week’s chapter, with moments that are genuinely captivating and others that are mundane. The same goes for the art. ultimately, this story feels vastly overhyped relative to what’s being served up.

Because the mystery surrounding the Joker’s origin is such a critical part of what makes the character interesting—and because everyone has their favorite interpretation of the character and can build their own head cannon—it’s hard not to feels let down when an origin is spelled out so literally in black and white. Zdarsky maintains some of the mystery, offering just enough ambiguity for the reader to fill in the blanks with their own interpretations, but my initial reaction was “Wow I don’t want to see this.”

Still, I think the future storyline is interesting—but that’s because it features my preferred characterization of the Joker as a demonic force. I admire what Zdarsky is attempting, and I often find his arcs to be more than the sum of its parts, so I’m optimistic. This arc will probably be more digestible after readers have had some time with it. more

better than last issue, but the art aint that good and interesting to me.

I like this. It still confuses me, but I do like it. Placement is still odd? I feel like this should be a 5 to 6-part mini-series as it's own and not a Batman #142-144 storyline.

The second part of Joker: Year One showed some improvements over the previous issue, notably with better pacing between the dual timelines. Joker’s (newly revealed) multiple personalities is a nice juxtaposition to the struggles Batman faces with Zur-En-Arrh. My main criticism is there are still no points of differentiation when the story jumps between them. Context clues and a change in art are all the readers have to know they’re jumping between points in time.

I think there is going to be a big divide between people who appreciate the new twist on the three Joker story and those who hate it because of their connection to the influential Geoff Johns story. For me, the Three Jokers was really well done but never made much sense in the traditional DC universe. I’m totally fine if it ends up living as an alt-universe or one-off story after this. That’s not to say this explanation from Zdarsky is fool-proof or a tightly-structured retcon. There are still plenty of holes you could poke here.

The art in the issue was haunting, particularly the future timeline panels by @andreasorrentinoar. They me goosebumps with their hyper-realistic take on an emaciated Joker emerging from a pool of water.

Overall, I can start to understand a bit more of why this Joker story is being told at this point in Zdarsky’s run. It’s not without its flaws, but with more pieces revealed it’s getting space to breath and giving us some interesting personality examinations even if you need to squint to see it make sense. more

+ Like • Comments (1)

•

sawright20 - Feb 15, 2024

It’s really bizarre if Zdarsky set up Red Mask creating three Jokers, only to have the actual “Three Jokers” be three distinct personalities in a single Joker. Was that supposed to be a red herring? I suspect there may be more to it than just the personalities thing, but we’ll see.

Sign in to comment

I rate this “whatever.” Despite trying to show how he Joker got so badass, it just shows me the Joker is badass because the writers tell and not show. He can take unlimited punishment and despite the fact everyone in Gotham has a gun and wants to kill him, no one shoots him.

There is no, for lack of a better word, logic behind this Joker. Chris Nolan made him an agent of chaos. He had a goal, show everyone will break. Steve Englehart had the Joker say in medieval times even kings envied jesters for their ability to say what they wanted without fear. This Joker was the free man.

Now the Joker seems to exist to let writers show how depraved they can write. Forget Batman letting the Joker live, why has no Gotham cop given him a Bin Laden special. Who would care? Hey I am. A hippy lawyer, I protest the shooting of a mass murderer responsible for the deaths of thousands and has escaped every time he has been locked up. Who would listen.

It’s been years since anyone had done anything interesting with the Joker. Give him a rest until someone actually comes up with a good idea, a genuine good idea. I don’t see that happening.

Or I could be wrong. more

A new low for Zdarksy

What the actual #$%^ is this? Did Chip just drunkenly take every major beloved story from Moore, to Morrison, John's and more and combine it with Snyders year zero and the year 1? I feel like I am watching someone ruin all the critical Batman and Joker lore in real time? So really Three Jokers will never get a part two because apparently that was all a lie in his head and Chip is hawking the Knight as a critical story to the lore that overwrites the previous stuff? As Moore put it, Joker should be multiple choice, not this weird 'brothers and father' situation he is trying to push. This is like reading a train wreck, but I beg you, look away, dont buy this book, if you must read it, read it second hand or something. At this point, this is making Kings run post marriage fiasco look like pure art.

This is honestly turning into one of the most damaging, poorly written Batman runs of all time. I think there is a question of where Chip fits into Batman runs quality wise and if he isnt at the bottom or second to the bottom quality wise, he at least takes the cake for the biggest fall in quality. Failsafe opener was amazing. Everything afterwards just fell apart and this is just pure character assassination. more

This story is trash and dialogue is ridiculous.

There was no need for this, end the torture run now!