The history of the Clown Prince of Crime shines with the closing chapter of Joker: Year One. Zdarsky takes readers into a thrill-ride of dark madness with superb writing. The art teams construct solid action and moody imagery to exemplify Jokers terror. For anyone who wants to peek inside Jokers mind, this story needs to be in your collection. Read Full Review

Batman #144 wraps up "Joker: Year One" in a satisfying way, delivering an influential addition to the mythos surrounding these characters. This story enriches Joker in an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that will haunt you. Read Full Review

Overall, Batman #144 is well crafted and mesmerizing for fans of the Joker as well as the Dark Knight. With its clever storyline, masterful writing, and stunning artwork, Zdarsky has delivered a Batman tale that is as dark and brooding as it is exhilarating forming the foundation for one of his most iconic villains. However, I still felt like the story went nowhere and gave us little direction and answers. Whether you're a seasoned Batman aficionado or a newcomer to the world of Gotham City, this issue is sure to leave you eagerly anticipating what comes next. Nevertheless, prepare to leave with mild confusion as to where this series is going and whats on the horizon. Read Full Review

Camuncoli and Sorrentino deliver some fantastic art in the issue as both parts of the story complement each other visually. Read Full Review

Batman #144 wraps up the mini-arc well. The script and characterization are terrific and the artwork is sublime. Whilst the 3 issue run might not have re-invented the wheel, it has thrown a new light on the eternal conundrum that is the Joker. Where we go next remains to be seen, but I look forward to it immensely. Read Full Review

A speedy but satisfying conclusion to this three-part experimentation in toying with the history of The Joker. Zdarsky wraps up the story pretty neatly which is no easy feat given how quickly it has come and gone. It's going to be fascinating to see the impact of this arc moving forwards. Read Full Review

Batman #144 has a great throughline in Jim Gordon's arc that hits the right beat, but the overall Joker: Year One story is a convoluted mess that solves half of its timeline off-panel and reaffirms a tired Batman and Joker dynamic. Some of the art is beautiful though. Read Full Review

Batman #144 concludes the Joker: Year One art by not telling you anything you didn't already know, confusing what you already knew, and focusing on nothing that matters. At least the art looks great, but this needless interruption to the Failsafe story is a complete waste of time. Read Full Review

The final chapter of Joker Year One contains shockingly little Joker, but perhaps that's for the best. With him gone, the story shifts its focus to James Gordon as the Red Hood Gang launches its assault on GCPD headquarters. It's an exciting, if unremarkable action sequence to round out this three-part story. When Joker does appear, it reverts back to waxing poetic about how amazing he is and making you question what the point of all this was. Read Full Review

Batman #144 provides the conclusion to "The Joker Year One" arc and ultimately, it all ends up feeling like a needless detour from the general trajectory this run of Batman has been on with the Zur-En-Arrh arc or even the Mindbomb arc. Read Full Review

Batman#144 ends with a steady drumbeat of disappointments, to the point that it may end up souring the larger story. The three-issue flashback story feels like the necessary evil of modern, blockbuster-level comics, in that it provides time for the more gripping art and writing. It also takes all of the worst impulses with filler and ends up not tying back to or teeing up the previous storylines. Read Full Review

I'm probably giving this a higher score than I should, given that this whole storyline was just odd any way you slice it, but there were certain moments here I enjoyed. Firstly, I liked that Jim had a lot of time to shine here. Secondly, I actually liked the ending of this. Yes, it doesn't really give us any explanation as to what the point of all this was and it doesn't even really feel like the ending to a story in general, but I still, personally, thought it was a cool moment. Hopefully this series can get back on track with the next arc's return to the present.

only reason i'm giving this a 7 out of 10 is because James gordon is the best part of this little story arc. Other than that, this story is alright. I am not going to fully judge this arc because I feel like its going to be a big payoff, but this story had weird pacing issues.

The most I can say about this arc was that it was never bad. It just feels incredibly pointless. Zdarsky is a great writer, he's written some of my favorite comics of all time. He's really funny, and sorta dreamy, have you seen his strip dance? I can't for the life of me figure out why this story had to be told here and now. I get the larger point of the story, Batman and Joker are a pairing that will go on forever. Pop culture deems it so. I get that. I get the meta reason of retconning Three Jokers to not have so many continuity snafus. I don't get why this story matters though. What does it have to do with Zur and what's to come next? Is it as simple as setting up that the Joker loves Batman and could always win, but chooses not to, and that'll lead to a team up against Zursafe (that's Zur and Failsafe combined)? That's the only guess I have, but I don't think any of that needed explanation. If this arc started from a clean break, and not in the middle of another story, I feel like everyone would be nicer about it. But it didn't and in the context of its release, it's baffling. It feels like a waste of time and potential, and it feels very cynical as well. more

This was an ok story for an early Gordon tale but it really hurt the series further ruining the flow of the main story.

By the last page I was left with an overwhelming feeling of “why?” This was a huge let down, though I really like the art in the future portions.

The 3-part “Joker: Year One” arc wraps up in this issue and I’m left wondering what it was all for? Now that it’s done, it seems all we got was a flashback meant to retcon “Three Jokers” and a flash-forward meant to remind us Batman and Joker enjoy one of the most sadistic, symbiotic relationships in pop culture.

As a standalone issue, the flashback story focused on Gordon had a lot to like: suspense, action, and great character moments. But as a third act it did little to payoff what we learned about Joker’s past in the last issue in a satisfactory way.

The future story never felt fully realized and came off as a lame mashup of last year’s Knight Terrors and this year’s Beast Wars events. I thought Zdarsky could have done a lot more with this story but failed to deliver.

“Joker: Year One” failed to live up to DC’s own hype and makes their decision to put the titles’ main plot on hold for this even more questionable than when it was first announced. Hopefully some elements of this mini arc impact the next phase of the Zur En Arrh story or it may look even worse. more

Zdarsky needs to finish his 2-year Zurr-en-Arr story and then get the hell out of Gotham. He’s overstayed his welcome with this latest mess. He knows how to start a good story but he sure doesn’t know how to finish them.

Utter garbage and a waste of a storyline. This whole joker loving Batman nonsense needs to end.

I finally figured out what bugs me about this story. It doesn’t matter.Batman Year one mattered because it was a new Batman after Infinite Crisis. This is just a story where the Joker kills a lot. We know where it is going to end. Crazy Joker who kills a lot.

We also get another story where Jim Gordon doesn’t kill Joker. Again lather, rinse, repeat.

Also not a fan of the art style. But that’s me. I won’t argue if you like it.

Not a great story. More of a cynical cash grab that went nowhere.

Or I could be wrong.

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myconius - Apr 17, 2024

zdarsky's run has been in-one-ear-out-the-other. ........it will be forgotten as so many others before it.

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How much can you ruin batman? Why not also ruin Joker and also miss the own point of your story. At the end of the day it really isnt a Joker story but just some sort of backstory to the gas that is released many years or so in the future when everyone turns into Jokers? What a terrible story.

Also why make Batman so stupid? Why did the Joker have to drag Batman around by his nose for the solution? How is the worlds greatest detective so dumb? Like he was acting like some no-body character. Aquaman probably has better detective skills than Batman at this point.

Another point that is just wrong, is Chip has no idea about the relationship between the Joker and Batman. Joker doesn't love Batman (although one could argue Morrison poorly tried to do this), Joker loves Chaos and the horribly dysfunctional rival/obsession he has with Batman. To distill all that Joker is down to 'he loves Batman' is totally missing the point and really disrespecting the previous work people did with the Joker.

The art was decent but I have read a fair bit of stuff drawn by Sorrientino, and this looks about phoned in or rushed as possible. This is Sorrientino and Camuncoli on their worst days.

All in all between the artists not appearing to care and Chip literally having no idea what he was doing, I can say I am worse off for reading this. And if you read this book, you are worse off as well. This was a disgrace and I have lost pretty much any respect for Chip I had. I have books signed by him. I now feel they have less value now than they did before. Although I suspect in future issues he will further humiliate himself... somehow. more

This series is Zdarsky's worst work! When Batman landed on her feet from space without any protection from the atmosphere, this series gave the signals that it would be bad.