Bat-ears99's Profile

James Tynion doesn't understand the character of the Joker one bit. On the previous issue, when he recalled C.J. Henderson, I got my hopes up a little and I thought maybe it would make a decent Joker story in the end, but in this issue, Tynion disappointed me sharply (once again). His Joker is grim and no fun at all. He's using the army of the living dead against Batman, where's the humor in that? Tynion stripped the character of all its charm and quirkiness and made it into the embodiment of all evil (God, I miss the Joker from the 70/80s so much... Give us that cackling, mischievous fiend back, DC!). The Joker isn't even a good villain for this story at all, in the first place. They might as well have given this whole scheme to someone else. Besides the Batfam-Gotham rogues team-up against the Joker? We've already seen it before in Endgame.

- First of all, I hate the implications that Batman can no longer be a good Batman without his wealth. In Red Son he's still able to become Batman despite having little to no money, so I think it's more likely he'd just stop being Bruce Wayne! Not to mention he literally bought the Justice League their satellite base, so they owe him that, and given that they value Batman highly they would give him the equipment and funds to do what he does. Plus he's still very intelligent, which would get him funds later in life. Even without his fortune, he still possess: genius-level intellect, physical prowess, martial arts abilities, detective skills, and is a brilliant scientist. - Second: "Batman just wants to retire and be a loving husband and father" WHAT? Is it just the Joker saying that or is James Tynion really thinks that? Because Batman sure as hell doesn't dream of retiring. In this aspect, Superman is more human than the Bat. He's more comfortable with the Clarke Kent persona, he wants to be him. Bats doesn't have that inclination towards Bruce. Bruce Wayne is a mask he usee to uphold public appearance but in truth BATMAN is who he really is. - Thirdly. Batman chose Harley over Joker ... I don't like it, but it would still be better if they did this at the very BEGINNING of this whole story arc. Then at least we would have some explanation for why he hates Batman so much in this... - The fact that Harley now knows Batman's identity is a bit unsettling to me. I don't understand why they want to raise Harley to such a high position in the Batman universe. They literally let her be part of the Batfamily now. She may even become the new Batgirl soon... Just why? - And why the heck Batman is still so surprised that the Joker knows his identity?? I thought we had already established in Death of the Family that he knew who Batman was all along! Is Tynion ignoring the stories he co-created on purpose? It really puts me off when I see writers not enforcing what what happened in someone else's book (let alone, the book they helped create!). DOTF is still canon, and canon is important, because otherwise we'd get a bunch of stories that make no sense and goes against everything the previous story had! minus 10/10

Maybe later I will have enough willingness and energy in me to write a detailed and polished review. For now, let me just say this: I'm SO sick of Harley Quinn in Batman run.

Can you imagine a more boring, derivative origin story than this? The only thing that comes close is probably Punchline's origin. Oh, and Harley was apparently there just so that Clownhunter could try to kill her and then she could make her nonsensical speech about 'trying to be a good person' in the end.

Hate this interpretation of The Joker with a passion. Involving his character in the story at all was a bad idea. The character is so overused as of late. Just stop writing him for a couple of years, see if there's any way to recover from the overwhelming edginess of what he's become. He's my favorite villain, but I dread his every appearance in current comics when you just know he's gonna be this unfunny scumbug. I wish we can go back to actual fun Joker stories. King gave the Joker the worst, the most boring future I can think of. There are so many different directions he could go with Joker and he chose the worst possible one. (Plus it reminds me of that horrible version of the Joker from the cringy Harley Quinn tv show) A retired old-man villain living with his family is cliche as all hell, and it would never work for a guy like Joker, in my opinion. And not just because it's soo BORING, but also because the Joker would never quit and just retire if he knew Batman was still around. The Joker orbits around Batman. Even if you'd remove him completly, it's still much more possible for Joker to spend his days as a sad and lonely clown, rather than a happy father and husband.

The low rating is mainly for the ending. I was counting on a more emotional and memorable climax to this story, like in The Killing Joke. Blood drinking... really? I have a strong feeling the editorial team had had their hand in this... Not only did this ending feels extremly out of place, but also, I thought Morrison's run had already established the Joker's blood is deadly poisonous? Come on, this is the Joker-Batman team-up! I really expected something more.

I was very curious how Johns would explain the existence of the three Jokers. I thought maybe these are just a three Jokers from different timelines like Golden Age, Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis Jokers? I mean, we had Kara Danvers' Supergirl and Earth-Two Kara Zor-L... so it's still according to comic books rules. But apparently I was wrong. Now Joker is the title, the mantle that one person's giving to another. And I hate it. If they're literally three different persons with different origins who take the name of the Joker and continue the work of their predecessor... God ... Anything but that! It's some weird idea based on a popular fan theory. Following this line of reasoning, we should also have three Batmen: a dark, brooding avenger, whacky crime-fighter and lighthearted Bat-dad... Secondly, I always liked the fact that we don't know about The Joker's past. It's a mystery. I think it would be ruined if there were ever a definitive answer. There are several mutually-contradictory backstories presented as the Joker's origin. The Joker is an agent of chaos, so it seems fitting that his origins don't line up perfectly... And now this story arc did something that completely disturbed that harmony by removing the possibility of the origin story told in TKJ being complety maded up by the Joker (which was in my opinion the best part of this origin - the mystery, and that the reader is not entirely sure if it is actually true. "If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple chocie"). One of the more recognizable qualities of the Joker was that he may remember the past differently at times, and might invent certain origin stories based on whom he's talking to, so he can better manipulate them. But now that we actually know who he was... I guess it's all ruined now. Also, The Killing Joke may not be my favorite Joker origin (the only Joker origins I've ever liked was the ones where they made him "evil" in the first place, like in Zero Year), but still it's an essential story to so many fans and the main point of it was to show how this one bad day may turn your average good guy into someone really bad. But now that we learned that the Joker was actually never good, it kind of rips the whole story of its meaning... Also consider that one of the most important element of the Joker's obsession with Bats, is Batman's direct involvement in the Joker's genesis. Yet all of these Jokers seem to be equally obsessed with him, but if Batman only created one of them and the rest simply created each other, that bond with Batman is not that significant anymore. And why would some random people (a dentist, an actor, and other victims of the Three Jokers experiments) hate (or love?) Batman the way the real Joker does? Unless one of the side effects of the acid bath is an irresistible obsession with this particular hero... But again, these are also the same chemicals that the Joker pushed Harley Quinn into, and she is not necessarily inherently obsessed with the Bat. But now two of the three Jokers are dead anyway, so we're back to square one. What was it all for? But otherwise, even though I don't particularly like the story, Johns' skill as a storyteller is evident. I actually liked the parts with Joe Chill, his reconciliation with Batman really touched me. The third Joker's plan was great, he's so obsessed he wants to be the main source of Batman's pain to connect to Bruce and place himself over Chill in his past. Even Jason's sudden crush on Barbara was quite interesting to me, I can understand why the boy feels a connetion to her (even if I still prefer their relationship as familial rather than romantic). Either way, this book could make a very good Elseworlds story, but I really don't see it as canon. (btw. seeing what's happening in the comments on other people's reviews, I'd just like to say that if you intend to attack me in the comments section, I remind you that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Write your own review and share your opinion instead of policing what other people write/like)

The author should start an account on Wattpad or whatever, because they're good at writing fanfics.

So out of character it's painful to read. "White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn" goes for fan service over substance. There's just a lot of weird narrative choices that just turned me off which only was made to appeal more to some shipper girls on Twitter. There's a strain of Harley Quinn fandom that creeps me right the heck out. It's when they start idealizing and romanticizing her relationship with the Joker. They're not two people madly in love and united against the world. She's obsessively codependent and he's a sociopath and thinks of her as a mere tool. And the whole tragedy of Harley Quinn, the thing that makes her so easy to relate to and sympathize with, is her hopeless infatuation with someone who can never, ever love her back (because he's thoroughly obsessed with someone else). But when the author suddenly attempts to make this tragic, one-sided attraction appear reciprocated, to comply with whatever vision they might have had, it is no longer half as interesting and affecting. Because then they're simply taking away the foundation of Harley's character and also the one thing that makes her so easy to identify with. Besides, you can't really manage to somehow twist the Joker into loving Harley, without simultaneously makeing him blatantly OOC. A what-if story should have just enough to grab onto to make you see these versions of characters that you care about, but contextualized differently (that's a reason The Dark Knight Returns is so popular because it's still Batman). Here, the characters are so wildly different, enough so that they could be completely new characters. And the fact that it feels like I'm reading a fanfic where in other Batman stories, even elseworlds, it just feels like I'm reading a Batman story.

I'm so sick of this AU. So far removed from canon it's hard to read. Joker's characterization is possibly the worst that could have been done. All for the sake of a romance nobody really cares about anymore, and nobody ever needed.

This Joker War tie-in was neccessary to fill some plot holes, but as a separate read it was neither super interesting nor engaging.

I hate how Azzarello turned the Joker into a self-pitying rapist in this book. Jonny was a decent character though.