On July 2nd DC Comics announced the return of the Joker in "Batman" issue #13 due out October 10. The Joker's storyline will be referred to as "Death of the Family" and it marks the return of the most infamous of all of Batman's arch enemies. (To read more of this announcement check out the DC Blog: The Source.)
The significance of this announcement is not just the return of the "Crown Prince of Crime" after a long and mysterious absence but the success of the Batman comic without him. Scott Snyder and his artist/penciller, Greg Capullo have brought us the mesmerizing "Court of the Owls" series and with it they have opened a whole new chapter in the Bat family legacy. One scarcely missed the Joker! But you can't keep a good fiend down and with the resolution of the Owl series nigh it was only a matter of time before "Mr. J" made his nefarious return.
What intrigues me is what take will Scott and Capullo have on the Joker? The last time these two gave us the Joker it turned out to be Dick Grayson in disguise and Batman was using this charade as means to quelling an Arkham Prison riot. (See above illustration.)
We should make no mistake now that the real Joker is making his return and below is the teaser to issue number 13 of Batman.
Capullo likes to feature his Joker with an aquiline nose that accentuates the overly toothy grin that accompanies his Joker's maniacal eyes. It seems Scott and Capullo prefer their Joker with a frothy bit of over the top instability. In the above illustration the Joker is no less unhinged as despite his evil machinations he takes the time to adjust his lip gloss. Perhaps this has something to do with whatever happened to the Joker in the pages of "Detective Comics" this year as seen below.
We've heard of "Two Face" in Batman lore but "No Face"? There is nothing worse than an angry Joker and no doubt whatever happened to him in the Detective series must carry over to the Batman series. Or will it? Scott and Capullo have their own book and they have the success of the "Owls" series behind them. The question is,can they top it? Now that they have the Joker to play with they can vent any criminal lunacy they care to and I'm guessing there will be no restraint.
As for the very top illustration, it was taken from an old silent film era character that is often cited as the inspiration to the Joker. It's a little quiz for the readers of my Fringe blog. So the query is, what is the relation to the "Man Who Laughs" and Fringe?
Hi Dave :)
ReplyDeleteWhenever you can tie Fringe to Batman (in anyway) that makes me a happy lady since I love both so much.
I'm actually not much of a comic reader, but I've been wanting to get into it for a while now. I'm thinking maybe the Joker's return is a perfect excuse to take up the hobby :)
As for the connection between The Man of Laughs and Fringe, I think I know. I hope I don't botch this because my knowledge of the film is at a base level, but I know a boy is abandoned, finds a baby girl, they are raised together and end up falling in love... So is the link Olivia and Peter's love? I could be way off lol. I tend to over think these things.
Cheers!