Noël, Noël…

Today’s Pull List: BATMAN: ETERNAL #24, BATMAN/SUPERMAN: FUTURE’S END, EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE #2, INJUSTICE #24, MULTIVERSITY #2, THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #4

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Last week, I lauded Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo’s Joker with some pretty high praise. Because I’m a writer, I spent most of that post talking about the great writing and while I did indeed allude to how great Bermejo’s art was, I likely didn’t do it justice. I was genuinely impressed with the quality of his work (especially because he’s self taught) and made a mental note to look out for anything else he’d worked on. It actually turned out that I didn’t have far to look, because, in my past-self’s infinite wisdom, I had already pulled Batman: Noël, Bermejo’s first written work, as the next thing on my reading list.

He Who Laughs Last

TODAY’S PULL LIST:  BATMAN: ETERNAL #23, HAWKEYE #20, INJUSTICE YEAR TWO #23, MS. MARVEL #8

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I have maintained for years that The Joker is likely the best villain in existence. There are several who come close: Maleficent decides to lay everything to waste after she gets slighted at a party, Magneto’s aims for mutant superiority are so deeply affecting because it’s much more to do with real history than it is ego, Doctor Doom is a megalomaniac with a lot of money and a lot of free time who is just incredible at what he does. Still, I think The Joker beats them all. Say what you will about Christopher Nolan’s Batverse (which, I think, was pretty well revered at the time, but is much less so in hindsight by others), one thing he absolutely nailed is the Clown Prince of Crime.

What’s terrifying about Joker is that there’s nothing you can do to him, nothing you can say to him, no leverage you can hold over him. As Alfred says in The Dark Knight, he is a man who just wants to see the world burn. And that’s brilliant. One of the great choices in the film was to have Joker just simply appear out of nowhere. No origin story, no details about his past–except for the one that Joker himself gives you. A true stroke of genius and a clear understanding of what makes the character great. That’s the essence of the Joker–and it’s also why I really tend to struggle with stories specifically about him. As soon as you try to pin him down, he always becomes less than he is. So how do you write a story about this man who is more than a man?

Brian Azzarello, it seems, definitely has the right idea.