- Title: Batman #142
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Chip Zdarsky
- Artists: Giuseppe Camuncoli, Giuseppe Andrea Sorrentino
For what is supposedly the start of a new arc, I found Batman #142 messy and confusing. Falling back onto DC’s most overused theme, the comic offers us “Year One” of the Joker. Beginning after his swan dive into the chemical vat, the comic picks up with three members of the Red Hood Gang (rather than just one) being exposed to the chemicals. While “Red Hood One” begins his story after being transformed, the other two are similarly changed.
The rest of the comic involves our not-yet-Joker stumbling around, Gordon dealing with the corruption of the department, and a bizarre future story jammed randomly throughout the comic of a future Joker scheme. The story also provides a sequence that suggests one of the men who helped train Batman helped train the Joker as well. Yeah, I pretty much fucking hate that. I don’t need someone to awkwardly further link the characters any more than they already are within the canon or suggest the Joker could be “trained” to be comic’s most famous chaotic anarchist.
[DC, $4.99]