Featured Review: Batman: Three Jokers #3

Writer: Geoff Johns

Artist: Jason Fabok

Colors: Brad Anderson

Letters: Rob Leigh

Cover: Fabok and Anderson

Who is the Joker? Or rather, who are the Jokers? That was the central mystery proposed in the first issue of this miniseries. This issue provides the most satisfying answer possible. More than that, it redefines the Joker not as an amorphous threat that can do anything at any time, but as a psychological pain that can never go away. He is a part of Bruce, Barbara, Jason, and Gotham and they can never be rid of him. Yet they move forward, dealing with that pain one day at a time, as one must with any trauma.

Full Spoilers for the issue below. Consider yourself warned.

With only one Joker left standing, there was a chance the end of this issue was the same predictable Joker fawning over Batman that has been appearing in comics for a while now. Instead, Batman and Joker’s final standoff takes one final thing from Bruce: the hate of Joe Chill that has driven him almost his entire life. Chill is shown throughout this issue to be incredibly repentant of what he did to Thomas and Martha Wayne. He would give anything to take that night back. Having seen that, Bruce chooses to save Chill from a vat of acid. Would Bruce have saved Chill without having learned about his later years? Probably, but this issue does a great job of portraying the internal struggle Bruce faces.

With Chill gone—having passed from a previous terminal diagnosis—and forgiven, the emotional weight he put on Bruce is lifted. Except the Joker takes the opportunity to thrust himself upon Bruce’s psyche. You see, he wants to be Batman’s focus. His pain. His burden. So, he cooked up an elaborate plan to make that position available then tortured Batman’s protégé to make sure he got it. And he will return to torture them until the day Batman and Joker die together.

The idea is not revolutionary. What it is, is taken to the next level and powerfully executed. It is a new version of the concept. It’s a refining of a core aspect of the Joker. It shows the lengths he will go to make himself the center of the Batman’s world.

While Barbara and Jason have largely been the stars of prior issue, Bruce is the focus here. That’s not to say that the former sidekicks are forgotten, they both receive fitting and interesting conclusions of their story that, combined with Bruce’s, make clear the message of this comic: tragedy and trauma cannot be forgotten but it can be surpassed. It’s a powerful message that is not new, but, again, is impressively and emotionally executed.

And that central question about the Joker’s identity? Johns and Fabok come up with the correct answer and they present it in the most Batman way possible. The final scene feature Bruce explaining to Alfred that he’s known who the sole remaining Joker is since the first week he appeared. He was a no name whose family escaped his abusive behavior and changed their names. You see, that’s why no one can ever know who Joker is, to protect them. But it doesn’t matter what the Joker’s name once was. It only matters what he is and does now. Which is true of us all, isn’t it?

 

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