The Three Jokers By Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok

[MajorHoy]

For the story to work Batman needs to be dumb (the worlds greatest detective is unaware of the Joker being 3 people with different ages and personalities) . . .

But, unfortunately, that's the way Batman has often seemed to have been portrayed in general for the past +/-ten years or so . . .

[Restingvoice]

Batman's smart but he's also really stubborn. If he convinces himself that Joker's only one person who's chaotic, unpredictable and always evolving, just like him not believing The Court of Owls or having problem solving the Holiday killer or the Hangman murder because he's too focused on one person, or that a child shot his parents instead of a robber like he experienced... he'll only change his mind in the face of irrefutable evidence.

[thwhtGuardian]

Batman's smart but he's also really stubborn. If he convinces himself that Joker's only one person who's chaotic, unpredictable and always evolving, just like him not believing The Court of Owls or having problem solving the Holiday killer or the Hangman murder because he's too focused on one person, or that a child shot his parents instead of a robber like he experienced... he'll only change his mind in the face of irrefutable evidence.

Nah, it's not stubbornness, it's just that this story was poorly conceived.

[PurpleGlovez]

Jason immediately notices the Clown has a different physique and appearance than the Joker he's used to. The idea that Batman could fight three Jokers for his entire career and not have the slightest inkling that something was amiss, and that the Jokers coordinated in such a way that they never let anything slip, is absurd beyond even the wildest limits of comic book logic. Add the fact that Batman never asked the Mobius Chair for clarification on any of this, and yeah, it is a very very poorly thought out story. I actually really liked the Joe Chill stuff though and the idea of Bruce finally forgiving him. I will give credit to Johns on that.

[Dark_Tzitzimine]

Batman's smart but he's also really stubborn. If he convinces himself that Joker's only one person who's chaotic, unpredictable and always evolving, just like him not believing The Court of Owls or having problem solving the Holiday killer or the Hangman murder because he's too focused on one person, or that a child shot his parents instead of a robber like he experienced... he'll only change his mind in the face of irrefutable evidence.

And then comes the end twist showing that Bruce was always aware of the Three Jokers and their original identities but never did or said anything about it because ???

This story was just Johns writing whatever he thought would be "cool" without caring if it actually made sense.

[Lady Nightwing]

I'm a bit late to the party on this one, I only recently picked this up on sale. It wasn't for me. Barbara has been shown numerous times that she came to terms with her assault by Joker. It's depressing to see her regressed to victim status with a splash of love interest mixed in. I mean it's cool that Jason got a measure of revenge but he was written pretty weak in this book. Seeing him simping unbelievably hard for Babs was hard to read, I actually cringed, especially after one tepid kiss. Doubly, so after he rejected Babs in Batman eternal.

There was so much potential here for some real character development but Babs and Jason regressed and Bruce seemed largely apathetic to the whole thing. Not counting the scenes with Chill. Also, I'm not really a Joker fan but spreading his crimes over 3 people kind of diminishes him. I hope it doesn't become Canon, it's not offensively bad but it's just completely unnecessary.

[Frontier]

Well, one thing I'll say about this story is Joker crafting an unnecessarily convoluted plan to make Bruce get over his trauma over Joe Chill so that Joker could be the one person he thinks about most is...on-brand for Joker at least.

[Lady Nightwing]

Given how blasé Batman was for 90% of the book, I'm not entirely sure he succeeded

[Frontier]

Given how blasé Batman was for 90% of the book, I'm not entirely sure he succeeded

That patented Batman stoicism...

[daredevil1]

Was it ever explained how Joker was able to 'create' three nearly identical clones that went unnoticed for years? Even if we accept that Batman is just a dumbass for not noticing minute differences, I don't get what the explanation was other than he had a cloning machine a la The Prestige... none of the people he 'jokerized' in the actual mini looked remotely like him to begin with.

[Frontier]

Was it ever explained how Joker was able to 'create' three nearly identical clones that went unnoticed for years? Even if we accept that Batman is just a dumbass for not noticing minute differences, I don't get what the explanation was other than he had a cloning machine a la The Prestige... none of the people he 'jokerized' in the actual mini looked remotely like him to begin with.

Psychological torture/molding and a dose of Ace Chemicals?

[Dr. Cheesesteak]

I'm a bit late to the party on this one, I only recently picked this up on sale. It wasn't for me.

I'm late to the party also, and "this wasn't for me" is a bit of an understatement in how I viewed the book. Not sure I liked a single thing about this book, besides Johns' writing of the Joker(s). The...odd irony(?) is that the fact Joker is so "random" or fluctuating in his levels of intellect, insanity, psychopathy, etc is what makes him appealing to me. Johns nailed it all. ...except the fact it was 3 separate ppl as Joker was like nailing it on a piece of wood just for the wood to still break b/c it's bad wood. And the bad wood of course is a bad idea, bad story, and bad writing in every way besides the Jokers'es's's personality/ies.

spreading his crimes over 3 people kind of diminishes him. I hope it doesn't become Canon, it's not offensively bad but it's just completely unnecessary.

I'd argue it actually is offensively bad and even disrespectful to the character. Not sure what the point of it was besides to try to tie up Joker's personality through all the different continuities. But again, that's part of the Joker - he's a mastermind one minute, a raving lunatic the other. But...I guess now he's not...? Sad, really.

I'm basically only keeping it due to its relevance. Tbh, I kinda want my money back lol.

[MajorHoy]

I'm late to the party also, and "this wasn't for me" is a bit of an understatement in how I viewed the book. Not sure I liked a single thing about this book, besides Johns' writing of the Joker(s).

Hell, I didn't even like that!

The art, however, was good.

[Dr. Cheesesteak]

Hell, I didn't even like that!

The art, however, was good.

Yes, true, props to Jason Fabok. The fact I totally overlooked how much I liked his art just goes to show how much I didn't like the story/writing.

[sifighter]

I think we are going to have to talk about Flashpoint beyond #5 now, Geoff Johns did something that plays with the ending of Three Jokers.

spoilers:

They just casually drop his possible real name. Martha Wayne in the reborn Flashpoint went looking for the original joker and found he was a happy family man named Jack Oswald White and we see an image that is clearly the wife from killing joke, the son, and the Joker. And given how the Flashpoint earth is just a crack mirror version of the main earth….well maybe we have the Jokers name according to Geoff Johns.

end of spoilers