So Punchline debuted. What do you think?

[dreyga2000]

Punchline appeared in the 100 page Joker Special and in Batman #92. What is your first impression?

[sifighter]

About what I expected, though that is not a bad thing. I expected her to be Joker's brand new, violent head henchman and that is exactly what I got. If I had anything other then that to add, I think her origin in the Joker 100th is an interesting mirror reversal of what we see with superheroes and their sidekicks all the time, but instead of a good person the one the younger person idolizes and wants to be like is a psychopath like the Joker.

[Rakzo]

Bad things, and with Tynion's involvement, I'm sure things are going to get worse.

[Bad Witch]

Haters gonna hate!!!

[LordUltimus]

Boobies.

[Darkcrusade25]

Atleast she’s the Joker’s gf in name only. Feels like she acts like how Harley thought she was back when she first joined joker

[qwazer07]

Boobies.

Damn. As they say craziness is proportional to hotness. She is proving it.

[Rakzo]

Did I mention that Tynion really felt it was necessary for her to have 3 spotlights this week in different titles?

[dreyga2000]

Atleast she’s the Joker’s gf in name only. Feels like she acts like how Harley thought she was back when she first joined joker

What makes you say that?

[K. Jones]

I have a few thoughts. I think the concept is fine of Joker having a new henchgirl, I think a different style from Harley is the right choice, and a kind of definitely different personality, like the opposite of naive-to-a-fault, is a good way to go.

I'd be interested in seeing how someone goes from tinkering with Joker toxins at college to being able to handle oneself in a scrap with Harley goes, because Harley is alternately depending on the story you're reading juiced up either on some Joker chemicals herself, or far more likely, on some Poison Ivy cocktail, that makes her more than the average human. Basically steroids. Harley is an acrobatic, olympic athlete type, on serious steroids.

Punchline is a skinny little thing. Like, comics are comics and I know nerdy writers don't take this sort of thing seriously, but this isn't even my "I like old things never new things" crankiness talking. Harley should be able to ball up Punchline with very few hits. Experience is also a factor. Harley has been FISTFIGHTING every Tom, Dick and Harry goon, combat trained police officers, military and terrorist operators, and various Batmans and Robins and superheroes ... since the mid-1990s, which however you slice it about 3/5s of the way through the overall DC Publication History. Like, thinking about that, Harley has been around for 2/5s of the DCU. She's effectively a combat veteran in that regard, in addition to performance enhancing chemicals.

Knives are still incredibly dangerous, so you know, account for that. But Harley is swinging a warhammer with a long handle, a ranged weapon, so that should give her the edge from far enough away that the knives are out of the equation.

So that's my critical analysis of just the "Punchline has shown up and done something" part of things. It could be a bit early for Joker to show Punchline any of the keys to the castle of how they do business in the Gotham underworld like this Underbroker guy, but I read Secret Files and got a better idea of Joker's actual game plan here and it seems pretty bold and ... realistic. Like not dopey. Like coldly logical and kind of funnier because of it, not weird of weirdness sake. I guess it's in character for Joker, though. I mean he started trotting Harley all over town immediately.

Punchline is a neat concept because as we see in the short story, she's actually an *******. It's kind of a meta riff. She actually plays as a, fairly unlikely, female version of your usual suspect Joker Fanboy ******* in the real world. I'm not sure if that's going to make them like her as a character out of self-unawareness, or hate her for whatever reason. But it is a novel meta-concept to play with in presenting her to the world because it kind of tackles the logic for her existence and part in the story head on and I respect that a lot. She's very young. And what with the passage of time in the DCU ... like how Once Joker Met Batman ... then a lot of damn time passed ... then Joker Met Harley (again, 3/5 of the way through their shared history). Then was out of that relationship with Harley 4/5 of the way through (or less - in the scheme of things it wasn't "that" long). But time did pass in that time. Which means Joker is ... Even Older. So now, having played the toxic relationship of the Gaslighting his Idealistic Psychologist into Being Bad With Him relationship, with someone at least much closer to his age, he's trying on the old "Bad Professor With Bad Student" hat on for size. Bruce Wayne is the billionaire playboy who dates a 100 women a year but only loves Bad Girls ... but Joker's the one having the mid-life crisis? Can't wait to see if he's driving a Purple Porsche next issue.

Then again they haven't shown Joker/Punchline as anything explicitly sexual or romantic. Joker's sexuality, all we really know about it or can infer, is pretty tied into his own vanity. That's his whole thing. He's not asexual, and even if he wasn't using sex to control Harley "all the time", and genuinely derived pleasure from her being around, he's still a manipulative ******* who gaslighted her enough and to such extremes and treated her like crap. I'd argue it's less that he was playing a constant brilliant game to control her (that gives him too much credit, frankly, see also; all men) and would argue that he's just got emotional problems like every other human. I mean look at the guy. It's definitely that one.

So yeah, time'll tell if she's a henchwoman, a henchperson, a moll, a good buddy. Or just an employee. Whether she's gay or straight even. It's relevant enough even though she's an ******* and shouldn't be rooted for.

I will say, the one thing I surely believe about Punchline so far ... is that Janin's original "nerdy college girl" design is actually funnier and cooler than the finished costume, which is going to feel dated in five-months, let alone a year or more. Hopefully her costume remains in flux. I like the face paint and hair but that dress and that shirt just don't. Look at Joker's suit. The man at least has style. And he's vain as hell. He wouldn't want to walk around with a henchwoman looking like a bum.

[Restingvoice]

I agree that her makeup and hair are already good, and the costume is where I also still not sure.

[Dylan Davison]

I didn't hate it. She seems interesting. I like her design a lot. But hopefully they show she's her own thing and not a fan who can be abused, like Harley.

[sifighter]

Atleast she’s the Joker’s gf in name only. Feels like she acts like how Harley thought she was back when she first joined joker

Yeah I got to agree with this, they say in articles girlfriend but there really hasn’t been any indication that either has any romantic interest in the other. Honestly it’s more of a relationship built on admiration or fandom, and hopefully this doesn’t sound bad but it’s a little like Wally West where Punchline sort of admires the Joker as her “hero” and then gets to be his accomplice.

[Nite-Wing]

only a few issues out but all the hype for this character was overblown. I mean she is literally some college girl who got radicalized by Joker. No different then any of the mental patients at arkham he gets to work for him.

Tynion has essentially made a less likable female version of Johnny Frost

[Batman Begins 2005]

M.E.H and M.E.H.