Batman: Three Jokers #1 Discussion/Spoilers

[SixSpeedSamurai]

It's not in continuity. Abernathy and Tynion made that clear in the same interview where they also informed readers that Bat/Cat also wasn't going to be in current continuity.

I don't think it matters that much. I just need it to be good.

I was discussing this with someone last night. Batman got rid of the of the yellow disc in Pre-Flashpoint before Jason came back. Bab's didn't start walking again until New 52 and hasn't worn her original suit since she was shot to my knowledge. They also state that the Joker has been around for decades, which would be too long even for Pre-Flashpoint (15 years at most). Just doesn't fit in any of the main timelines they've had.

[Konja7]

He said that he didn't want to know because it means he has to arrest her, and if he wants to know he would've found out long ago.

Yeah. The current canon is that Jim could easily know (he just needs to be willing), but he prefers to avoid this.

[Wrestler]

I was discussing this with someone last night. Batman got rid of the of the yellow disc in Pre-Flashpoint before Jason came back. Bab's didn't start walking again until New 52 and hasn't worn her original suit since she was shot to my knowledge. They also state that the Joker has been around for decades, which would be too long even for Pre-Flashpoint (15 years at most). Just doesn't fit in any of the main timelines they've had.

Batman has a lot of uniforms, capes and cowls, why couldn't he get back to his yellow elipse at some point or for some ocassion? It isn't hard seeing that happen.

About the "decades" of Joker existence, that means at least 20 years, well, that isn't too far of Rebirth Era chronology. Let's get to one website which does a excellent job of keeping chronology -> https://therealbatmanchronologyproject.com/thenewage/ , Joker appears on Zero Year, and we are at Rebirth Year Eighteen, well, that's not far of 20 years of Joker's existence.

[bat39]

I was discussing this with someone last night. Batman got rid of the of the yellow disc in Pre-Flashpoint before Jason came back. Bab's didn't start walking again until New 52 and hasn't worn her original suit since she was shot to my knowledge. They also state that the Joker has been around for decades, which would be too long even for Pre-Flashpoint (15 years at most). Just doesn't fit in any of the main timelines they've had.

A case could be made that this is set in some version of the Pre-Flashpoint timeline that might have been had Doc Manhattan (or Barry Allen or whoever) not started messing about. Barbara could have eventually healed and returned to being Batgirl at some point. And Pre-Flashpoint, at least as far as Batman was concerned, was already pushing past even a 15 year timeline (James Jr. anyone?). So I could easily see this story being set maybe, I dunno, 5 years or so after we left off. Might also explain why there's no reference to the more recent iterations of the Joker.

[SixSpeedSamurai]

Batman has a lot of uniforms, capes and cowls, why couldn't he get back to his yellow elipse at some point or for some ocassion? It isn't hard seeing that happen.

About the "decades" of Joker existence, that means at least 20 years, well, that isn't too far of Rebirth Era chronology. Let's get to one website which does a excellent job of keeping chronology -> https://therealbatmanchronologyproject.com/thenewage/ , Joker appears on Zero Year, and we are at Rebirth Year Eighteen, well, that's not far of 20 years of Joker's existence.

DC's official time line has 30 years from Batman's debut to Year of the Villian, but I think some of those years overlap. I had thought DC was on a 10 year timeline with Rebirth.

A case could be made that this is set in some version of the Pre-Flashpoint timeline that might have been had Doc Manhattan (or Barry Allen or whoever) not started messing about. Barbara could have eventually healed and returned to being Batgirl at some point. And Pre-Flashpoint, at least as far as Batman was concerned, was already pushing past even a 15 year timeline (James Jr. anyone?). So I could easily see this story being set maybe, I dunno, 5 years or so after we left off. Might also explain why there's no reference to the more recent iterations of the Joker.

I think Pre-Flashpoint is probably the best fit as well myself, it fits the best with the fewest issues.

Doesn't really matter at the end of the day enjoying the story whether it "counts" or not.

[WonderScott]

Overall, I enjoyed this beginning of the tale and want to see where it’s going.

In particular, Fabok’s art is really wonderful - I especially like seeing Barbara back in one of her classic costumes and looking powerful.

Bruce, Babs, and Jason are an interesting trio to see interact. I’ve never been a huge fan of Jason, but I’m interested in him here, maybe in comparison to Bruce and Babs, but also in contrast to the Jokers. Johns does an excellent job of portraying Batgirl. The scene where Batman is speaking, but the GCPD are confused, only to learn he’s talking to Batgirl is perfect. Out of all the Batfamily members, seeing Babs or Tim do detective work with Batman is awesome.

Poor Gaggy. I’d have liked to see him return to the Joker family.

The only part of the story that made zero sense to me is the shark swallowing Gaggy, but the Bat Trio doing nothing about it and then Barbara trying stop Jason from killing the Joker later.

So it seems we have some kind of a Joker eugenics plot. I wonder if this story will issue an all-new, fourth Joker by the time it’s done? Also, has any creator ever made a link between or story about Ace Chemicals and the Lazarus Pits? I’ve read so many Batman stories that I seriously can’t remember if anyone ever played around with that or connected the two.

[Bad Witch]

Here it is people. The long-awaited Three Jokers storyline that was teased since the beginning of the Rebirth initiative way back in 2016. Geoff Johns has certainly been busy with his multiple projects so I can understand why this took so long and in retrospective it could have taken even longer (I mean, when is that Aquaman's Rise of the Seven Seas storyline going to release anyway?).

Sure, Johns is using the already overused Clown Prince of Crime and considering how derivative the current Joker War crossover in the Batman books is, I was not particularly claiming for more of him but I have to give it to the author, he's actually doing different with the character at least.

If there's something that I can appreciate about Johns is that, while he used to denigrate Batman a lot early on (which was understandable considering how overly-used he was in the 90s and early 2000s), he knows how to do something new whenever he takes him seriously. Take for example the early pages where we see Bruce's scars and we see how each one of them was produced by a different member of his rogue's gallery which builds-up for who produced the most of them, the Joker. This is pretty solid character work that involves multiple cast members and perfectly sets-up the plot. Bravo.

The good character work doesn't end there though since Batgirl and Red Hood also star in this book in interesting ways. We see how Barbara overcompensates the use of her legs as a symptom of what the Joker did and, while I was afraid that the author was making Jason more violent than usual, there are actually good justifications for it in story.

The mystery of the Three Jokers is still being explored with intriguing set pieces here and there that makes readers wonder where the story is going and who is really behind all of this and ends with a cliffhanger that is just shocking.

It wouldn't be a Johns' book of course if he didn't include obscure concepts and here we see Gaggy, Joker's original sidekick, back (and this is part of a joke to boot). Joe Chill also makes an appearance in a flashback but this time we see a bit of his personality since there seems the possibility that he actually took pity of Bruce and that's why he didn't kill him along with his parents. Good stuff.

Jason Fabok handles the art and I was missing his work too. Great and detailed artstyle that creates beautiful characters and delivers a pretty precise storytelling that follows the script perfectly.

Great beginning. Doubt anything will come close this week.

Set pieces? Lmao!! Pretentious much? It's a comic, not a bible film epic from the fifties...

It was weak. Earth one was so good and this feels like it belongs in the earth one verse...except it doesn't because none of the things that happened in main continuity happened in earth one. The art is staggeringly exactly the same, the motifs are the same. There suit, the car everything is the same as earth one except it's not possible to be apart of earth one because we I outlined the events happening in three jokers don't make sense to earth one.

[bat39]

I think Pre-Flashpoint is probably the best fit as well myself, it fits the best with the fewest issues.

Doesn't really matter at the end of the day enjoying the story whether it "counts" or not.

Another argument in favor of it being Pre-Flashpoint is the Ace Chemicals factory incident. It seems to be based on the TKJ version of it...Batman encountering three men - two 'legit' members of the gang and one patsy ('Jack'). Which is very different from the Zero Year version of what went down.

The only major divergence from Pre-Flashpoint is that Chill is serving life in Blackgate rather than Batman tracking him down and driving him to suicide, as Morrison had it. But Morrison's story too implied that this may have been a hallucination of Bruce's.

[Dark_Tzitzimine]

Another argument in favor of it being Pre-Flashpoint is the Ace Chemicals factory incident. It seems to be based on the TKJ version of it...Batman encountering three men - two 'legit' members of the gang and one patsy ('Jack'). Which is very different from the Zero Year version of what went down.

The only major divergence from Pre-Flashpoint is that Chill is serving life in Blackgate rather than Batman tracking him down and driving him to suicide, as Morrison had it. But Morrison's story too implied that this may have been a hallucination of Bruce's.

Has anyone referenced Zero Year since the crossover happened?

[Swallowtail]

Has anyone referenced Zero Year since the crossover happened?

For convenience sake, it remains Duke’s origin story.

[bat39]

For convenience sake, it remains Duke’s origin story.

There was a preview of Death Metal (or some other upcoming event) which showed the Trinity's debuts. It showed Zero Year Batman (alongside Golden Age Wonder Woman and Pre-Flashpoint Superman).

[PurpleGlovez]

Zero Year has been referenced multiple times since Rebirth, but much less often than Year One. Another reason why trying to link this story to specific eras in continuity may be a fool's errand. All of DC's continuities have been thrown in a blender and the resulting mixture is one where every story is simultaneously canon and non-canon depending on the writer's whim. There's also the old chestnut of "canon" versus "continuity". The Three Jokers mystery was set up in the mainline books, so I really do think this story is supposed to be valid/"canon". But, the precise details of its continuity will likely prove impossible to reconcile with the rest of the DCU at large, much like Doomsday Clock, and we probably won't get an explanation for those discrepancies (because we literally never do).

As for them possibly re-exploring the Wayne murders, I am honestly not opposed to it depending on how they handle it. Unlike the constantly changing details of Krypton's destruction, there haven't been any meaningful additions to that story in decades, so I dunno, maybe it could work. Also Jim absolutely knows Barbara is Batgirl no matter what DC says.

[Swallowtail]

There was a preview of Death Metal (or some other upcoming event) which showed the Trinity's debuts. It showed Zero Year Batman (alongside Golden Age Wonder Woman and Pre-Flashpoint Superman).

I think, in general, Snyder writes his books a single long continuity of his own and doesn’t worry too much about what other people are doing. But that everything Snyder writes is in continuity with his Batman run. Certainly his Batman and Joker are the same versions of themselves from Death of the Family to Last Knight on Earth.