It's another twisted Joker story, but there's almost a weird, dare I say, masochistic element to Joker in the story? One that may border a little too much into uncomfortable territory for some?
spoilers but
spoilers:end of spoilers
Joker drags this arkham patient, Jeremy around, dresses them both up as Batman and Robin (Joker as Bats, the guy Jeremy as Robin) whilst proclaiming that he is making things 'kinkier', then when the Robin guy finds that Joker has his mother tied up, threatening her, he starts choking the Joker, whereupon the Joker takes off the Batman mask he was wearing, placing it on the would be Robins face to emulate Batman choking him and gasps, 'harder' to the guy, which freaks the Robin guy out and then the pages Dark posted which show Joker beating the Robin guy half to death are what proceed.
He basically constructs a scenario to fulfill some kind of fantasy of Batman killing/choking him.
Also, sorry for getting off topic there.
Last edited by RedBird; 10-09-2019 at 12:05 PM.
JayKorre
Inktober Day 4: Freeze!
God bless the Internet, that allows you to access almost everything at any given time.
Well, that was a pretty good one-shot.
spoilers:end of spoilers
I wasn't expecting a lot, but it was very good. A lot for it going on in foreground and background, a pretty interesting handle of certain themes, specifically how mental health* is treated (using the poing of view of the blond guy who is not-sane*). It's a comic about how mental health problems can mess you up, your view of reality, your whole life and your family; and how it doesn't have to have a happy, easy way of getting better, or having a happy end (but some things can be fixed or get a better). But also, I found it interesting that, in contrast, it doesn't romanticise Joker, at all, and doesn't draw him as insane*. He knows very when he's doing, and does so viciously. He's cruel, and he knows very well how cruel and twisted are his actions. Which is how Joker is nowadays in the comics, as far as I can see.
I also saw some light parallels with Jason, besides the obvious one with the beating and the mother. I wonder if it was intentional.
In the end, I don't think it was that much serious horror. It was brutally violent, and heavy on certain points. But it wasn't all serious and the most heavy part was the dealing with the main character's problems, in my opinion.
I wouldn't mind more like this, to be honest.
And the art was very, very good.
And with this, I finish with my part in this off topic XD
Last edited by Zaresh; 10-09-2019 at 12:52 PM. Reason: vocabulary
Sorry to keep it going XD but spoilers:end of spoilers
I totally agree with your point about it not displaying the Joker in any sort of romanticized light yet his behavior and sick humor still feels true to the character. The story displaying his victim as an individual suffering with mental illness rather than the Joker was also a good point. Outside of some else worlds, I'm not a fan of specifically the Jokers violence and behavior being diluted under the guise of mental illness, it always come across as tasteless to me. I've always preferred the 'sane' take on the Joker, which is strongly highlighted here.
Also I thought I noticed some parallels as well, with Jeremys constant self doubt, self loathing, the fathers violence too, and with Jeremy forgiving his mother who (figuratively at least) abandoned him. Probably a coincidence but still interesting.
Yeah, agreed to a T with your post.
Also, this story made me wonder if both writers are knowledgeable enough about Jason to actually have made those parallels intentionally. If it wasn't just me, it has to be intentional, right? I noticed another a bit less subtle:
spoilers:end of spoilers
The moment Jeremy starts to doubt Joker and stops him is the moment the Joker stops playing pals with him and starts to act crude and violent towards him—regardless of the Joker going against his mother before that point, probably. Kind of how Batman works with Jason. Or, well, reversed.
EDIT: or, well, maybe we see those things because we know about him and look for similarities.
I don't know. This story really got me caught.
And it even made me laugh once (because it was fun at times*, too).
Last edited by Zaresh; 10-09-2019 at 01:26 PM.
I know this kinda random but, it's been a while and I'm curious if there's been any changes to peoples thoughts on rhato regarding the current status of Willis Todd?
Cause, honestly I'm still not convinced that he has actually appeared in the present day.
We've had two characters with claims to be Jasons father yet neither make total sense and they kinda contradict each other.
In the flashback we see Willis was strapped to that machine (the one used in the experiment) with two other people (me thinks that was Solitary and James) and I reckon to some extent they all merged identities or at least memories, and to some extent even *physicality. (*It's comics)
I'm theorizing Artemis killed the OG Willis, she mentions in issue #25 to Jason, 'Someday you'll understand how much I owe you. The mistakes I made. How much you suffered because of me.'
James has the Batarang scar, sure, but no one outside of his own perception knows him as Willis Todd, where as Solitary is the one that confronts Ma Gunn who outright calls him Willis, to which I should note that he is surprised by and questions how she could have known, kinda adding to my theory that he doesn't look like Willis all that much since he isn't the OG, but like James he also has Willis's memories/identity and they both at least believe themselves with enough conviction to be Willis Todd, father of Jason Todd. Also I find it quite strange that Jason himself doesn't recognize his father's face in either of these men, again, just another point to my theory.
Thoughts? Alternate theories?