This is the first I’ve really heard about Joker, a new original graphic novel from DC Comics and the team behind Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. It was originally going to be called Joker: The Dark Knight, but a certain movie came along and kind of ruined all that.
Too bad, it seems like it would have been a clever title to follow the Lex story.
Brian Azzarello is the writer and Lee Bermejo drew it. You can see from the image to the right that the art is going to be fantastic. Click on it for the full-sized version.
But that’s not all. Azzarello described to Newsarama the kind of story he’s written:
It’s a brutal book. I have a reputation for writing all kinds of hardcore, violent things. This is the most violent thing I’ve ever written.
That would have been enough for me. Show me that picture, tell me it’s going to be dark and violent, and I’m there.
But there was more. The plot itself is very intriguing. The Joker is released from Arkham Asylum to find his vast criminal holdings are split up among the most evil villains in Gotham, like The Penguin, The Riddler and Two-Face.
We follow him as he tries to get it all back. Sounds awesome.
The project was born out of the Lex Luthor: Man of Steel story, but it’s going to be told in a different manner. Man of Steel was done from Luthor’s perspective: inside his head.
But Azzarello didn’t think it would do The Joker justice to show us what he was thinking.
Lex isn’t insane so you can give him a world view that I think is relatable. I firmly believe that trying to write from the Joker’s perspective would be taking power away from that character; part of the power of that character is his unpredictability. Nobody knows what he is going to do next; so, if you’re in his head, you totally take away the unpredictable nature of the character.
Instead, we’re going to see it from the perspective of a member of The Joker’s gang, as he finds out just how insane and evil this smiley criminal truly is.
The graphic novel is 128 pages and took two years to develop. Check out the rest of Newsarama’s interview for a ton more information.
Yeah Azzarello to my recollection is into the graphic and visceral stuff. I want to say he did Luke Cage MAX series, but don't recall.
That pic up top is really gross. I bet you will love this!
Not to poo poo on the good news…but why the hell would the Joker be released from Arkham? That doesn’t make sense. I can see him breaking out or something, but released? Who in their right mind would do that?
But I will be looking forward to this story. I love good Batman stories.