Overview: In Batman #143, Joker trains under Batman’s former mentor in the past. Meanwhile, Batman wades through a Jokerized nightmare city in a future timeline.
Title: Batman #143 — “The Joker: Year One” Part Two
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli & Andrea Sorrentino
Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez & Dave Stewart
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Cover: Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stefano Nesi & Tomeu Morey
Variant Covers: Yasmine Putri, Derrick Chew, Alan Quah & Stevan Subic,
Release Date: February 13, 2024
Please Note: This comic book review may contain spoilers
Batman #143 opens in the future timeline established in Batman #142. Everyone in Gotham City is a red-eyed Joker, and Batman’s narration tells us that this is because of an audible signal that activates something that has been dormant within Gothamites for a long time. Batman monologues a bit, sedates a Joker-zombie, and heads to A.C.E. Chemicals (where it all began). The future art carries that dark, grimy look from the last issue. Batman’s design looks eerily like Batfleck from the DCEU films. Depending on how you feel about that design, it’s either wildly distracting or right in your “dark and serious” Snyder-y wheelhouse.
In the past, Batman is in the Batcave, experimenting with chemicals from A.C.E. on a borrowed cadaver from Gotham University. He learns that the chemicals bleach skin white. Elsewhere, one of Batman’s former trainers (from Batman: The Knight) perseverates over Bruce Wayne punching him. It’s this fuel that pushes him to cure the newly created Joker of his fear. This will turn a happy accident into a Clown Prince of Crime to rival Batman.
Later, Batman is busting up thugs in search of the Joker. Meanwhile, Joker visits the apartment belonging to one of his old Red Hood Gang employees, Brian. Unsurprisingly, it’s a trap, and Joker is besieged by Red Hood goons under the employ of the new leader. While Joker fights for his life, Batman crashes through the window.
In the ensuing maelstrom, Joker flees. Batman struggles with the goons, and Brian shoots the one pinning Batman down, freeing the Caped Crusader. In these past sequences, I’m not quite sure what the art is going for. It’s a style that feels reminiscent of Howard Porter’s — cartoon-y and pretty tame in its paneling. The coloring is obsessed with brown and orange hues, creating a pastiche that maybe wants to feel nostalgic but comes up short in hitting that mark. This could be the result of the juxtaposition between the dark and shadowy future sequences interwoven throughout this issue, or it could be due to a rushed production schedule to meet the demands of a storyline that releases weekly.
Before we learn what happens to Batman and the Red Hood Gang, the issue leaps back forward in time. Batman finds some clues, and his inner monologue waxes on about a “lifetime” of said clues. It’s a bit banal and tiring to read. Before writer Chip Zdarsky meditates too much on these, Joker rises from the water behind Batman — in Christlike visage. The futuristic Batfleck design raises a gun and aims it at Joker, though Joker warns that his blood pressure is tied to a remote sonics device. Should Joker die or have elevated blood pressure, all the Jokerized Gothamites will die.
Batman #143 variant cover by Yasmine Putri
What Does Joker Want?
In the ensuing conversation, we learn that Joker just wants to “watch” Batman try to solve this mystery — no more, no less. He’s like Peter Sellers in Being There, apparently.
In truth, the future sequences in this issue are hard to read, as they come across overwritten and lacking in substance. We have no MacGuffin to chase, no real motivation for Batman in either timeline. As an audience, we’re left watching Batman work… on something. It could be because this is yet another plot where Joker has Gotham City in his clutches, or it could be because there are no emotional stakes tethered to the people of Gotham.
In the past, Jim Gordon is set up to attack Manny, a crooked cop on the force. This leads to Gordon’s suspension and his removal from the investigation of the Red Hood Gang. Elsewhere, Batman’s former mentor trains Joker.
Over several agonizing pages, Joker learns how to manage his emotions and pain. He gets stronger, made to think similarly to Bruce. The mentor wants Joker to become the ultimate rival to Batman, and it’s so incredibly boring. Almost everything is told through monologue, and just when you think it can’t get any worse — Zur En Arrh is brought into the picture.
Well, not really. The former trainer of Batman teaches Joker about creating backup personalities that can be switched on and off. He demonstrates with one of his own, an entity called Kahr Em Zed. Joker creates three personalities for himself — a clown, a demon, and death. They all live within the same body, harkening back to the Grant Morrison era of Batman comics when Joker would go through a mental transformation every few years and become reborn as a new psychopath.
Apparently, these “three Jokers” leave the mentor awe-struck.
In the future timeline, Batman pretends to be “Jokerized,” so he can wade through an infected Gotham with the real Joker at his side. The two walk to the GCPD in search of something that ties all of those clues together. There, Batman finds Catwoman. Even in her older age, she’s stunning. Her hair is out, much like Selina Kyle’s at the end of Batman Returns, or even moreso, a dead-ringer for Black Cat from Spider-Man.
Selina has covered her eyes, so she avoided the transformation. However, she’s locked up the Bat-Family in a holding cell, as they now all suffer the same infection as everyone else in Gotham. While Batman and Catwoman reunite, Joker unlocks the cell, releasing the infected Bat-Family.
In the past, Joker completes his training. He then kills the mentor, having feigned fear of Batman in order to learn all of the mentor’s secrets and become Batman’s equal.
Still Awake?
Batman #143 is tedious. Most of the issue is devoted to Joker’s “training,” so he can achieve his final form, but like many a comic book SNAFU, this mysterious arch-villain’s origins really aren’t that interesting. Why do we care that Joker has three personalities in his brain? Why do we care that Joker trained under the same mentor that Batman did? Why should we care that Joker, after completing his training, considers himself a “brother” of sorts to Batman? What does any of this even mean?! Also, what happened to those other two, very physically real, Jokers that were created? We never got confirmation that they died.
Barring the confusing mess of timelines, as readers, we’re left in the dark on what the actual goal of any of these timelines is. Sure, some of the future art is trippy and eye-catching, but there’s no real plot motivation or momentum to any of this. It’s tedious monologuing where the most important narrative beats are delivered in text boxes, and any character motivation is almost nonexistent. This mentor’s entire motivation seems to be that Bruce punched him. A punch to the face does not an excuse for creating the Joker make.
The art is equally boring, and the thrill of seeing these dual timelines last issue is entirely gone now. What we get in part two is a slog — a tired, confusing, exhausting trudge to the finish line. This is arguably the worst Batman book I’ve read since the James Robinson Detective Comics 7-issue arc that featured a Batman & Two-Face team-up.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with an advanced copy of this comic for review purposes. You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this issue digitally on Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
