Knight Terrors: The Joker #2 – Matthew Rosenberg, Writer; Stefano Raffaele, Artist; Romulo Fajardo Jr, Colorist
Ray – 7/10
Ray: What keeps the Joker awake at night? It turns out it’s a world without Batman. Last issue saw Joker in the throes of his nightmare, which saw Batman die almost casually and leave Joker without a purpose. He still had some unfinished business, which led him to take a job at Wayne Enterprises to get access—and found he was surprisingly good at corporate work. Now he works a 9-5 and keeps Batman’s corpse in his wardrobe, occasionally killing an employee who annoys him. When we pick up this issue, he has a wife and kid out of nowhere, both of whom are Jokers as well, and is busy interviewing former Gotham villains for positions. But there’s an unlikely wrinkle in the works this issue, because Batman is gone—but it doesn’t seem like Bruce Wayne is, and he’s part of Joker’s nightmare. This makes sense in context, of course—Joker doesn’t know, and Bruce is just a bit player in his story.
This makes Joker’s portrayal of Bruce a wild card—as he’s very much a parody of himself, a shellfish-grubbing rich man with a butler who looks surprisingly like Insomnia. The main focus of this issue is Joker’s rapidly deteriorating mental state, as he’s started dressing up as Batman and trying to kill criminals. Does this make sense? No, not much of what Joker does here makes sense. That’s partially because this is a nightmare and one without much context, but it’s also because Joker is not a character with a coherent motivation or reliable personality. Rosenberg’s main series even splits the narrative between two different Jokers, and while it does become clear which one we’re following by the end, the character is still a blank slate. He’s a decent lead character when he’s played off against other characters who can take the hero role, but here we’re just inside Joker’s strange mind, and it’s not a very pleasant place.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
