Suidice Squad - Batman Versus The Joker?

With "Suicide Squad" about to make its debut this Friday (August 5th), here's a little hypothetical I've been toying around with.

We all know about the close relationship between Harley and the Joker.  The above image recently released from Jared Leto's Instagram account, shows the early stages of their relationship as the Joker begins his seduction of Dr. Quinzel.

Some information from the movie has leaked out (Spoiler alert) that Batman has a confrontation with Harley and The Joker wherein Batman has to rescue Harley from a certain death.  This separates Harley from The Joker and he none too happy about that.

So here's the hypothetical.  Later on, The Joker briefly confronts Batman and expresses his bitterness over this "separation."

Joker, "You took something from me."

To which Batman responds, "You took something from me too."

Batman fans know what I'm talking about.

In the movie, "Batman v Superman" Bruce Wayne briefly looks up at the empty suit of a fallen Robin.  It stands mute except for the taunts written across it.  It's been confirmed this is the suit of the second Robin, Jason Todd.  In the comics, The Joker has killed Todd in the now famous story, "A Death in the Family."

My hypothetical has The Joker quickly escaping from Batman with both having a score to settle for another day.

Will this happen in the Suicide Squad movie?  I certainly hope so.  It would be a great teaser for the standalone Batman film that will eventually happen.

Here's a brief interview with Leto hoping for a similar confrontation.

Of course, a scene such as this may well steal the movie and the producers probably wouldn't want that.  But it would make a great stinger for the closing credits!

Suicide Squad is nearly upon us.  Let's see what happens!

Oh, and, here's the last TV spot for the movie with our favorite antagonists.

  

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Batman #47

When we last saw the Commissioner Gordon Batman he was in the clutches of Mr. Bloom and dealing with the forced betrayal of his armored sidekick, "Rookie."

So what does the nefarious Bloom do when he has his most formidable opponent at his mercy?

He lets him go!

When your main protagonist and hero finds himself at his lowest point and in an impossible situation you want to see how he could possibly work his way out of his encounter with the Scylla and Charybdis. 

Ah well.  Bloom falls prey to one of the most annoying tropes we find in comics and other media.  He lets his enemy go.

Nice butt shot Jim.

Like any good Caped Crusader, the Gordon Batman manages to go from the frying pan into the fire (see the whirling blades of the helicopter above) but also quickly extricates himself from impending doom.

The price to pay was the destruction of his beloved "Rookie" armor.

In keeping with tried and true comic book tropes our story quickly changes.

 Not that I am complaining.  This B plot actually steers closer to the main theme of the overall arc of Bruce Wayne dealing with his amnesia and the "theft" of his youth.

In his stead, Gordon serves as an able substitute while Bloom preys on the youth of Gotham and threatens any sense of community left in the city.  And I suppose community should be seen as a larger metaphor for family.

The Duke "Robin" seen above also acts as a substitute for the missing Batman but does double duty as a youth in search for his place in a community bereft of its moral compass.  Duke seeks to recapture what is lost while at times not really knowing what he is looking for.

At least in that he has an edge on Bruce Wayne.  Duke and Bruce know what doing the right thing is.  It's Duke that sees the larger picture.  Bruce knows to look out for the youth of Gotham but Duke knows to look out for everyone.

This is where I should use the "and a child will lead them" quote.

And a child shall lead them.

There, I said it.

Duke takes Bruce on his journey of rediscovery by bringing into the depths of Gotham.  Into the depths of darkness.

Duke may be a bit of a neophyte in the crime fighting game but he knows a thing or two about basic psychology.

By bringing Bruce into the darkness he forces Wayne to confront his fears.  In a "fight or flight" moment Bruce has to act instinctively and react to the threat at hand.  Not just the immediacy of the moment but the larger threat deep within.

And what a threat it is.

Bruce is threatened with the enormity of his repressed psyche and the onrushing train transforms into a hideous bat.


Is being the Batman really that hideous?

Well, I suppose it is when it is rooted in the death of his parents and his never ending struggle to avenge them and bring about justice.

I suppose that is weighty enough.


Back to the B plot!  I mean the A plot.

The Gordon Batman has defeated Bloom but like any good infestation, the roots of the weed go a lot further.

And they are beginning to sprout.  

It looks like Bloom is blooming and no amount of weed killer can stop him.  Where is the real Batman???


As the Jethro Tull band would say, "Sitting on a park bench!"

 

Ah, ah, ahhh, not yet Bruce!

There is one piece of the family puzzle left.  You can't fully realize you're Batman until you come face to face with his dark side too.

Look who has joined the party.

We finally see The Joker again and it seems he's spied Bruce before too.

Mr. J looks to be in the dark as much as Bruce is but like moths to the flame they are inextricably drawn together.

So what does this mean?  They complete each other?  In a way yes.  Yin and Yang.  The endless struggle.  Two sides of the same coin.  Yes and yes.

Will they ever stop trying to defeat the other?  It seems not.

But as Snyder seems to be telling us we can't have one without the other and Batman is not complete until he has his Joker.

I'm looking forward to their "reconciliation" in issue #48.

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Batman: Europa

Batman is finally taking that long awaited European vacation and he has brought a friend.  So fun.

"Batman Europa" has been a long gestating project.  By some accounts this project has been in the works for the past ten or eleven years. Fingers have been pointed at the artist Jim Lee but sometimes a talent such as his is hard to corral given the high demand for his work.

So how does it look after such a long wait?  Let's take a look.


The End?

Our story begins with a struggle between the oldest of foes, Batman and his arch nemesis, the Joker.  The reader may think they are locked in mortal combat but as the story plays out, we may actually learn this is but a prequel to the end.  And despite their grievous wounds they are actually trying to help each other out.


A Killer Beginning

Writers Casali and Azzarello have a few flips and twists in store for us not the least of which is the cold opening we were treated to.  The actual beginning is a bit of a flashback where the Dark Knight finds himself locked in a struggle with Killer Croc and the scales of this conflict aren't in Batman's usual favor.

 

Croc isn't necessarily a pushover, but Batman is having a harder time than usual subduing the toothy one.  This is what provides him with his first clue that something isn't right.

Alfred has called Batman back to the Batcave and to his astonishment the Batcomputer has been infected with a virus.  Simultaneously, Alfred deduces the virus on the computer mirrors the ailment that has afflicted Batman and the infection is likely fatal to both.

Casali and Azzarello do a narrative quick step here.  While seeming like a bit of a cheat to hurry the story along it also serves to highlight Lee's artwork and get us to those flips and twists I spoke of earlier.

With Batman under the weather, Alfred's intuition provides a break for the Dark Knight and his inference into the humor involved sets Batman across the globe.  (If you've read the comic not only does Alfred provide much needed detective skills but his reward is to prep the Batwing.  Anything else you need Batman?  Dinner perhaps?)


On To Berlin!

Thanks to the Batcomputer and the ever resourceful Alfred, the virus is traced back to Berlin.  Batman is forced to do some leg work on his own (Yes, that was a mild dig at Batman's over-reliance on Alfred.)

I shouldn't be so tough on Batman here.  This is one of the 'flips" I was referring to earlier.  Casali and Azzarello have Batman at about 75 per cent and it is refreshing to see Alfred provide the much needed brain work and help point Batman in the right direction.  

Alfred isn't a superhero, he's just invaluable.


Enter The Clown Prince

 
Easy on your manservant Caped Crusader, he's gotten you this far.

Batman enters a local night club trailing a lowlife hood.  What he finds is the not so funny aftermath to the Joker's handiwork.
  

We get a brief history lesson on the "duality" of Berlin, how two cities, Collon and Berlin, were forced together into an unlikely alliance that morphed into something no one could predict. 

This serves as a narrative precursor into one of the major twists to the Europa story line but it doesn't exactly explain how Batman ultimately finds out where the Joker is.

Maybe I should ask Alfred. 

No worries, Batman finds the Joker and makes a grand entrance in his own particular idiom.

Batman and the Joker do their usual pas-de-duex.  Trading jibes, trading bullets and trading punches.

Actually, the punches are a little one sided with the Joker taking the recieiving end of many knuckle sandwiches which leads us to this little reveal.

Yes, the Joker has the virus too.

You may not be surprised to learn there is a woman involved.  What is surprising is the Joker got to her first.  (Another flip.)  After getting someone to spill his guts (literally) the Joker got him to spill the beans.  The young and lovely Nina came into a lot of money but when you stand up against Batman and the Joker you'd better come up with the truth.

She confesses she know where the trail leads next and it is Prague. 

Thus gives us our biggest twist of them all.

 

Batman and the Joker working together.


Conclusion

Overall I found the first installment of Europa to be an uneven but intriguing effort.  Having two of comic books most ardent antagonists teaming up isn't the most original idea but placing them out of their regular milieu and having the clock tick down on them is compelling.  

The way the narrative skipped ahead was a bit jarring at times but it can be forgiven given the captivating nature of the artwork by Jim Lee and his team.

I really liked the "Cyber-green" palette Lee and his colorist Alex Sinclair employed.  It made many of the panels a bit antiseptic and digitally cold.  It was also was evocative of the Joker and his hair.  Not to mention the reptilian menace of Killer Croc.

 

I always loved how Jim Lee has drawn Batman.  Here we get a unique look at Batman springing into action.  Arms crossed over the chest instead of the usual spread wing look.

    
Lee and Sinclair employ a watercolor and pastel aesthetic to some of the panels also.  Seen above is a good example.  The eye tends to linger on the panels adding depth to an otherwise thin story line.

Perspective is always appreciated.  Here we have the Bat perched high atop the "Siegessaeule" statue that dominates the Berlin skyline.  (At least we think it is the Siegessaeule.  Some of the details are off, but where else could he be?  Tip of the cowl to uber friend Eileen for her help.)


Part one of four "Berlin" get three out of five "Batwings" as a rating.  On to Prague and perhaps more depth and no doubt some great art.

 

(Another tip of the Cowl to artist "Jerhler" over at Deviantart for the Batwings.  Here's the link.  )

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Batman #43 - Who is Mr. Bloom?

Batman returns in issue #43 and he still doesn't know who he is.

It should be said, the Bruce Wayne Batman doesn't know who he is.  The Jim Gordon one certainly does.

He's the one reaching out to Wayne to outfit his desperate needs with Wayne Tech and help  divine the mystery behind Mr. Bloom and the seeds he sows that give users "terrible abilities."  

Alas,  Bruce Wayne is too busy making goo-goo eyes at the young lovely whom he helps at the local outreach center.

Also making eyes is none other than the Man of of Steel himself visiting from Metropolis and in the company of Alfred the butler.

Before we get to the identity of Mr. Bloom, it's probably worthy to see what is going on with the Dark Knight himself and why he is so clueless to his true nature.

When Batman died in unison with the Joker he came in contact with "Dionesium." This not only allowed Batman to experience his rebirth but rewired his brain to such an extant that he is no longer the man crushed by guilt and forged into the dark avenger eternally in pursuit of justice.

Alfred never got around to telling the reborn Bruce Wayne of his alter ego.  He did fill him in of his tragic past but stopped just short of the evolution into one of the great superheroes of all time.

It seems Alfred sees this as a gift.  A gift that would allow Bruce Wayne to grow into his true self.  Compassionate, loving and charitable. 

Good grief Alfred, what are you thinking?

Acting as the voice of sanity, Superman tells Alfred this cannot stand.  

Acting as the voice of insanity, Alfred threatens Clark with kryptonite.

* Editorial Aside *

Maybe Alfred's niece, Julia should completely take over the duties of the Bat Cave.  Alfred is so consumed with Wayne being the innocent he could have been, he actually threatened the world's greatest hero with his one weakness.

You need to lie down Alfred.

Well, all is not lost.  Batman was working on an invention insuring there will always be a Batman so there is our narrative "out" for this mess.

But seriously Alfred, threatening Superman with kryptonite?  If I were the Man of Steel I'd just fly in sometime, grab Wayne and plug him into the machine so we can have the old Bats back.

* End Editorial Aside *

Alfred underestimates the seriousness of Mr. Bloom and his seeds.  As the Gordon Batman struggles with this new threat our Mr. Bloom meets with the Penguin.

Naturally, if there is a new drug on the streets of Gotham the Penguin wants a piece of the action.

Ha, well, not just a piece, the whole thing.  The Penguin has one of his hoods "off" Mr. Bloom and thereby sets something into motion not one of us saw coming.

Quite the metamorphisis I'd say.

So, who is Mr. Bloom?

Well, if Wayne can undergo a metamorphisis of his own on a neurological basis  why can't the Joker, with whom Batman met his demise, undergo a change of his own except on a biological one?

Yes, I'm saying Mr. Bloom is the Joker.

Bloom is conveniently wearing a mask so as not to spoil his true identity.  I'm sure the writer, Scott Snyder, didn't want to divulge all the goodies in one issue.

Bloom is also a lanky sort much like the Joker (check out the pose on our topmost picture.) and his machination of sowing discord in Gotham with his seeds is something the Joker would claim second nature to.  

Outwitting the Penguin is something the Joker would find quite easy.

Would the Joker know getting shot would allow him to evolve into that gangly monster we see in the last frame?  Eh, maybe not, but he may not know he is the Joker either.

This organic being may realize on a seperate level his true nature by evolving into something new.  With the Joker as his biological forebear perhaps the sentience would be enough to make that subconscious determination.

So, as we close, if you look in the corner of this last picture Snyder asks sthe question, "Who is Mr. Bloom?"

Think he'll tell us?

I don't.  I think he'll drag it along a little further.  God knows the Joker loves to make a grand entrance.  What grander one than when Batman regains all his memory and capabilities.

That should be a few issues from now.  Five maybe?

See you then.

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The Joker as Monster

Spoilers for Batman #39

It's been a while since I've written here so I thought I might return with a little commentary from Batman #39.  Specifically the efforts put forth by Greg Capullo and Scott Snyder.

Capullo's latest visual take on The Joker is in a word, "monstrous."  Don't get me wrong I like it and this new iteration of the returned The Joker is ably abetted by Scot Snyder's writing.

This Joker is not just an evil genius, he is a clear cut psychopath with a homicidal bent. 

This is different you're saying?

I guess it is because of the way Capullo is drawing him.  There is a bit more musculature to the Clown Prince of Crime and gone is the overly narrow skull with the extra long shock of green hair.

This Joker looks ready for the movies.

(Word is, Jared Leto who will portray The Joker in the "Suicide Six" movie out in 2016 is also packing on the muscle.)

Here is the typical artistic take on The Joker.  A lot more wild green hair.  The omnipresent purple suit.  The overwrought maniacal look on his face.  But most of all, the narrowness of the head especially as it leads towards the jawline.

Capullo's widening of the skull adds a certain aspect to The Joker that I think my subconscious translated into this...

Capullo's Joker has that "put together" look much like Frankenstein's monster.   In fact, it wasn't long ago that The Joker in the comics was reattaching his own face.

The parallels to the Capullo/Snyder Joker and the Frankenstein monster go further in that. 

The Monster was a creation of Victor Frankenstein and it has often been noted in the pages of comics and on the silver screen, The Joker claims to be a creation of Batman.

"You made me."

In Shelly's book, Victor and the Monster grappled to the ends of the earth.  In the comics, Batman and The Joker are fated to do battle in perpetuity.

A Monstrous Act.

I haven't this shocked by a panel since the big reveal in the Batman "Flashpoint" series.  Which, not surprisingly, also dealt with The Joker.

In Batman issue 39, The Joker gains access to the Batcave.  He is confronted by the heroic Alfred and for his trouble he is left without his right hand.

Monstrous indeed!

Alfred is pretty much an untouchable character.  He has taken his lumps time and again but nothing like this.  Will "Comic book rules" be invoked and the loss of limb be "ret-conned?"  The Convergence series is coming to DC comics.  Will the rewriting of time and space in the DC universe fix Alfred's lost hand?

I for one want to see Batman's reaction to this.  Will he react in kind, an "eye for an eye?"

Hopefully, we'll get a chance to see this.  Convergence looks like a major re-write and if it is, The Joker may become reacquainted with whatever limb Batman feels to lop off beforehand.

(No pun intended.)

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Gotham - Harvey Dent

Two Face. Two Faced. Two Faces.

I was going to approach this blog post from the perspective of Gotham's characters having two faces or more accurately being two faced.

However, not everyone was "two faced" in other words, disingenuous.  Some remained true to themselves and who they are as characters on this show.

Take Bruce for example.  (Seen here channeling Aquaman.)  He remained true to himself by continuing his dogged (batty?) pursuit for challenging himself.   Selina thought he was absolutely nuts.  She called him out on his privileged background and warned him that no one fights with gloves on in the street.  (Note to Selina, Batman wears gloves.) 

For her part, Selina revealed a side of herself that she takes great pains to hide.   Her capacity for being surprised.  When she found out she was going to Wayne Manor she was stunned.  So much for the street smarts.  She's already been to Wayne Manor and she's been a keen observer of Bruce.  But to go there and hang out.  That shocked her.

That doesn't make her "two faced."  It just revealed a side of herself that she wasn't too familiar with.  She's vulnerable.

 

It was that vulnerability that led her to chastise Bruce by the pool.  She didn't like to see it in herself and it bothered her to see it in Bruce.  It was a seminal moment for the future Batman.  Selina was harsh but she felt Bruce needed to know you can't survive on the street without displaying a little anger and supplement it with a dash of ruthlessness.

Who'd a thunk that it took a meeting between two twelve year olds that would form the persona of a future superhero.  It also laid the cornerstone between the offtimes adversaries and lovers.

 

Also not two faced.

 

The Penguin.  Still a schemer, still a rat.  

Oswald played true to form by leveraging an alliance with Liza.  Okay, he blackmails her but that's still true to form for him.

Let's get to the real two face, Harvey Dent.

What the heck was this?

So that's the way "Gotham" wants to play it.  Harvey is already a little nuts just beneath the surface. 

We're used to seeing the early Harvey as straight laced and driven.  Yes, he's always had his own "dogged pursuit" of justice but I don't think we've ever seen him as a lunatic waiting to be unleashed.  The Harvey we know was turned because he suffered a traumatic event.   This guy is halfway there.  Oh, I get it, halfway. 

That's fine.  "Gotham" did say they were going to experiment a little with the characters.  We'll see how this goes.

That wide eyed look of his reminded me a little of the Joker.  A little too close perhaps.

Speaking of the Clown Prince of Crime, I think we got a couple of tangential references  to the Joker.

Remember when the Joker set a pile of cash afire during The Dark Knight?  (GIF courtesy of theonewithjb.com.)  We saw something similiar in this episode.

I thought of it right away.  One can't be a Batman fan and see burning cash and not think of the Joker.

Any other Joker clues?

Sure.  There was the "Smile" graffiti on the cityscape that quickly panned by our sleepy eyes.  (Well, I was a little sleepy.)  The Joker is known for his infamous smile.  Something that was featured in the Tim Burton Batman movie.  Who could forget "Smylex" and "Love that Joker!"

Smile!

Let's get back to our two face theme.

How about these two faces?

Barbara Kean sure is weak isn't she?  At least Renee Montoya is honest with herself and what she wants.  I suppose this opens the door for more relationships for Jim Gordon.

Sarah Essen is waiting in the wings and perhaps Dr. Leslie Thompkins when she appears later on in the season.  But where do they go with Barbara from here?  Do we really need her aside from being some plot device?  "Gotham" may have painted themselves in a corner with this character.

Selina was trying to intimidate Bruce during the episode when she was teasing him with a kiss.  She was trying to throw him off guard a little and retain the high ground.  But if we look at the future couple pictured above I guess they end up a little two faced after all.

Notice the masks or rather two faces.  

Bruce and Selina don't cavort too much publicly in the future.  But throw on the masks and their true selves come out.

Maybe being two faced isn't so bad after all.

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