Originally published on Patreon
I've not listened to any of the podcast that this new series ties into, and this is my first exposure to this interpretation of the character and his world; and found it to be an interesting, if mixed bag, of a first issue.
The story begins with Harleen Quinzel having been kidnapped by the Joker, though not after being his psychologist this time; rather, just an innocent bystander that he took prisoner on her first day in the city. Thrown into a vat of chemicals, the mixture alters her brain chemistry to make her fall in love with the thing she hates most (the Joker), and she gets dumped out of a sewer pipe.
Straight away, I don't really like this version of this character origin. Harley has always been a character that has different degrees of agency depending on who's writing her; and her love of the Joker has been something that has shaped her character in a lot of different ways. But to have that be something chemically induced, brought on against her will, feels even more gross than usual. Not only is she in a one-sided, abusive relationship, but she's drugged into it. It feels very date-rapeish for me.
After this, we get to meet Killer Croc, who gets given a pile of old toys as payment for some crimes, but when the Joker chemicals end up splashing him he falls in love with his new loot. This comes back a bit at the end of the issue, but doesn't really add much to the story and feels a bit like weird padding so far.
The rest of the issue deals with Batman looking into a killing involving a scimitar, which leads us to the King o Scimitars, a low level thug who bought the title, costume, and gear from a former Batman villain like buying a franchise. Sadly, a group of killers are after something the real King of Scimitars owned, and it gets him in their sights.
So I'm not entirely sure who this comic is really for. Having not heard the audio drama I don't know what the target audience is supposed to be, and this comic seems to hang between being for a more adult audience and being aimed at kids. Some of the story beats feel pretty childish and made just to be silly and weird.
The art style kind of sits in this odd middle-ground too, with this almost Darwin Cooke style retro look that could be an animated kids show, or something that's a throwback to the 30's and 40's. It's not bad, and there are some moments where the designs look a bit weird, but if it's being done for a younger audience it works quite well.
There are some okay moments in this issue, such as Batman comparing him suddenly vanishing to being like the Panopticon, and the idea that he could always be watching is kind of cool; but overall it feel like fairly standard kids comic fare.
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