Joker: Last Laugh #2

TITLE: Joker: Last Laugh #2

PUBLISHER: DC

COVER DATE: December 2001

COVER PRICE: $2.95

30 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

As I said yesterday, this mini-series is a virtual blank slate to me, even though I bought the first issue when it came out. I never bought the rest of the series, so I'm not even sure if I ever read the one that I did buy.

In the interest of giving you something to read before we get into the blow-by-blow of the issue, I looked this series up on comicbookdb.com and found a decent sized list of creators involved that now has me slightly intrigued.

The first issue of this series was pencilled by Pete Woods. Here's a guy who didn't really knock my socks off when he was pencilling the Up, Up and Away storyline in the Superman books for the One Year Later stunt. It wasn't until the end of the eight part storyline did I appreciate his style, and now I find myself looking forward to him sticking around the Superman stable of books for as long as he wants to.

Rick Burchett pencilled the last issue of this series. In contrast to Pete Woods, Rick is a creator I've been following since his work on the Impact line of books from the 90's. He's got a great clean and simple line style that made him a perfect fit for the Batman Adventures books, but I'll take his regular DCU work whenever I can get it.

And then of course, there's Marcos Martin, who pencils this issue. I'm seriously tempted to seek out the rest of this series, so let's find out if it's any good.

Joker: Last Laugh Part Two: Siege Mentality

• Writers: Chuck Dixon & Scott Beatty
• Pencils: Marcos Martin
• Inks: Mark Farmer & Alvaro Lopez
• Colors: Tom McCraw
• Separations: Digital Chameleon
• Letters: Willie Schubert
• Assistant Editor: Nachie Castro
• Editor: Matt Idelson

Oracle sits in her computer bunker, going over footage of the Joker leading a riot at The Slab. She's on the line with Nightwing as they review the last few moments of security camera footage she had before Joker cut the feed. It shows Black Canary getting pummeled by a variety of Joker-ized villains. Oracle beats herself up over the fact that she took her eye off of the Joker, but Nightwing assures her that it's not her fault as he heads to the Slab to try to stop him.

The Joker meanwhile, is stirring the pot, so to speak, as he casts a trio of fellow supervillains into the body of Chemo. It's not entirely clear what he's up to yet, but I imagine we'll find out soon enough.

We cut to the head of security for the Slab, Norman Shilo (a.k.a. Mister Miracle III), who is trapped in the lower bowels of the prison with a S.T.A.R. Marshall that we've actually encountered previously here at the Random Longbox. They're on their way to block off an undersea tunnel to prevent any villains escaping when they get ambushed by a group of water-themed villains.

On a different level of the prison, Nightwing finally makes his way inside and it's not too long before he comes across the bodies of the Justice League, defeated and strewn across the floor. A semi-conscious Wonder Woman warns Nightwing to be careful, but it's too late as Bat-Mite (yes, Bat-Mite!) emerges from the shadows and begins to fight with him.

Luckily for Nightwing, Batman is soon on the scene and he recognizes the situation for what it was. Lady Mastermind was messing with Nightwing's head and creating the illusion of the Justice League and Bat-Mite. One quick sucker-punch later and she's out for the count.

Together, they find the near comatose body of Black Canary as they come to the realization that the Joker has already escaped and this has all been one big distraction. For what, they don't know yet.

As the Joker exits the undersea tunnel that Shilo attempted to seal off earlier, he gives the signal to a couple of super-villains still left behind to start the destruction of the prison. Neutron and Black Mass both detonate, which causes a localized black hole that begins to suck the prison in on itself from the inside.

Batman and Nightwing make it to the roof of the prison just in time to use their grappling hooks to snare Blue Beetle's floating bug ship and pull themselves to safety.

It's just a moment's respite, however, as they still have the ever widening gravity well of the black hole to consider. It's not too long before the entire prison is sucked in, leaving a gaping, sucking hole in the ocean.

Black Canary begins to regain consciousness, and clues Batman into the fact that the Joker is more dangerous than ever before. He's dying of an inoperable tumor, so all bet's are off.

The unpredictable just got more unpredictable.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN

I think we learned that I obviously didn't give this series a fair shake back in 2001, as I really enjoyed this issue. It's not high art, nor does it attempt to reinvent the comic book format. What it does do, however, it does really well...and that's tell an entertaining super-hero yarn. At the end of the day, you can usually rely on Chuck Dixon for that much, especially when he's playing in the Batman books.

The story is pretty basic, as it's just a supervillain starting a riot and escaping form prison who ends up playing a cat and mouse game with Batman and friends. What makes this book entertaining is the little twist that Dixon and Beatty give to the Joker. His impending death gives an extra edge of unpredictability to his insanity that is going to be fun to see Batman deal with.

The real highlight of this book is the fantastic artwork of Marcos Martin. He's not inking himself here, and there are actually two different inkers on this issue, so the issue does look a little overworked in spots. It's missing the airy and simplicity of his later work that I'm used to, but don't get me wrong, this is still a beautiful issue.

One of the inkers is Mark Farmer, who meshes really well with Martin's pencils. He definitely softens up the linework a little, and there was actually a couple of times I thought I was looking at Alan Davis' work.

The fact that this issue is thirty pages means that we have a lot of good stuff to look at. More good stuff than I was able to work into the recap, as a matter of fact. Seeing as how Martin was the star of this issue, let's take another look at some cool panels that I couldn't work into my review earlier.

See? There was just too much good stuff there to let it go to waste.

It's issues like this that make doing this blog so much fun. I can pretty much tell you that I probably never would've gotten around to reading this issue if it wasn't randomly picked for me. If I can come across an unexpected surprise like this one every now and again, I'll be a happy blogger.

All characters and artwork reproduced are (c) DC Comics

Related links for your surfing pleasure...

• Hopefully something will be here one of these days
• The Dixonverse
• Awesome interview with Marcos Martin from The Beat

Comic Book Review: Ruse #15

TITLE: Ruse #15

PUBLISHER: CrossGen

COVER DATE: January 2003

COVER PRICE: $2.95

22 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...


I remember really liking Ruse when it came out, as it truly was a one-of-a-kind book in it's day. It was a Sherlock Holmes mystery/adventure title set in a world very much like Victorian England, just weirder and more fanciful. A perfect example of which are the Gargoyles that abound in the city of Partington, only in this reality they are more than just statues.

Simon Archard was the detective that the book nominally revolved around, but we see and experience everything through the eyes of his assistant Emma Bishop.

Mark Waid was in fine form on this book, and it showed in the pages what a good time he was having. Between this title and Sojourn, I was tempted to try other CrossGen books as well. Their hook was the overarching mythology of the "sigil". I couldn't tell you now what the sigil ever meant, or if it ever got explained before the company folded. A big deal was made when George Perez singed an exclusive with the company and I remember trying to read a couple issues of his title, Solus, which was supposed to begin to explain the mythology. Let's just say I hope the Randomizer never picks that story to review, as it left me more confused after reading it than I thought I ever was before.

Anyway, Ruse was a great little title that gave the whole sigil nonsense a very wide berth. I seem to remember Emma Bishop, who is the sigil bearer in this title, using it's power only once.

The original artist was Butch Guice, and I was a fan of his from back when he was going by the name Jackson Guice on the Superman titles in the early 90's. I ended up following him from there to Marvel, and them back to DC, and finally to CrossGen. I'm getting too sidetracked though, as he doesn't pencil this particular issue, but he's a big reason that I started reading the title in the first place.

That's about all that I remember, so let's get on with it already...

no title given

• Writer: Scott Beatty
• Guest Penciller: Paul Ryan
• Guest Inker: Pablo Marcos
• Guest Colorist: Val Staples
• Guest Letterer: Oscar Gongora

We start out with something that always makes me happy. It's a recap page, but it's done in a way that adds to the overall flavor of the book. What we have is a page of The Penny Arcadian reproduced. The Penny Arcadian was the newspaper of the town of Partington, which is the city that Archard and Bishop are based out of.

What we get is a recap of their last mystery/adventure, written as a news article of the day. It's a great way to bring you up to speed, without distracting from the book itself. In this particular incidence, we find out that they are returning to Partington after breaking up a pirate ring in a nearby shipping port.

The town of Partington is still devastated from Archard's battle with his former partner, Lightbourne. Simon is none too pleased when he returns to his house to find his books did not survive the destruction of his mansion, and the reconstruction is not up to his standards.

There's a lot of gamesmanship over the next couple of pages between Archard's servant-staff and Emma Bishop, of which there appears to be no love lost.

Archard has his own troubles, however, as a group of wealthy and influential townspeople have camped out and are demanding an audience with the detective. They are left unsatisfied when it is revealed that Archard and Bishop have left again to track down a lead on Miranda Cross, who Simon deduces was the real mastermind behind the previous harbor attacks.

It's off to the airfield for a quick zeppelin ride, as Simon doesn't trust the sea ports after their last case. It only takes a few panels, however, to reveal a saboteur on the ship who has irreversibly damaged the gas lines. So we're off to the top of the ship to evacuate.

I don't know about you, but one look at these "lifeboats" and I think I'd take my chances on the zeppelin.

Naturally, everyone but Emma and Simon make it off the ship before the saboteur makes a play for one of the last two floating chairs. In all the chaos the tethers come loose, and the he falls to his death with a last ditch lunge for safety.

Emma fears that she is going to have to use her sigil power to save them when Simon makes a rather bold request. In order to get off the airship, he must have her dress! We're left with the cliffhange of Emma having to choose between her modesty, or her hidden powers. Decisions, decisions...

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

Not too much, unfortunately. Most of this issue is a bridge that sets up the next major case without getting too far involved into the new one yet. Scott Beatty whips up a quickly paced tale, but almost counter intuitively packs it with a lot of dialogue. At no point was I at a loss for something to read, or unaware of what was going on. Overwritten? I don't think so. I took it more as a flowery nod to the baroque style of the times it is set in.

If anything, reading this tale that happens so close after the destruction of Partington makes me want to go back and read the first 12 issues again. I instantly got back into the swing of this title, and am a little saddened that it had a premature end.

Paul Ryan does a very good job with the pencils, capturing the look of the characters and town without directly aping Guice's style. The production value of CrossGen comics always made the art stand out a little bit better than the competition.

At the very least, CrossGen knew how to make their books look good. As a testament to that fact, look how many of their artists went on to do huge things over at Marvel.

• Steve McNiven on Civil War and Wolverine
• Steve Epting on Captain America
• Aaron Lopresti on Planet Hulk
• Greg Land on whatever it is he's tracing these days
• Paul Pelletier on War of the Kings
• Jim Cheung on Young Avengers

I'm sure there are more, but that's all I can remember without resorting to wikipedia.

All in all, CrossGen had some really good titles that I still wish were around. Alas, they proved no match for backroom office politics and mismanagement within the publishing company. It's too bad that no titles were ever able to escape the black hole of the company's demise to set up shop at a different publisher. I thought I had heard that Disney bought the rights at one time, but as far as I know nothing ever happened as a result.

Related links for your surfing pleasure

• Scott Beatty's official website
• Paul Ryan's official website