Written by James Tynion IV, (issue #5 by Matthew Rosenberg)
Pencils by Guillem March, (issue #5 by Francesco Francavilla)
Colors by Arif Prianto
Collects: The Joker #1-6
When James Tynion IV revealed he was working on a second Batman title, I was excited to see what it would be; when I found out the comic was Joker, I got nervous. It’s no secret that the Joker has been heavily overused over the past two years, from Stjepan Sejic’s Harleen to Geoff Johns’s Three Jokers to the Joker Movie and Lemire’s Joker: Killer Smile. Even in the last couple of months, we’ve gotten The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox by Mathew Rosenberg, the Joker ongoing, a Joker/Suicide Squad Story, and the Joker showing up in Tom King’s Batman/Catwoman. I wondered when I started reading the book if I would feel the same Joker burnout here as well.
Fortunately, Tyion has a creative solution to the Joker burnout problem. Tynion’s Joker isn’t a traditional Joker story told from the Joker’s point of view, but rather a James Gordon story about his relationship with the Joker — about the trauma and grief that the former Commissioner has endured over the years and the way they make him question his morality. [Read more…] about Infinite Frontier: The Joker Vol. 1 Review!