The question, apparently trivial, has an apparently trivial answer: there is no real Joker. In general, that could be said for all imaginary characters, at least for the most famous ones. There are countless versions of Batman, of Superman, of Sherlock Holmes or Count Dracula. Nevertheless, Joker’s case remains emblematic. More than many other imaginary characters, this villain escapes from a precise definition, a stable identity. Joker’s fluid identity is helped by the absence of a ›definitive‹ origin story. Even when an author tells us something about Joker’s past, it is never ›sure‹, established: it could be a lie, or something that Joker himself has imagined.

In Three Jokers, Geoff Johns plays with Joker’s many identities and versions. He assumes that all versions of the clown coexist and that all of them are, actually, ›real‹: each Joker is a different person who coexists with the other ones. Something similar was proposed by Grant Morrison, who theorized a Joker able to reinvent himself and his personality every time he reappears (see Morrison’s Arkham Asylum or The Clown at Midnight). Johns goes even further: his idea is that the Jokers we know are not different versions of the same character, nor different personalities of the same person, but entirely separate individuals who coexist, each of whom is THE Joker in his own way. The question ›who is the real Joker?‹ becomes crucial for Johns’ narrative.

Johns does not bring into play all Jokers, but he chooses the most iconic ones, at least in the character’s comics history. Joker n° 1 reflects the very first version of the character, created by Jerry Robinson, Bill Finger and Bob Kane. He is called The Criminal, and he is lucid, focused, and, unlike other versions, not interested in theatrics. He hardly laughs – in fact laughing is a source of physical pain for him. The Criminal is the most ›serious‹ Joker, who mirrors not only Robinsons’ and Finger’s Joker but also Azzarello’s and Bermejo’s version, the one that is »not crazy anymore… just mad« (Azzarello/Bermejo).

Behind door number 2… there is The Clown. The Clown is an absurd and campy Joker, who laughs coarsely and with his mouth completely open almost in each panel. He is the Joker who kills Jason Todd by smashing his head with a crowbar in A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo. The third and final Joker is The Comedian, imported from Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke. He is not only the latest versions of the character but also probably one of the best-known Jokers today: the crazy, sadistic, psychopathic killer clown. His laugh is perpetual, yet not coarse but rather sarcastic, a slightly open jaw ready to maul. This Joker’s laugher is terrifying.

During the story, inevitably, there are numerous visual and narrative quotes, references, and tributes to Joker’s history and three emblematic ›main‹ Jokers. The Clown (Joker n° 2) reminds us not only of A Death in the Family but also of the campiest Jokers. These include Steve Englehart’s 1978 Joker and his ›laughing fishes‹ in Detective Comics #475 and Episode 46 of Batman: The Animated Series: in these stories Joker uses his toxin on the fishes of Gotham City's harbors, causing all of them to mutate into ›Joker fish‹ with deformed smiles). In Three Jokers, Batman faces – literally – a smiling shark, just before a brief fight against Gaggy, Joker’s first sidekick, created by John Broome and Sheldon Moldoff in 1966 (Batman #186). The references to The Criminal are less numerous and mainly visual, like his posture and his clothes. However, even the Jokers’ overall plan – creating a new a better Joker – is a tribute to one of the first appearance of the character: in Batman Vol 1 #55, 1949, written by Bill Finger and drawn by Dick Sprang, he tries to replicate himself by hiring 48 thugs who must commit crimes impersonating him.

The ›real‹ main character is undoubtedly The Comedian. Alan Moore is omnipresent in the entire graphic novel, both in visual style and content. Already with Doomsday Clock, a story arc directly linked to Moore’s masterpiece Watchmen, Geoff Johns attached himself to Alan Moore’s legacy. In Three Jokers, Johns' tribute to Moore is almost overwhelmingly explicit; even if Alan Moore would probably not appreciate DC appropriation of his work, Geoff Johns seems to intend an honest homage to him. This attempt is already visible in the 3X3 panel structure typical of Watchmen, or in the ›cinematic‹ camera angles which explicitly recall Gibbons’ style. Even an utterly red panel can be a quote of Moore’s Watchmen. It reminds us specifically of another Comedian: not Joker, but one of the main characters of Watchmen. At his funeral, the masked vigilante Rorschach tells the well-known ›Clown Pagliacci‹ joke. Are these proliferating jokers happenstance? »There is no coincidence, only the illusion of coincidence« (Moore(Lloyd), another creation of Moore would say. Johns has also included countless references to The Killing Joke: trying to list them all would not do justice to Fabok and Johns, who demonstrate their intimate knowledge of the material from which they took inspiration. Already in the first three panels, where Fabok plays with light, rains and darkness, we have the impression of reading just the next page after The Killing Joke’s end, where Brian Bolland did the same thing. In addition to these stylistic echoes, the story itself – and the ending – is directly linked to The Killing Joke. With the absolute dominance of Moore’s Joker over the other two, Johns makes a statement: The Comedian, Moore’s Joker, completely replaced the old ones. It is not important who is the ›real‹ Joker because the Joker of The Killing Joke imposes himself over the other versions and makes them ›obsolete‹. He is THE Joker, at least the Joker of our time. The question we should ask ourselves, then, is not ›who is the real Joker?‹ but rather ›why is the psychopathic, evil, chaotic Comedian our Joker?‹

There is no lack of twists and turns, for the casual reader as well as for the most dedicated fan who can enjoy searching for all the references. Something significant changes in Batman and Joker’s history, yet it is not clear if Three Jokers will be part of the continuity or if it is instead a standalone work. What is certain is that Three Jokers may be among the best stories of the character, not because of what is new in it, but rather because it is a clear and lucid reflection on Joker’s history. The most accomplished aspect of Three Jokers is its confrontation with the past.

Scars

Three Jokers is a journey down memory lane, but not only for the readers: the heroes, Batman, Batgirl and Red Hood (Jason Todd), are also forced to face their memories, to confront ›their‹ Jokers. Like the reader, they have also experienced the different Jokers, who have caused them traumas so strong that they remain as part of the DC universe’s narrative continuity. Their scars, physical and emotional, highlight their struggle. A scar, the scar, opens the story: Bruce Wayne’s is the deepest wound, the one not yet completely healed, the one that has led to the creation of Batman.

At first, we see Thomas and Martha Wayne’s grave, against which the Batmobile crashes. We proceed in silence inside the Cave, where Alfred consoles Bruce and starts to sew up his fresh wounds. Fabok then shows us a foreground of Bruce’s scars, each bound to a memory. His broken back, courtesy of Bane. A cut from Penguin’s umbrella. Three long scratch on the chest – Catwoman. A bite from Killer Croc. And then the scars inflicted by the Joker with acid, sharp playing cards, pistols, knives. Each memory takes Batman back until he revives that first, deep wound again. Monarch Theatre. The Mark of Zorro. That dark alley and the man with the gun: Joe Chill. Two gunshots and the pearls which fall on the ground. Everything one more time. »This wound is deeper than the others.« It is difficult to say how many different versions of Martha and Thomas Wayne murder we have seen, yet we could argue that every Batman story should start there. The whole of Batman’s mythology is based on that psychological scar. Johns’ version of Batman’s origin is not superfluous but necessary. One of the hidden questions of the story is, in fact, not about the Joker but rather about Bruce: can he heal?

Batgirl was able to heal. Barbara Gordon was heavily traumatised physically and psychologically, but unlike Batman her story is not focused on the trauma but rather on the healing process. Just below her navel we see her scar, inflicted by a gunshot which has damaged her spine, leaving her paralyzed. The scar’s foreground is directly linked to The Killing Joke’s flashback in which the Joker – The Comedian in a Hawaiian shirt – shot and abused her. In Johns’ version, Barbara can walk again: she is not ›Oracle‹ anymore, but Batgirl. However, the trauma – the scar – remains. Still, we see how Barbara was able to face it – and how she faces it every day. She succeeds in using her pain to create her new identity, to walk again both literally and figuratively. From this point of view, Johns’ work partially ›redeems‹ the infamous Killing Joke version of Barbara by proposing the opposite: not just a ›woman in refrigerator‹, as Gail Simone would call her, but a real superheroine who refuses to be reduced to a victim. Batgirl is probably the toughest character in Three Jokers, the only one who has successfully overcome her trauma.

Red Hood, on the contrary, did not overcome his trauma. While Barbara shows us a successful recovery, Jason Todd’s scar seems too deep to be healed. He gives us an example of how trauma can change us into something brutal. His scar is on his head, just behind his right ear. In Batman #427, the Joker killed him by smashing his head with a crowbar. Jason’s trauma is so deep that it forces him to abandon Robin’s identity and create a new, more brutal one: Red Hood. Unlike Barbara, Jason’s wound is not healed yet: on the contrary, he forces himself to revive his trauma repeatedly every time he puts on Red Hood’s mask, a perverse reference to – or joke about –Joker’s former identity. Why has Jason assumed his torturer’s former persona? This question will accompany him throughout the whole story. Johns does not treat Jason kindly: he even forces him to relive the exact same traumatic experience. What is central in the Jason storyline is the danger that the victim, without help, could become the perpetrator. That is one of the reasons why Jason assumes the ›Red Hood‹ identity and why he starts to kill his enemies. Even the Jokers see the possibility of Jason becoming a new Joker. This point is central in the superhero narrative: every superhero must face trauma and, if the trauma remains unaddressed, every superhero could turn into a monster themselves.

Three Jokers is a story of scars, of wounds – and maybe, just for this reason, it is a good story, because it shows us a fundamental aspect of who Batman is and who the superheroes are: wounded individuals, forced to face trauma and to deal with it, to create a new identity, a new sense of the world. The hero’s mask is born from trauma, a pain written directly on their bodies, on their skins, which defines and transforms them. The confrontation with the past and specifically with trauma is what Three Jokers is really about. Johns risks losing himself among the many references and tributes, but he still manages to propose a slight but vital evolution of Batman by giving Bruce the chance to heal.

A story of scars and wounds – but also a story of healing. Three Jokers shows us how even the deepest wounds can heal. Or at least that it is possible to go on, to walk again – maybe even to forgive. It is possible to be reborn.

Bibliography

• Azzarello, Brian (W), Lee Bermejo (A): Joker. Burbank: DC Comics, 2008.
• Cocca, Carolyn: Superwomen. Gender, Power and Representation. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.
• Gianola, Gabriel, and Janine Coleman: »The Gwenaissance. Gwen Stacy and the Progression of Women in Comics.« In: Gender and the Superhero Narrative. Ed. Michael Goodrum, Tara Prescott, and Philip Smith Philip. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2018, p. 251-284.
• Moore, Alan (W) and Lloyd David (A): V for Vendetta. New York: Vertigo/DC Comics, 2005.

 

Batman
Three Jokers
Johns Geoff (W), Fabok Jason (A)
Burbank: DC Comics, 2020
160 S., 24,99 Euro
ISBN  ‎ 978-1779500236