The Joker #1-10

The Joker #1-10

Originally released in 1975

Written by Dennis O'Neil (#1-3, 6), Elliot S! Maggin (#4, 7-9), Martin Pasko (#5, 10)

Art by Irv Novick (#1-2, 5-10), Ernie Chan (#3), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (#4)

The Joker got his own solo series back in the 70s, though it only lasted nine issues before being cancelled. (The tenth issue was finished, though it wasn't released in the original run, only coming out in 2019) It had a good range of stories, covering the Joker's squabbles with other villains, various crimes that he committed in Gotham, and his attempts at branching out to other cities.

The first issue has a would-be criminal mastermind breaking Two Face out of Arkham, taking time to mock the Joker as he does so.  This is not a good idea in general, and the Joker breaks out of Arkham almost immediately in order to prove that Two Face is second-rate compared to the Clown Prince of Crime.

For the first couple of issues, you could really tell that they were limited in terms of what they could do by the Comics Code Authority - much like with the Secret Society of Super Villains, the Joker's issues rarely if ever ended with any villain getting a clear win, whether it was the Joker, his partners, or any villains that he came into conflict with.

Still, this series gives readers a good variety of villains for the Joker to bounce off of - there's Two Face, Scarecrow, Catwoman, and Lex Luthor, with each one getting focus for an issue. Lex is the highlight, written by long-time Luthor fan Elliot S! Maggin. While Lex is plotting an elaborate scheme to steal the willpower of Green Lantern, the Joker butts in, causing their personalities to switch - Lex becomes insane and impulsive, while the Joker becomes super-intelligent and rational.

Joker quickly realizes that the process needs to be reversed within 24 hours or else it will kill them both. However, a madman carrying around the technology that Lex Luthor normally has on his person is hard to track down, let alone catch.  It makes for a fun read, and I could almost hear the voices of Mark Hamill and Clancy Brown as I read the interactions between the Joker and Lex Luthor.

As well, there's an entertaining issue where the Joker hits an actor playing Sherlock Holmes on the head in the middle of a theft.  The actor awakens, believing himself to actually be Sherlock Holmes and believing the Joker to be Moriarty.  This leads to some utterly ridiculous stretches of logic as the Joker bases his crimes around Sherlock Holmes as part of his desire to humiliate all detectives, real or fictional, and the would-be Sherlock Holmes trying to stop him.

Strangely enough, outside of a few cameos, Batman is completely absent from this book.  The closest that there is to a recurring hero that the Joker faces is Green Arrow, who gets focus in issues 4 and 10.  It's a shame; I would have liked to see a clash between Batman and the Joker from the Joker's perspective.

In issue 4, the Joker falls in love with Dinah Lance when he sees her. (He stole a bus, drove it to Star City, and saw Dinah in her civilian identity as a florist) It's funny to look at that plot point from a modern perspective - depending on what point she's at in her life, I feel like Harley Quinn would be homicidally jealous or she'd also find Dinah attractive.

It's a shame that issue 10 wasn't released, because it was wild.  The Joker is scheduled to be lobotomized, but thinking back to the story of Doctor Faustus, the Joker dramatically vows to sell his soul if it meant that he got the chance to kill the Justice League, with a particular emphasis on Batman.  In a bizarre move, the Devil himself appears in the Joker's padded cell.

Also, the Devil looks like Elton John.  The Joker manages to escape, and by all appearances, he actually manages to kill the Justice League... almost.  Their life signs are all gone, but they have some brain activity, so they're 99% dead.  The story ends with the Joker saying that his kidnapping of the Justice League involved his own father.  With the series being cancelled, these plot points were left unresolved, though it seems safe to say that the Justice League weren't actually killed and the Joker wasn't lobotomized.

Reading this series made me want to read more villain-focused series for that flip in perspective.  I know that Lex Luthor has a short story or mini-series that focuses on him, with Superman only making a brief appearance and saying a single meaningful line.  Likewise, I know there's a series focusing on the Rogues (most of the Flash's rogues gallery, with the key exceptions of Gorilla Grodd and Reverse Flash) as they go on one last heist - in Gorilla City.  I'm not sure of the quality of most villain-focused series out there, and it seems very easy to dip into unnecessarily dark/edgy territory, but I'm willing to take that risk.