Emperor Joker

Emperor Joker

Superman #160-161, Adventures of Superman #582-583, Superman: The Man of Steel #104-105, Action Comics #769-770, Emperor Joker #1

Originally released in 2000

Written by Jeph Loeb (Superman and Emperor Joker), J.M. DeMatteis (Adventures), Mark Schultz (Man of Steel), Joe Kelly (Action Comics and Emperor Joker)

Art by Ed McGuinness (Superman), Mike S. Miller (Adventures), Doug Mahnke (Man of Steel), Kano (Action Comics), et al.

Every night in Metropolis goes the same way: Superman breaks out of Arkham Asylum, where the sane and rational are kept under lock and key by Warden Grundy, only to be dragged back there by the world's greatest hero, Bizarro.  Bald industrialist Lois Lane rules over Metropolis with an iron fist.  A short man wearing a purple suit and bowler hat gets crushed in various comedic ways.  Then a loud piercing scream rings throughout the city.

It's a world gone mad, and the reader is left to wonder what could have caused things to change to such an extent.  Is it a time traveler?  A wizard?  If you've read the title, then you already know the answer.

Spread across four Superman titles and a one-shot, Superman escapes from Arkham Asylum and disrupts the status quo with the help of Steel, making his way to the moon base of the Justice League.  There, he finds Mr. Mxyzptlk, the indirect source of this chaos.

Mxyzptlk, a reality warping imp from the fifth dimension, claims that he decided to change up his M.O. and give 1% of his power to someone to see what chaos they could cause with it, deciding on the Joker.  Somehow, the Joker tricked Mxyzptlk into revealing his true name, which somehow allowed the Joker to take 99.9% of Mxyz's power, making him a reality warper on a grand scale.

Making matters worse is that this power seemingly allowed him to find and use the Anti-Life Equation, meaning that even gods are affected by it, as demonstrated when Darkseid attends a meeting of the Quintessence to do something about this.

The Joker uses his newfound power to torture Batman every night (with Bruce being the source of the screams), or to eat some Chinese when he's peckish. (and it's not Chinese food).  However, it's not completely dark; we get call-backs to Jimmy Olsen's Silver Age shenanigans...

...references to Superman: The Movie (the Joker still has a soft spot for Harley, as she's unchanged while Lex Luthor becomes the Joker's court jester)...

...and inclusions of the goofier elements of Batman's past.

The Joker's control is not absolute, however.  I liked how the sight of Clark undoes the Joker's alteration of reality for Lois, even if it's brief.  She still loves him, even she doesn't understand why, which helps to show why they're one of comic's most enduring couples - even a complete rewrite of the universe and putting her in a completely different life can't stop Lois from loving Superman.

One member of the Joker's Justice League who's an enigma is Ignition. (as opposed to Enigma, who's just the Riddler)  The Joker doesn't remember creating him, and when his chin is briefly glimpsed outside of his armour, I thought he looked like the Anti-Monitor.  He later makes references that make it seem like he was intended to be General Zod.

However, going by the DC Wiki, his identity remains unknown, and he doesn't seem to appear much beyond this story, leaving it unclear who he's meant to be or why he has a grudge against Superman.

Even the Spectre falls victim to the Joker.  Superman's ability to instill hope helps to restore Supergirl, Superboy, and the Justice League to their normal selves, leading to the final few issues where they take the fight to the Joker.

The rebellion is immediately squashed at the start of the very next issue.

As the Joker tries to break Superman's spirit, the situation has become so hopeless that even Batman suggests killing the Joker to end all of this.  The Joker intends to end the universe, and unlike Mr. Mxyzptlk (who understands that no universe means no entertainment), he's fully willing to use Mxyz's power to do that.  However, Mr. Mxyzptlk has faith that Superman will find a better way.

As Superman tries to stop the Joker, he realizes the one rule that even a chaotic madman like the Clown Prince of Crime has.  Try as he might, the Joker defines himself by his opposition to Batman.  He can kill him over and over and over again, but he keeps bringing Batman back because the mere mention of Batman causes him to subconsciously keep his archfoe alive.

This slip-up lets Mr. Mxyzptlk take his power back, and between Mxyzptlk and the Spectre (who was keeping a close eye on Mxyzptlk throughout the process to make sure that he didn't cause any mischief), reality is quickly restored to normal.

I wasn't sure why this was a Superman-exclusive crossover at first, but having read through the story, I get it.  It's ultimately about how Superman retains his inspirational and optimistic nature in spite of a world that is against him in every sense of the word.  Despite each book having a different writer and artist, the story felt consistent throughout, which says a lot of good about everyone involved.  There were some details about Supergirl and Superboy that seemed a little confusing, as I'm not familiar with 90's/early 2000's Superman (Supergirl was referred to as "Matrix" at some points and was portrayed as an angel), but for most of the story, I was able to get by with a basic knowledge of Superman.  The nine issues that were covered here flew by, and I had a great time with reading them.