More DC Manga? Sign me up! After stumbling on this title on the DC Infinite app and checking to see if the whole thing has been translated from Japanese (unlike frustratingly incomplete Batman and the Justice League) I was hyped to start.
The story follows Batman’s arch nemesis, The Joker, after a scheme gone wrong transforms The Dark Knight into a newborn baby. Instead of taking the ahem obvious course of action, The Joker decides to raise the child to be a hero like his former self so the pair can continue their endless rivalry. Hijinks ensue.
Ok for starters, I love how mad this premise is. I’ve read comics where Batman is a mech pilot, a Wild West outlaw and a straight up werewolf but nothing has struck me quite as strangely as him being transformed into The Joker’s adopted child. It’s creative, it’s weird and perhaps the very last new place DC can go with these characters but it’s fun nonetheless.
Now onto the story itself. The core of the narrative is that The Joker is a now a single dad. And we’re not talking Silver Age goofy-pants Joker. It’s modern, evil serial killer mobster Joker doing the parenting. Yet some fun comedy comes from him adjusting into his new role. Examples include The Joker getting angry at an office clerk for not accepting his daycare application and asking Harley Quinn to clean up the glass she smashed in her dramatic entrance to avoid hurting the baby. It’s good stuff and it’s nice to see at least this version of the Clown Prince of Crime soften and change over time.
It’s also fun to see the familiar world of Gotham adjusted to fit the slice of life feel of this story. No one arrests the Joker when he visits shops to find baby supplies in full evil clown makeup, they simply let him be unless he’s actively committing crimes (a trick perhaps borrowed from the quirky world of the Harley Quinn animated series?).
One gripe I do have with the series so far is the actual characterisation for The Joker. He’s written and drawn as an amalgam of Heath Ledger’s and Joaquin Phoenix’s live action portrayals of the character. And while there’s nothing wrong with either of those interpretations, mixing them leaves the character’s motivations kind of confused. Is he an agent of chaos or a sick man fighting the system?
This may, of course, be resolved in the fullness of time. As a manga title it appears to be much more comfortable taking its time with the narrative than an American or British comic might be. While this suits this particular story just fine, I am slightly dubious if The Joker really suits such a protracted arc- as I’ve found that he works best in concentrated short doses in the past. As I said before, time will tell.
I can recommend this to fans of Batman and slice of life aficionados but no one else. It’d likely be too strange or too dry for most out there.