Mild Mannered Reviews - Specials

Joker: Last Laugh #2

Joker: Last Laugh #2

Scheduled to arrive in stores: October 10, 2001

Cover date: December 2001

Writer: Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty
Penciller: Marcos Martin
Inker: Mark Farmer and Alvaro Lopez

"Siege Mentality"

Reviewed by: Neal Bailey (baileyn@cc.wwu.edu)



At the Slab, things are falling apart. In her apartment, Oracle laments having left her techno-cave.

Nightwing consoles her, grabbing a personal helicopter backpack while evading the cops. He takes off for The Slab.

Joker tosses some newly found lady prisoners into a chemical mixture, Jokerizing them. Chemo appears on the scene, Jokerized.

Shilo and Dina are trapped near the water cells. Trying to escape, they are confronted by the man eating villains.

Black Mass, at the behest of Rancor and a friend, prepares to clap his bracelets together and cause a miniature black hole.

Military personnel on the other side of the island watch and prepare to attack.

Dina tries to hold off the villains while Shilo works a way out of the elevator area.

Slig (?) breaks loose and finds Shilo's mother box, taking it to replace his/her old one.

Nightwing, having infiltrated in the last issue of Nightwing, finds the entire JLA, dead save Wonder Woman. But Aquaman is in his old costume, and alive, and it seems Bat-Mite is behind everything, so Nightwing quickly figures out that the culprit is a Jokerized Lady Spellbinder. Batman, arriving on scene, knocks her out. They find Black Canary down the way and grab her. Black Mass opens up the Black hole, and everyone has to rush to escape. The military personnel struggle to keep control from far away from the island.

Blue Beetle saves Batman, Nightwing, and Black Canary. Inside the Beetle's vessel, Dinah tells them that Joker is dying.

The black hole swallows Shilo and Dina.

Lady Spellbinder laughs, Jokerized.

3Story - 3: Pretty fast-moving, and picking up the pace. There are too many characters that are too randomly assigned to each scene for the reader to keep pace, however, and this drags the story down. It's good that Batman, Nightwing, and other Batman characters are the ones fighting this battle. Though it would be nice to see the JLA in a non-illusory sense.

Who are the military goons?

What exactly does it mean to be Jokerized? Do you go crazy, or is it just that you're under Joker's control. This needs to be cleared up, and fast. So far, the only thing I've seen that makes one Jokerized is adding the colors pink, purple, and white. Lady Spellbinder and the other villains are acting cool, calculated. Not Jokerish. And some are acting independent of his orders. So what is it?

Otherwise, the stakes are nice and high, the stage has been set for a good story, albeit in jilted fashion, I just wish someone would start telling it. What have we seen so far? A prison break that we didn't know how it started until a week after it did (Secret Files and Origins shipped late), Joker initiating an impossible prison break, and Nightwing and Batman going in, only to be quickly sent out by an anomaly that presumably killed everyone in the immediate area. We'll see how this ends up and judge from there, but from here? 3.

5Art - 5: I really liked the art, even though it was a bit flashy at times, and a bit dark. But it's Batman, so hey. Why not? And the flash may have been at odd times, but it was done well. I especially complement the artist on the ability to make a singularity seem real and viable. I like the work.

2Cover Art - 2: Too busy to be comprehended... it's the Joker and pals meets Shawshank Redemption. Where did they get those wonderful duds, I wonder? Who is the guy that looks like a Kewpie doll mated with Buddy Lee? Why in the name of the Good DC lord did they make the logo so small and yet so distracting? WHO CAN TAKE ANY MORE PINK, PURPLE, OR WHITE ON THEIR DC COMICS? Not I.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2001

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic was on sale.

January 2001

February 2001 March 2001 April 2001 May 2001 June 2001 July 2001 August 2001 September 2001 October 2001 November 2001 December 2001 Annuals

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Check out the Comic Index Lists for the complete list of Superman-related comics published in 2001.