Reviewer: Mathan Erhardt
Story Title: Joke’s on You.
Written by: Judd Winick
Penciled by: Tom Raney
Inked by: Scott Hanna
Lettered by: John Workman
Colored by: Gina Going
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Publisher: DC Comics.
They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. But sometimes you can and this is one such case. More on that later.
The issue begins with Lex and the Joker matching wits at a presidential safe house in Jersey. Meanwhile back in NYC the team battles an onslaught of crazed intelligent gorillas. Quick thinking saves the day. We find out the Joker is nothing more than a disgruntled customer, and we also learn who the mastermind of the whole operation is. Thunder and Jeff Pierce have a father/daughter moment, and we get to see how Batman feels about Nightwing’s new team.
The cover features Lex in peril, with Nightwing and Metamorpho looking on. Nightwing says, “The Joker is killing Lex!†Metamorpho responds, “Should we care?†More witty banter like that can be found inside. I’m not going to lie and say that I’ve always been Winick’s biggest fan, but by the same token I’ve never been one of those people who blast his work either. I didn’t really like the writing this issue. It was too filled with banter; the witty back and forth between teammates, the witty back and forth between Lex and the Joker. I didn’t like it.
Another thing I didn’t care for was the whole “Joker as homosexual†as opposed to “Joker as homicidal.†Sure, he’s tall, thin, and a snappy dresser, but that doesn’t mean he’s gay. I hope that the insinuations Lex and the Joker were throwing back and forth were just attempts to get under each other’s skin. And what was up the Nightwing’s brutal treatment of Grodd?
Judd did do a good job with the touching father/daughter heart to heart scene. I thought that was well written, and extremely enjoyed that.
I have no real complaints about the art. The Joker looked maniacal, and Lex looked smug. I really do like Metamorpho’s new look. Lex actually looked like he had been tortured. My only complaint about the art is that they won’t be on the book next month.
This book isn’t bad, but it’s not as good as everyone claims it is either.
