The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing has proposed there are two Jokers, and so far, they haven’t come face to face yet. That’s largely because the cleaner, more traditional-looking Joker has been in Los Angeles most of the series, but he’s on his way back to Gotham to settle the annoyance of a second Joker taking his cred. This second Joker somehow can’t die and seems hellbent on winning. Let the battles begin…soon.
This issue jumps between Joker in the sewer fighting Killer Croc to Joker on a road trip back to Gotham. Both want to know more about their doppelganger, and it’s all been leading to this. There’s a bit of misdirection that acts as a fun surprise in the last few pages, and ultimately a statement is made about the battered Joker possibly being as formidable as the clean-up businessman Joker. At this point, it’s clear the Joker who can’t die is great at fighting and being resourceful, while the cleaner Joker is domineering and dangerous in a tactical sense.
Along the way, Red Hood gets some play as he’s carted to Black Gate prison. Ultimately a lot of this issue feels like it’s been a long time since it took Joker two issues simply to get on the road to Gotham, and the Joker in Gotham has been slinking around, getting attacked and killed over and over. Some answers, regarding how there are two and maybe finding out if one is the real one, have been delayed so long that your patience may be running thin. Thankfully, the cliffhanger suggests the next issue should finally bring them together.
The Joker who can’t die is clearly very dangerous physically.
Credit: DC Comics
Art by Carmine Di Giandomenico is good, with great character acting and good structure in layouts. The art looks a little rougher at times, but who can blame the guy who has drawn every issue and met every deadline.
The backup has Francesco Francavilla returning to the series, this time in a Jim Gordon tale. This story follows Gordon, who won’t stop until he captures the Joker. He seems to be losing himself, callously showing he has no care for victims and that he only cares about the Joker. You can see he’s losing himself with some interesting close-up headshots of Gordon looking off into the distance past us, filling the entire page. If you look closely, you can see him change over these profile images leading to the big cliffhanger.
Francavilla’s colors are stupendous, and the story ends up being another winner backup in a series filled with great backups.
It appears Joker meeting Joker is finally around the bend, but The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #9 takes its time to set that up. I’d be lying if I said my patience was quite thin with this series, but given how Rosenberg has established some unique features of each Joker, I’m curious to see how this plays out.
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