We are almost done with Batman-uary! Today I am covering Tom King's Batman: The War of Jokes and Riddles. It takes place early in Batman's career, and it flashes back between the present day where Batman's talking to Selina Kyle. He's asked her to marry him, he proposed. But first, he wants to talk about the evil things he did during the war of Jokes and Riddles.
This story in and of itself is pretty good. There's some cool Kite Man stuff, I never thought I'd say "cool" and "Kite Man" in the same breath. Kite Man has a great origin story and in all honesty is more interesting in this story than Batman himself.
Joker and Riddler are each given some minor contrivance as to why they are going to war. Joker is unable to laugh and Riddler wants to fix that...for reasons...and the cure is to kill the bat! but since neither one is willing to share in this hunt they decide to fight. Now, when I say the Joker and the Riddler go to war, I mean, the Joker and whoever this is that they try to pass off as the Riddler go to war. Now, admittedly, My knowledge of The Riddler comes from the animated series, the show Gotham and Jim Carrey's Oscar worthy performance in Batman Forever; However, I know this isn't The Riddler. This guy is brutal. This guy is vicious. This guy just murders people. He's an outright psychopath. No amount of sexy chest time is going to convince me that this is the Riddler. This is Victor Zsasz and Mister Mxyzptlk love child and we all know it!
This is a huge mash up of Batman's Rogues each taking a side in the Joker and Riddler's war for supremacy.
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Why do all of Gotham's rogues have to take a side? Either Riddler or Joker that's forced, and I can tell that it's just something that they threw in there because none of them make any difference in the plot.
There's a throwaway thing about Penguin's origin in there, but beyond that it's just cameos for the sake of cameos and making it feel more EPIC!
The artwork is a beautiful if disjointed affair. Mikel Janine does an amazing job as does Clay Mann. The problem is neither one of their styles flow well together. Mikel is the type of concise artist that never wastes a line...whereas Clay Mann, he's hatching and making lines every damn place. When you're reading this as a collected edition, when the artist change, it's jarring by the time you get into the rhythm and you're like, Yeah, all right, I'm feeling this the issue is over. Now you're back and having to adjust back to the other style. Both of the artists are great at what they're doing, just not great together.
The final issue I have with this story is like the major conceit at the end. Batman's like, "I'm no different than these villains". He's mad that he tried to stab someone... and didn't end up stabbing him. That was that was all this buildup for nothing which feels so anticlimactic.
I guess that's what I thought about the war of jokes in riddles. Not a bad read, probably one of the better stories from the Tom King run.