Joker¹ Book

The Batman series is on an all time high due to the releases of two incredible blockbuster movies, a fantastic videogame and a great animated series, yet Batman graphic novels have not been properly recognised in the recent years. "The Joker" sees to put an end to that. This graphic novel is an incredibly dark, disturbing and entertaining insight into the mind of Batman's arch nemesis, The Joker. Incredible story and astounding artwork simply make this a work of art and it rightly deserves a place in any Batman fans collection.

"The Joker" is written by Brian Azzarello, (acclaimed writer of '100 Bullets') and Lee Bermejo who has created all of the incredibly detailed artwork within the novel. The story is from the perspective of a loyal yet naive henchman of The Joker called Jonny. Throughout the progress of this crime novel his "relationship" with The Joker develops and grows in trust, beginning as a typical thug, Jonny develops into The Jokers top man helping him doing his dirty business throughout Gotham City, leading to a shocking and thrilling climax to the novel. Brian Azzarello has done fantastically well in showing Jonny's feelings throughout, it gives the reader a new perspective on The Joker and how he would operate, in fact it really helps create tension throughout the storyline as you are always aware of how unpredictable and wild The Joker would be if ever placed in real life situations. "The Joker" is by no means a child's book; it has a very dark, gritty and violent storyline that takes the reader to some of the darkest places in and around Gotham City. It is also refreshing to see a novel based in the Batman universe without Batman taking a leading role; in fact Batman is far more of a side character in this novel, hardly featured at all during "The Joker". This novel does a fantastic job of making you realise how violent and depressing areas of Gotham really are, this is due to the realistic artwork featured in "The Joker". From incredible views across Gotham City to brutal murder scenes, the visuals in "The Joker" are astounding and the Lee Bermejo truly deserves recognition on this achievement. Each piece of art is expertly crafted and you can really see that Lee Bermejo has put real care into this work, with each scene having subtle details hidden within for the examining reader to discover. All of these small yet incredibly important details help raise "The Joker" to a level that is rarely seen within many modern day graphic novels on the market.

I cannot recommend "The Joker" highly enough to any fan of The Batman series or of crime novels, it is full of fantastic graphic novel writing and stunning artwork which both blend together to create a modern masterpiece of intelligent and adult comic book story telling.

Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo