Batman: White Knight Presents – Generation Joker #3 // Review
Bryce and Jackie are wearing crowns...kind of. They’re hanging out in Axis Chemicals as a musclebound guy in white face paint beats the hell out of a scrawny guy in a Batman outfit. Everyone there is cheering on the fight like it’s a pro wrestling match, but Bryce and Jackie aren’t exactly enjoying it. It’s an uncomfortable moment for them at the opening of Batman: White Knight Presents – Generation Joker #3. The writing team of Katana Collins & Clay McCormack works from an idea by Sean Murphy. The pleasantly dark visuals come to the page thanks to artist Mirka Andolfo and colorist Alejandro Sánchez.
The thick-necked guy beating the hell out of the scrawny one in the cowl is NOT Joker. It’s kind of an insult to Bryce and Jackie. They ARE the real Joker’s kids, after all...and one of them happens to have the hologram phantom of their father. What could it hurt to turn it on in the company of a group of people who appreciate the guy so much? They might not get the welcome that they’re expecting as the legend of the man well out-distances anything that he could possibly be, even if he WAS right there in the flesh in front of everybody.
The concept the writing team is working with is actually pretty interesting. This sort of thing has been explored before with heroes. The whole legacy idea has been examined from every possible angle 1 million different times in the course of the past several decades. What happens when a hero is no longer wearing the mask? The messianic nature of a grand villain is going to inspire similar worship. Unfortunately, the writing team doesn't really fully harness the full potential of the themes being explored. The surface level is kind of fun. But it never really gets into the deeper implications.
Andolfo is always fun. Her art here really fuses the darkness with the playfulness that makes for a perfect fusion with the overall style and theme of the title. The whole idea is very dark, and so Andolfo doesn't really need to play up the sinister elements of Gotham City in the future. All she really has to do is present the darkness and then allow the strange little bits of personality to peek around the edges of the action and drama inherent in the basic script.
There's still time for the series to live up to the potential of the themes being explored. The writing team is certainly circling around at the deeper end of the premise. They just haven't zeroed in on it yet. And that's a little frustrating. Three issues in, and they were still playing around on the surface-level silliness of the premise. There is so much more that could be explored about a pair of kids dealing with the legacy that they were now forced to be a part of. There's a legacy of madness there, and they really could be doing more to integrate and interface with the legend of one of the more popular villains in the history of comic books.
