BATMAN #353

"LAST LAUGH"
Writer Gerry Conway | Guest Artist: Jose Garcia Lopez | Inker: Dan Adkins
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Len Wein

The Plot: Following a target practice session with some Batman posters, the Joker heads to his hideout and rallies his gang for a new caper. The next morning, Bruce Wayne has accompanied Vicki Vale to Gotham Central Station, which is to be demolished by explosives precisely placed by a special computer. But when the demolition procedure begins, nothing happens. The computer is discovered to be missing, with the Joker's calling card on the construction crew's monitor.

Some detective work by Alfred and the Batcomputer reveals that ten acres of land were recently purchased in New Jersey by one "Harlan Quinn". Batman heads to Jersey to investigate and is promptly and efficiently captured by the Joker. When he comes around, Batman is tied to a cliffside which the Joker has rigged with explosives. Using the demolition computer, he has placed the charges precisely to carve out an approximation of his face in the cliff in the vein of Mt. Rushmore. Joker heads to his control panel, but Batman frees himself from his bonds and activates a device to jam the computer signal. The Caped Crusader then confronts Joker and his men, and a fight breaks out. Joker shoots at Batman with his crossbow, but the bolt hits the jamming device in the Darknight Detective's utility belt.

With the jamming signal gone, the explosives go off, knocking Batman and the Joker into the sea. Joker's scheme is a success, as his face appears carved into the rock -- but it lasts only for a moment and then crumbles, with Batman speculating that his jammer fouled up the computer's timing, resulting in an unstable structure.

Continuity Notes: Batman confronts Arthur Reeves, taking him back to the Batcave for an interrogation. There, Reeves reveals that the doctored photos he attempted to use to expose Batman's secret identity were given to him by Rupert Thorne. When Batman turns the lights on, Reeves realized he has confessed to not only Batman, but also to Robin and Gordon. This marks the first time any of our protagonists are aware that Thorne has returned to Gotham City.

At the demolition site for Gotham Central, Vicki is preoccupied with thoughts of her boss, Morton Monroe's, confrontation with Thorne and subsequent suicide.

Alfred wonders why the police didn't alert Batman that the Joker had escaped, but then suddely realizes it's because Gordon no longer runs the department.

Batman visits New Jersey yet again, with Conway continuing to present it as basically next door to Gotham City -- seemingly taking Gotham's inspiration as a New York pastiche extremely literally.

Joker consistently calls Batman "Detective" throughout this issue, which for whatever reason feels wrong to me. That monicker is something I've always associated with Ra's al Ghul and Talia, but not really anyone else. Perhaps it's the influcence of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, but I'm used to Joker calling Batman by whimsical nicknames such as "Batsy". But in any case, I don't know that he was ever known to call him "Detective"! Also, for some reason, he spends the entire issue armed with a crossbow.

My Thoughts: We're still at the point in Joker's evolution where he can escape Arkham and then get recaptured without going on a murder spree. I mean, it happened in "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" years earlier, but that was an exception to the rule. Beyond that, around this time when Joker was loose, he might kill one person, but that was it. And kill someone he does here; this time it's a member of his own gang -- which begs a question I think I raised a few years ago while looking at the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers DETECTIVE COMICS run: why on Earth does anyone work for the Joker?! He's prone to just randomly off his own henchmen if they look at him wrong. He must pay really, really well.

(Which, based on this story, could actually be likely, since he apparently has cash on hand to buy ten acres of land on a whim!)

Overall, I like this one. It feels a bit like a Silver Age throwback as far as the Joker's scheme goes, but for an unhinged goofball like Bronze Age Joker, that sort of thing is a great fit. And it's leagues better than Conway's last outing with the Clown Prince of Crime, "The Joker's Rumpus Room Revenge," back near the start of his run. Plus we have artwork by none other than Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, which ensures some creative panel layouts, lots of energy, and characters who are one hundred percent on-model (plus a bunch of shots where the Joker's glorious green locks are blowing in the wind, which for some reason I really like)!

Add to that the continuation of the Thorne storyline, as Batman and Gordon finally realize who they're up against, and this one is a winner!