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Batman #38 – A New Kind Of Joker, That We've Had All Along (SPOILERS)

Batman V2 #38 (2015) - Page 14So, we wait a day now.

But a number of yesterday's comic books went for big plot twists that could do with discussion. And what better place than Bleeding Cool? Okay, there are possibly better places, but I'm just not buying that.

Let's start with Batman. As everyone else did.And we have a story that seems deliberatly reminiscent of Swamp Thing's Anatomy Lesson. But for plenarian worms, read jellyfish.

Batman V2 #38 (2015) - Page 15

The Joker, until now, has been portrayed as a madman, or an individual posessed by super sanity who reinvents himself on a daily basis. He has been seen as an avatar of chaos, an incarnation of Loki, at one point stealing the powers of Mxyzptlk to remake reality in his own image. But in the end, he always comes back to being just a man, which is at essence one of the scarier things about him. Anyone could be the Joker.

Batman V2 #38 (2015) - Page 17That has now changed. In yesterday's Batman, he has been revealed as one of a long line of humanity posessed by a certain chemical that heals him, extends his lifespan and maybe explains how he can end up being knocked down, exploded, drowned and the rest of it but keep on ticking.

Batman V2 #38 (2015) - Page 18And it all goes back to something naturally occurring in The Joker that makes him capable of such acts. Also, note that Synder has always had a thing about the Joker and water.

Batman V2 #38 (2015) - Page 19So has this fundametally changed the nature of The Joker? Well, possibly. The comic even states that this doesn't feel like a Batman story anymore. But bear in my one thing, we have no knowledge of the reliabilty of the narrator. He may be lying to Batman, even when suspended across a ravenous Crossed-like horde. And with his death, any attempt to cross examine is gone…

For those who hate the idea of the Joker as some inheritor of a physical condition that places him among the gods, there's your get out clause. But for others, you've probably known it all along…


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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