Written by Dan Jurgens
Illustrated by Brett Booth
Published by DC Comics
Man, I love the energy that artist Brett Booth brings to any comic book that he’s working on. He’s great, and he really amplifies the story by Dan Jurgens here. Watching the Batman from the future take on the Joker really is something else. It’s fast and furious and just damn enjoyable.
This is the third part of the story that is appropriately called “The Final Joke.”
We start off with Terry meeting Melanie in a park. The trail of the Joker has gone cold and it’s time to relax a little bit. While he’s relaxing, the real Joker is knocking off members of the Jokerz gang. He even gathers a gang of his very own called “The Throwbacks!”
Sound insane? Well, it is the Joker after all!
The entire scene with the Joker is handled in a wonderfully nutty way. The layouts are great and the lettering especially is pretty cool. Eventually the Robin of the future, Matt, takes it upon himself to track down the Joker. He goes and tracks down and interrupts Terry’s date. Terry gets dressed and goes to work. So then, the Batman and Robin of the future are off to find and take down the Joker!
We then get a cool fight with the Jokerz! It’s wonderfully staged and is clean. You can see who is hitting who and where all the characters are geographically. By the end of the book, Batman and Robin finally meet up with the Joker. And he has now dubbed himself as something new: “Joker Beyond.”
Jurgens has written a crazy yet completely fun script that just works. The art and the writing mesh together incredibly well. I’m loving the world they have created. It’s full of great characters and some really exciting storytelling.
RATING: A-
