JOKERS ASYLUM THE RIDDLER #1

Top creators lend their talents to a new installment of THE JOKER’S ASYLUM – a special month-long, weekly series of one-shots starring the greatest villains in Batman’s rogues gallery.

Each issue is narrated by The Joker and tells a special stand-alone story that gives readers an inside look into the insane lives of The Dark Knight’s greatest adversaries! This batch of tense tales spotlights The Riddler, Harley Quinn, Mad Hatter, Clayface and Killer Croc! Can you stand the madness?!

Written by PETER CALLOWAY
Art by CLAYTON HENRY
Cover by ETHAN VAN SCIVER

Price: $2.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 0.8%

Reviews

UserAddedSpoilers
akamuu06/20/10NoRead Review
Urthona06/04/10YesRead Review
TheNextChampion06/03/10NoRead Review
216
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Avg Rating: 3.9
 
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Comments

  1. Possibly getting this. After reading the first series of one-shots, it was a nice idea but didn’t have the best creative team on board. This is off to a weird start with a new writer…..but the upside is that Clayton Henry is drawing this. He did the great arc of Incredible Hercules (Love and War) and did the infamous winking panel by Hercules.

  2. I liked last years one-shots so I am on board for these.

  3. Is that cover really going to be black and white?  That would be cool!

  4. I thought the first round was hit-or-miss…but the hits were really good.  I like the villain line-up, lots of fun ones.  Hoping we’ll get some gems.

  5. @jwaesch: No, it’s not.

  6. Seems like DC puts out a "Joker Presents Bat-Villains" series at least 17 times per year.

  7. Yay!!!! Loved the first one!

  8. Read the preview and thought it was just meh. Not bad, but not good either.

  9. Where’s Clayton Henry!? I was promised Clayton Henry art and instead I get……two dudes.

    Mind you the two dudes did some good artwork. Probably the only shining spot in this one-shot. It wasn’t bad per say, just boring. Calloway could be a good, new writer but he doesn’t shine with this. The Mad Hatter/Clayface issues I’m really looking forward too.

  10. Boring?  This was a great and I think you need to reread this.

    THIS WAS AWESOME!!!  If you don’t like this issue, well, I just don’t think you should be reading Riddler stories.

    Totally clever, totally cool,…my hat is off to Calloway and Henry, well done chaps, well done indeed!!!

    Deadspace, you need to read the whole thing, a preview is just not a way to judge this particular issue, trust me.

  11. I’m looking forward to someone painstakingly detailing the mystery panels at some point…warning, spoilers will abound!

  12. Just put a review up…sorry if I’m being a d*ck.  It’s just after seeing Jersey Gods cancelled, Great Ten get ignored and shortened an issue, I’ll be damned if a good Riddler story gets ignored too…I’m at the end of my rope people!! 🙂  🙂  🙂

     

  13. I’m with TNC on this one. This was a totally boring & pointless comic book.

  14. After looking through it again, it’s clever artwork to hide so many of the deck of card symbols in the panels.
    Still, on the surface it was a dull story.

  15. I ended up giving this one 3 stars, but it was very close to a 4 star read for me.  I was pulled in by the story, as elementary as it was (this may be because I am knew to the comic world and have read virtually NO Riddler stories in the past), and the art was great, especially after noticing all the playing card symbols placed throughout almost every panel.  Well crafted book that was definitely worth the $3 for me.  I will be picking up the next issues in the series, without a doubt.

  16. @ Urthona: I read this book 3 times yesterday and was rating it about a 3. Then I checked out your review and reread the book two more times. Now I’m thinking it might be a 5. Thanks for making me see the amazingness in this book.

  17. Amazing book, but the cover needs some love also.  Check out all the riddles!  800 lbs gorilla, got to love it.

  18. @Urthona: You do know Henry was not in this book whatsoever right?

    I mean yeah it’s cool to see the hidden images in this but…..who cares? Props to the artists (which was a highlight of the book) but the overall story itself was boring. 

  19. @TNC – who cares?  It was a riddle!  That’s the whole point!! What is a Riddler story you do like?  To me, this is what a Riddler comic book story should be…a playful game of riddle that leverages the comic medium.  This isn’t supposed to be Kingdom Come.  I just don’t understand your expectations here.

    Although…I’m not familiar with Henry or Guinaldo, so no, I didn’t notice.  I do see you were psyched for him so I can imagine that disappointment, along with not seeing the art trick/riddle, coloring your opinion of the book….I do understand being disappointed if there was an artist I was looking forward to and he didn’t appear… 

    @ReddRobin – thanks!

    @sircut – any answers to the cover riddles?

  20. @Urthona- The picture riddles on the cover – "Time flies" "Why did the chicken cross the road?" "800 lb gorilla" …. but, I don’t know what the crow & the ink well one is … 

    The written ones on the page –

    1. – Life? Or a lawsuit? (not sure)

    2. – A Kangaroo

    3. – A joke

    4. – A volcano

    5. – no idea … 

    6. – same as above. 

  21. Okay, so I’ve gone through, dissected the book, found what I believe to be every hidden playing card reference, and… I still have no idea who the visitor was.  Did anybody else figure it out? 

  22. Regarding the ‘crow’ and the inkwell on the front cover, is it not a reference to the riddle like Raven paradox? Just thinking it could be a raven and remembered the confusing paradox derived from the hypethesis ‘All ravens are black’ or ‘everything that is not black is not a raven’, which though meaning the same can make the seeing green apple, a non-black non-raven, evidence that all ravens are black. The paradox comes from the reality of common sense in that we know apples being green (or red) gives us nothing about ravens. The more I think about it I think I’m just finding anything in it, just the black bird and the black ink really. Maybe it’s a bit of decor in the foreground, where he’s been writing the riddles and the bird’s just a bit of theme and ambiguous symbolism (to get you looking). Maybe a nod to another wordsmith, Poe. I think everyone’s overthinking it, as intended, and now I rambled. Nevermind. 

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