Pick of the Week Podcast
Show Notes
Josh Flanagan and Conor Kilpatrick are here to talk comics and, because of technical difficulties, record part of the show twice.
Running Time: 01:00:55
Pick of the Week:
00:02:30 – Locke & Key: …In Pale Battalions Go… #1
Comics:
00:09:41 – John Constantine: Hellblazer #9
00:15:49 – DCeased: Hope at World’s End #8
00:18:08 – Legion of Super-Heroes #8
00:23:23 – Billionaire Island #5
00:27:17 – Empyre: Captain America #3
00:30:06 – The Amazing Spider-Man #47
Patron Pick:
00:32:23 – Batman: Three Jokers, Book One
Patron Thanks:
00:43:42 – Amir Malekpour
00:45:20 – James Lonano
Audience Questions:
00:46:14 – Karl C. writes in, just a few weeks late, about the editorial changes at DC Comics.
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Music:
“Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured”
Arctic Monkeys
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I was a bit surprised with the Three Jokers discussion that Conor stuck so much to it being Black Label and out of continuity while not discussing the context of the series just getting released. This Three Jokers story was meant to be in continuity with Johns’ original plan going back to Justice League #50 to end the New 52. That issue was released on the same day as the Rebirth issue referencing there being three Jokers back in May of 2016. Doctor Manhattan killed Metron and Owlman in that Justice League issue.
If it was out on time with Doomsday Clock being stuck to as the plan before certain things happened, Three Jokers wouldn’t have the Black Label moniker. Jason Fabok was the artist along with Brad Anderson as the colorist for that Justice League arc where Three Jokers is 4 years in the making. Jason Fabok also drew the Batman issues for the Button so this mini-series is an interesting time capsule of what might have been if DC stayed the course with Johns plan. It is Black Label where it will be out of continuity, but does work with Doomsday Clock and Rebirth since it was supposed to be part of that story.
I’ve read a lot of what was the lead up to this but maybe missed Dr Manhattan being the one who killed Owlman (or maybe I have forgotten), was that explicitly shown/stated somewhere? I wonder how much this story changed once it was put on black label too, They didn’t seem to reference anything about Batman sitting on the mobius chair or the Darkseid War justice league arc. Great issue none the less and I totally agree with Conor in that if this was in the main batman series I would be far more interested in that series than I am now.
Yes, Owlman is sitting in the Mobius Chair at the end of the Darkseid War with Justice League #50 where Metron just taught him how to access it properly. Grid says to not trust Metron and then Metron warns Owlman to not seek too many answers with his mind before being cut off by Owlman who is full of hubris. Owlman tells the chair to tell him all of the secrets of the universe where Owlman says “He’s (Doctor Manhattan) here. He’s” and then the final page are two spots of smoke with blood. They’re both dead. I could see it being changed in some way since Johns thought of it considering the fact that the original three Jokers from Rebirth are the Golden Age Joker, the Killing Joke Joker, and the New 52 version. It’s certainly more than three Jokers in the story, but I could see his conceit staying the same.
Fabok was finishing the first issue in December of 2018 and then said in September of last year that “It’s in continuity like Killing Joke is. You can take it, or leave it.” Depending on the reaction, I could see DC counting it honestly. I could see DC wanting a sequel it not only sells well, but is well received all the way through unless it is standalone and Johns has nothing to add. We know that the ending of Doomsday Clock was changed or at least had an addition with the 5G reference where that initiative isn’t happening. The rumors about John Ridley being the one who was going to take over Batman after #100 are seemingly true since he gets to write his 4 issue Luke Fox mini-series with Nick Derington as the artist. That mini-series starts in January next year so 5G not happening helped Tynion stay on and cost Ridley that job. Three Jokers is a lot more interesting than Joker War and better than that comic along with Detective Comics. Joker War was done since Tynion wanted to do his big epic Joker story before being replaced. It now was not necessary to do that, but he did not know.
Ah yes this sounds familiar, thanks for the reminder. It would have been interesting to see three jokers and doomsday clock unfold the way Johns intended following Darkseid War.
From that Rebirth issue, the three Jokers were the Golden Age Joker, the Killing Joke Joker who probably also killed Jason Todd, and then the New 52 Joker. Jason Fabok said he was finishing the first issue in December of 2018 and then in September last year, he said on Twitter, “It’s in continuity like Killing Joke is. You can take it, or leave it. We are going to introduce some pretty gutsy stuff in Jokers that’s never been done before. So the fans can react to it and they can decide if they want it part of main continuity or not, like Killing Joke.”
Jason Fabok has said on his YouTube channel that the New 52 version will show up and we seem to know why they are multiple Jokers from the first issue. I liked Grant Morrison’s explanation from Arkham Asylum and Batman #663 better honestly with Joker where his personality changes due to his “super-sanity” and adapts his psyche to his environment every time he is released. I’m willing to let Three Jokers play out and I don’t consider it part of my continuity at this point. I did like the issue though where the art was fantastic.
Having not read Legion before I found it interesting why you were not connecting to it. Legion’s style of wide story telling with tons a characters and subplots reminds me of X-Men comics. That’s a real love it or hate it style of story for comics. It does demand much more from the reader since you gotta hold that giant roster of characters and subplots in your head. Also it demands you be patient since they may not circle back to close the loop on something for quite a while. I always kinda loved that about X-Men, but at the same time as they added more and more titles to the franchise it also eventually put me off of it (since I was not buying all the titles each week and therefore was missing pieces of the story). There’s a very delicate balancing act I think you need to perform in this regard.