Batman: Three Jokers, by writer Geoff Johns and artist Jason Fabok, began being teased at the end of the New 52 with the full premise of the book revealed in DC: Rebirth #1. Batman, using the power of Metron, learned there were three Jokers and then fans waited four years for the story. Johns and Fabok delivered a pretty good plot, one that fans enjoyed even though it wasn't exactly perfect.
The book used a lot of Batman mythology to play up the premise but honestly, the whole thing can be quite nonsensical if one thinks to hard about it, as it brings up more questions than it answered.
10 How Did Nobody Ever Notice The Joker Was Three Different People Before?
So, to begin with, if there are three Jokers, why didn't anyone ever notice before? The staff at Arkham never realized? No one ever pointed out how different their faces looked or their voices sounded? Batman, the greatest detective ever, never thought to himself that there was something weird about the Joker beyond the obvious?
The premise of the book, from the get go, asks readers to suspend the disbelief that no one ever noticed that there were differences between the three. This is a huge leap to make. It's not like the Joker is a lower level villain; his attacks are big time. Someone would have noticed something.
9 How Has The Criminal Kept The Other Two In Line?
So, the three Jokers are the Criminal, who is basically the Golden Age Joker and the one who is more into the gangster side of the whole thing; the Clown, the one who killed Jason Todd and is the craziest; and the Comedian, who is the Joker from Batman: The Killing Joke. The Clown and the Comedian are the crazier, unpredictable Jokers and the Criminal is the leader.
So, how has he kept these two pretty unrepentant and dangerous murderers in line? Both of these Jokers have espoused some pretty chaotic rhetoric over the years and it doesn't seem like they'd be easy to control. The Criminal is definitely the smartest Joker but without a gang who would know the secret, there's no way he would be able to keep the other two on message, so to speak.
8 Is There Really A Difference Between The Clown & The Comedian?
The Joker is one of the greatest villains in the DC Universe and has been pretty consistent over the years in branding, for lack of a better term. One of the biggest questions the story poses, one that is never answered, is what is the real difference between the Clown and the Comedian? Even in this story, they seem pretty similar.
The Criminal is the calculating one and the Clown and the Comedian are the crazy ones. They're pretty much the same character in every way that counts. Even after one is killed, it feels like he's still basically around.
7 Harley Quinn Somehow Never Noticed Despite Being The Person Who Knew Joker Best & Spent The Most Time With Him
Harley Quinn was a pretty consistent part of the Joker's life for a long time and the fact that she never noticed that there were multiple Jokers is yet another thing that doesn't make sense. She was around for a lot of the Joker's biggest schemes in recent years, spending a lot of time with him. So, how did she never notice there was more than one?
Was she only with one Joker? Did she somehow miss every time he communicated with the others? This is another example of what happens when one thinks about the premise too much and it falls apart. The whole thing raises too many questions.
6 Why Did The Clown Ever Go Along With Any Of It?
The Clown was the craziest of the three Jokers, the cackling madman Joker of legend. He wasn't in it for the laughs, like the Comedian, and he doesn't care about the money and the power, like the Criminal. So, why does he even go along with the whole thing? He's a dangerous man and doesn't really need the other three.
Someone as crazy as he is would be nearly impossible to corral and deal with in any rational way. He's too insane to be afraid of anyone and he doesn't need the other two to do crazy stuff.
5 Making Joe Chill A Replacement Joker Makes No Sense At All
Joker is one of Batman's greatest enemies because he's always been crafty and dangerous. Going with the book's premise, the fact that were three of them makes a good amount sense, since three brains and sets of skills are better than one. However, the moment they decide to get Joe Chill and make him a Joker throws the brains part of the equation out of the window.
The story establishes that Chill is a little slow and remorseful over his actions. Would the chemical bath suddenly make him a Joker level bad guy? While there's thematic resonance to the whole thing, he's an older man with cognitive deficiencies. In what world is he a good Joker?
4 The Whole Jason Todd-Barbara Gordon Thing Does Not Work At All
One of the subplots running through the book is that Jason Todd has a crush on Batgirl and always has. It's kind of a weird subplot which just feels shoehorned in and is pretty mystifying. The two characters have a perfectly valid reason to be in the story and they don't need some romantic subplot to justify being there.
In fact, the two of them are pretty much oil and water despite their shared trauma. There's no world where Barbara chooses Jason over Dick and it feels weird for Jason to even be interested in her in any kind of romantic way. It's basically a romantic subplot for the sake of having one and it's just not needed.
3 Each Joker Has Such Different Motivations & Goals, It Doesn't Make Sense For Them To Work Together
Each of the three Jokers is in it for different things, so why are they working together? It feels like for the Criminal, working with the other two would be exasperating, at best. The Clown, as brought up earlier, just wants to destroy stuff, so why is he following orders at all and not just doing that? The Comedian seems to be in it just to mess with Batman, something he doesn't need the other two for.
There's pretty much no reason for all of three of them to be on the same side at all. What benefit comes from working together? It feels like for any of them, the other two would just hold them back.
2 Batman Always Knowing The Comedian's Identity Messes With The Whole Thing
Batman, imbued with the power of Metron, tries to find out the Joker's identity and learns there are three Jokers. That's the whole set-up for this story. However, the end of the story makes him even asking the question pointless because he already knew the Comedian's identity, at least. Unless he suspected there was more than one, which he never brought up in the story, why did he even ask the question?
It wasn't to check his work, so to speak, because he had definitive proof of the whole thing. The end of the book reveal basically does away with the whole premise of the story— there's no reason to ask the question for Batman since he thought he knew the answer.
1 It All Ended Up Funneling Down To One Joker Anyway
Batman: Three Jokers basically kills its own premise by the end of the book, getting rid of the other two and leaving the Comedian. So, what was the point of the whole thing? Just to reveal that for a period of time, there were three Jokers? While it was a weird premise, it was one that could be used to tell some new types of Joker stories in the future.
To just reset itself into the original Joker status quo just feels like a waste. It renders the entire story pointless, except that now readers know that Batman knows who the remaining Joker is.
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