Description

Batman: Three Jokers                Trade Paperback Lot
Featuring the Main Covers Collection w/ Three Jokers “Playing Card” (see scans #11,12).  Awesome!!
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Jason Fabok
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editors: Mark Doyle & Amedeo Torturro
All Main Covers #1,2,3 by: Jason Fabok & Brad Anderson

Thirty years after Batman: The Killing Joke changed comics forever, Three Jokers reexamines the myth of who, or what, The Joker is and what is at the heart of his eternal battle with Batman. New York Times bestselling writer Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok, the writer/artist team that waged the “Darkseid War” in the pages of Justice League, reunite to tell the ultimate story of Batman and The Joker!

After years of anticipation starting in DC Universe: Rebirth #1, the epic miniseries you’ve been waiting for is here: find out why there are three Jokers, and what that means for the Dark Knight and the Clown Prince of Crime. It’s a mystery unlike any Batman has ever faced!

As Batman and Batgirl follow an unexpected thread linking the three Jokers with someone from the Dark Knights past, Red Hood dives headfirst into trouble and finds himself struggling to stay afloat without the aid of his allies. Batman: Three Jokers continues its trajectory as the ultimate examination of The Joker and his never-ending conflict with Batman. Prepare yourselves for one of the most terrifying and personal mysteries Batman has ever faced!

Story/Spoilers:
In issue #1, Book One, Batman crashes his Batmobile over Thomas Wayne’s tombstone, badly injured and in need of medical care. Alfred takes him inside, and heals his wounds: Pennyworth asks Mr. Wayne what was the cause of the damage this time. Penguin’s umbrella is the answer. While the butler stitches the cut, Batman recalls the history of all his major scars. And three of them, they were made by the Joker. Every time, a slightly different one, with a different weapon. Acid-spraying flowers, razor-edged cards and the stick of a tiny flag who was part of a toy gun. All this memories about pain, of course, make Bruce go to that scene, that moment of redefinition: the shooting of his parents by Joe Chill. The voice of Alfred and the news, telling about Joker killing the last members of the Moxon crime family, wake Bruce up from his thinking: he must head out to find the clown prince of crime.

Barbara Gordon is in the gym, running on a tapis roulant. She’s listening to a commercial about the restless leg syndrome. The tv suddenly changes theme, with a news flash talking about the murder of a famous comedian, an Hawaiian artist who went by the alias of Fatman, an idiotic version of Gotham City’s caped crusader. It seems it was the Joker the one responsible for it. Barbara steps down from the machine, broken by her frantic pace, and goes away, sweating. Back home, as she takes a shower, her fingers trace the scar that the Joker left her. There, a bullet made Barbara unable to walk and move her legs for a long time. She thinks back at her question to the madman: why was he doing it? To prove a point. That was the answer Joker gave her.

In a graveyard inside Gotham, the Red Hood is mauling down some thugs related to the Joker. He’s following a trail, he wants to take him first and nothing will stop him from doing just that. For a brief moment, the criminals get the upper hand, getting Jason to think back at his most tragic moment: the Joker slowly but painfully beating him to death with a crowbar. Waking up from his trance, Jason finishes all his opponents, revealing them he knew since the start that they would have no useful information. He just wanted to stretch his legs.

Outside Ace Chemicals, Detective Bullock and Commissioner Gordon are inspecting a crime scene. Three men were murdered and tossed inside a vat of chemicals similar to the one that, in theory, made the Joker into who he is. They are all dressed like the original Red Hood. The cops are troubled: this murder was contemporary to the Moxon massacre and to the assassination of the comedian known as the Fatman. The Joker cannot be the man behind all three crimes, it is illogic to think he could. Jim knows Batman is approaching, and so he asks him to clear their doubts. Batman starts talking with Batgirl, hidden above, about the fact Joker used this murders as a diversion. The real danger was the fact he stole a truck full of his Joker-turning chemicals. Barbara also noted that the Joker wanted to be seen in all three crime scenes, including this one: he directly stared at all the security cameras in the area. It seems there are three Jokers in town tonight, but the truck could become a bigger problem if they are not able to find it.

Suddenly, one of the three supposedly dead men wakes up, laughing and asking for help. He gets loaded inside an ambulance, and Batman tells he will escort him to the hospital while he goes to the comedian’s crime scene. Commissioner Gordon asks Batgirl if she needs a ride to the scene, but she answers him she’s all right, calling for her motorcycle. While travelling, Bruce asks Barbara if Jim knows about her secret life, with the girl telling him he does not. Then, the driver of the ambulance starts to call for help: someone is attacking the victim inside. As Batman gets in, he discovers that Jason is the one beating the Jokerized man, as he wants information about what Joker said to him before making him take a bath. Batman is furious with the Red Hood’s attitude, and tries to stop him.

Meanwhile, the Joker is driving the truck full of chemicals to an isolated house in the woods. He gets out and knocks at the door, starting a joke: another Joker, opening the door, finishes it. The one outside, the Clown, welcomes the answer with surprise, but the second Joker, the one inside, tells him that he wrote that line, after all. He’s the Comedian, dressed in the same shirt he wore when he shot Barbara Gordon, paralyzing her. The Clown though tells him he should not wear his things, and the two start discussing about who was the one that crippled the daughter of the Commissioner. Still, they stop and get in as the boss is waiting. The Clown comments that he’s the only one thinking he’s the boss, while the Comedian tells him that someone has to be. Inside, the Criminal is waiting. A third Joker, he tells his two comrades about the plan: they have the chemicals, now they must set up the baths and find some talent. He tells the Comedian to come with him to evaluate candidates, while the Clown will organize the baths.

Back to the ambulance, Batman injects the antidote inside the victim, healing him. Jason comments that the guy was accused of domestic violence against his own son: he was worthy of every punch Jason gave him. Still, the three vigilantes need to focus on finding the Jokers and stopping their plan: their investigations lead them to the Gotham Aquarium. In there, they find a vat full of Jokerized fish, including a menacing shark, and while they start theorizing what the Jokers might be planning, they are attacked by a band of thugs led by Gaggy, a former lackey of the Joker that the madmen called his court jester. As the shooting from Red Hood breaks the glass, the shark comes out and eats Gaggy alive. In that moment, the Joker comes out, launching some piranhas at Barbara, and then shouts to Jason he wants more of his fear, of his pain. He can’t get enough. Batman catches him by surprise and knocks him out, with Jason and Barbara sure he’s the real deal. The laughs, the chemicals, it must be him. Batman does not answer and leaves searching for the other two, telling Batgirl and Red Hood to keep an eye on him while he organizes a transport to Arkham. Of course, he must stay alert, as the Joker always has a trick or two up his sleeve.

The two start questioning him, with the Joker of course laughing and tricking them with some gadgets. After eliminating all the traps the madman has on himself, the Joker starts sharing his thoughts about Red Hood’s decisions in life. He’s trapped in a cycle of violence, even taking the Clown’s own former alias for himself. Joker provokes Jason: he wants him to shoot him in the head. And it seems Jason is not against his idea: he starts warming up at the thought, while Barbara tells him that’s not how they work. As Batgirl tries to make Red Hood reason, the Clown reveals Jason a detail about their almost lethal encounter: the Joker left him alive on purpose. He wanted him to live to hurt Batman with guilt and remorse. Does Jason remember what he said to him to make him stop? That he would have been his Robin. Well, he’s the Red Hood now, spreading violence and pain. He is the Joker’s Robin after all. Jason has got enough: even if Barbara tries to physically stop him, Todd puts a bullet in the Joker’s head., killing him on impact. A shocked Barbara leaves, after Jason tells her that even with all the ideals and the moral, she missed with her throw. He never saw her miss once, so maybe he was not the only one thinking the Joker was better if dead. Alone with the corpse of the man who changed his life, Jason hopes he was the real deal.

Next in issue #2, Book Two, Inside the hiding of the Three Jokers, the Comedian is hallucinating on having dinner with his family, when the Criminal comes into the room. He questions the Comedian’s actions, telling him this is not the time for fantasies: one of the three is dead, as the Red Hood shot the Clown in the head. The Comedian is clearly pissed at the Criminal for interrupting his role-playing, but does not react. Meanwhile, the Batman and Commissioner Gordon are inspecting the house of Judge Walls, murdered by his dogs who were infected with Joker Gas. While trying to understand why the Joker targeted the judge, Batgirl steps inside, telling Batman they must have a private word.

Barbara reveals to Bruce that Jason killed the Joker, or at least one version of him. Batgirl wants Batman to take action into his hands, and stop Jason as he is now a criminal, but Bruce tells her there’s nothing they can do about it. If Jason confesses about murdering the Joker, Batgirl would be put in jail as an accomplice, being there during the murder. Also, Bruce still regrets being unable to protect Jason. He is deeply wounded by the fact he did not understand he was still alive after the Joker took him: the Red Hood is hurt. Barbara then tells Bruce he must talk and reason with him, also asking him why he didn’t approach Jason earlier about his attitude. Batman answers that he hoped, with time, that Jason would heal and become a stronger version of himself, just like Barbara did after her own personal tragedy.

Meanwhile, Jason is still out hunting for the other two Jokers, willing to end once and for all the career of the clown prince of crime. He successfully guesses where the Jokers are right now, and heads there. At the same time, Batman and Batgirl go to Blackgate Penitentiary: inside the crime scene of the murder of judge Walls, Batman found the fingerprints of one particular criminal. Joe Chill, the shooter who killed Thomas and Martha Wayne. Bruce must understand what is Chill’s part in all of this, so he breaks into his cell, but he finds it empty. Barbara then tells him she discovered Chill is sick, and terminal from cancer. He has only a few weeks to live.

Red Hood trail led him to the Gotham City Athletic Association, an abandoned sport club. Opening the locked door, Jason steps inside to find dozens of bodies bathed in a Joker-turning chemicals-filled pool. Shocked, he tells himself Batman must see this: in that right moment, one of the bodies takes him by the leg, screaming for help. Jason shoots him. As he struggles to focus, Jason gets hit from behind by the Comedian, who drags him away from the pool, mumbling about him being perfect for their plan, and also collecting Jason’s helmet. Waking up, the Hood is bounded to a chair, naked. The Criminal starts speaking to him: once a petty thief, he was reborn as a Robin. Than, broken by a crowbar, he was reborn a second time, as the vigilante known as Red Hood. But things happen in threes: he will be reborn a third time. Just like him, he will change: before Batman he led Gotham’s crime, but then…Jason explodes in anger, cutting the madman off and telling him he already shot the brains out of one of them, and he will be next. As an answer, the Criminal starts laughing, then stops, telling Jason that laughing hurts him. Jason tries to take something out of what the Criminal told him: could he be the original Joker?

The Criminal then tells him why he was taken as prisoner, as the Comedian puts the Red Hood helmet on Jason’s head, now painted with a sadistic Joker smile: they are searching for someone to turn into a perfect, better version of the Joker to antagonize the Bat. All the victims they killed were tests for their final product, but they were not enough. But Jason, he could be the perfect candidate: they know he hates Batman and they know why he adopted the Red Hood alias. As a joke. But in the end, they decided that Jason is not good enough, after all. So he’ll have to pass the opportunity: once the Criminal finished talking, the Comedian strikes Jason with a crowbar through his helmet.

Moments later, Barbara and Bruce find the place as well and enter inside. They are attacked by the people the Jokers bathed in the chemicals: after some struggles, they come out victorious and soon find Jason, unconscious and naked on the floor. Barbara is in shock while Bruce approaches him to check him out: Jason explodes against him, telling him to stay away as all that happened in his life is Batman’s fault. In anger and despair, Barbara tries and succeeds in calming him. Jason just wants a safe place to stay in. Barbara takes him to her apartment and leaves him there to rest: Batgirl tries to make Bruce do something, but the Batman tells her Gotham is the priority now, as Jason is safe. As both leave, Jason finds Barbara’s wheelchair and books about nerve damage and pain therapy. He looks into them.

After a while, Barbara comes back and enters the apartment, expecting Jason to be out of it. But the Red Hood is still there, taking a shower. Getting out of it, Jason confesses to Barbara he looked through his things, especially the pain therapy books. They agree about the fact there are a lot of similarities between them and their tragedy, and Barbara tells Jason she lived through a moment much similar to the one he’s having right now. She wants to help him get better. As they look into each other’s eyes, they kiss. Barbara then breaks the moment, telling Jason they are making a mistake. Meanwhile, Batman is investigating inside the Batcave about some missing persons files, while also observing a place in Alaska on the globe.

In Blackgate, the Comedian kidnaps Joe Chill, starting then to record his confession: why did Joe Chill murder Thomas and Martha Wayne?

Finally in issue #3, Book Three, Inside the Batcave, Bruce, Barbara and Jason are investigating about the plan of the Three Jokers, who are trying to find people to transform in other versions of themselves. Jason also told Bruce and Barbara about the words of the Criminal: they want to create the perfect Joker, even if he does not know what they mean with that. One thing is sure though: the Red Hood wants to finish the job he started, killing the two remaining Jokers, as Batman is too weak to do it by himself. This enrages Batman, who tells Jason if he really believes that he never wanted to end Joker’s life. He did desire that, many times, especially after what the monster did to both him and Barbara. As Red Hood and Batgirl argue about the role of Bruce in their lives, Batman tells Jason he will never understand why he chose not to kill the Joker.

Ending any kind of argument, Bruce wants to focus on the case: he analyzes the Three Jokers and the fact that each and every one of them played a role in his career. The Criminal reminds him of the first encounters he had with the madman, while the Clown brings up memories of cartoonish, macabre showmanship, like hiring Gaggy as court jester. And the Comedian, with a sadistic streak stronger than the others, linking him to the Joker he faced last. Batman thinks that one of those is the original, and than at some point in time he created the other two. Barbara though tells him that another option might be right: the Joker created these two recently, to better hide his identity. Batgirl hopes that in this confusion, they might finally discover the true name of the Joker. She asks Bruce if he has some more info about it to share, but Jason tells her that he would not say anything to them, and that he believes he knows far more about the Joker’s true past. Batman though tells them that if he knew the Joker’s real name, he would share it with them.

They get interrupted by an alarm, signaling something happened at Blackgate: they discover that the Joker kidnapped Joe Chill. While investigating inside his cell, Batman finds a group of handwritten letters that Chill wanted to send him, but never did. To know more, he needs to address Reverend Evans, who could tell him what was going on in the conscience of Chill. Talking with the reverend, Batman learns that Chill wrote the letters long before he got sick and that he really could have changed, feeling guilty for what he did that tragic night. Meanwhile, outside of Blackgate, Jason promises to Barbara he will never do what he did with the Clown again, because of her.

The three head to Monarch Theater, as inside the pack of letters Batman found one clearly inserted there by the Joker: inside a ticket for the Mask of Zorro, a clear reference to the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. As they enter, a video about the confession of why Chill murdered the Waynes starts being projected on the screen. As both Barbara and Jason are occupied with several Jokerized goons, Batman faces the Criminal alone: in the end, says the Criminal, he will face the Bat together with Joe Chill, on the scene of Batman’s original tragedy. He also tells Batman he thought about turning one between Jason and Barbara in the new, perfect Joker. But they lack the characteristics needed to be the ultimate version of the Dark Knight’s nemesis. So he picked the killer, Joe Chill. And that’s because Chill matters more to Batman than the Joker himself: they can do anything to him, but they will never surpass the pain Chill caused him when he murdered his parents. So turning Joe into the Joker would make him the one that matters.

As Batgirl and Red Hood fend off the attacks of the Comedian, Batman saves Chill from falling into a chemical bath that would have turned him into another Joker, also kicking the Criminal out of the theater. Once again demonstrating his morale, Batman saves Chill another time from certain death, surprising the criminal: Joe knows who Batman is, and thinks that it would be right if he wanted to take his life. As the Criminal reappears, ready to blow off the explosives attached to himself, the Comedian shoots him in the head. And there was only one, exclaims the madman. What he wants now is some rest from this crazy, fun ride and so he asks Batman to take him in.

Batman took the Comedian, riding him to Arkham, while he told Jason to get back home with the Batmobile, enraging the Hood: after all, is this how it ends? Still, Jason once again approaches Barbara, telling her that he would like to be more than friends, but Batgirl says that Jason interprets what happened between them differently than her, and keeps her distance. As Jason leaves, Commissioner Gordon tells Batgirl she should not associate herself with someone like the Red Hood. Barbara, addressing him as dad, showing the fact Gordon clearly knows her identity, tells him that what people she hangs out with is none of his business.

Meanwhile, the Batman and the only remaining Joker are inside the transport to Arkham. They talk about what happened: the Joker tells him he knows who he is, Bruce Wayne, and he knows the names of Batgirl and Red Hood, too. Barbara Gordon and Jason Todd. But that this does not matter: he will never reveal their secret identities, because if he does Batman might end his career. He might stop being the Dark Knight. And that would ruin all the fun. Batman is tired, and asks him what does he truly want. The Joker answers him, telling he does not want what the other two desired. The Clown just wanted to see people suffer, laughing at them. How common, he comments. And the Criminal…that old man was so delusional. The whole idea of creating a perfect Joker, with an identity, pure dumbness. The Joker is mystery and chaos. The Comedian definitely regrets making him…or was it the other way around?

Batman wants the joke to end, so he asks for the punchline. But Joker tells him there’s no joke this time around: the other two did not understand who he is. He’s chaos, he’s the devil, he’s nothing and everything for Batman. He convinced them that Joe Chill would be the perfect Joker, because he understood he would never be able to commit a crime more tragic than what Chill did to Bruce. So he manipulated everyone, and obtained what he wanted: the Batman saved Joe Chill’s life, and than forgave the poor old man as Bruce Wayne. So now, the Joker can be his worst pain! And he will be, time and time again, until they both die together.

Meanwhile, Barbara is in the gym, trying to keep her mind away from bad memories. A letter is taped on the door of her apartment. It’s from Jason: inside it, he confesses to Barbara he always loved her, and that he’s ready to even abandon the Red Hood identity for good, if it means having a chance at staying with her. But Barbara will never read that letter: as it falls, the janitor collects it with his broom, and the message disappears.

In the aftermath, Bruce visits Chill just before he dies, giving him comfort and forgiveness. He then travels to Alaska, and comes back to Gotham. Meeting with Alfred, he tells him that even if Jason killed them all, him and Barbara will not forget what happened to them. They never will. In Alaska, he tells Alfred, lives the Comedian’s family. Batman knows the Comedian’s name, he knew since the start, discovering one week after their first encounter. But his name is not important, because revealing it would lead him to them. To Jeannie and her son, who the Joker never knew. For their safety, the safety of a mother and her child, Bruce must keep the secret.

Featuring the Main Cover Collection w/ Three Jokers “Playing Card” (see scans #11,12).  Awesome!!

Trade Paperback lot contains: Batman: Three Jokers {Main Covers Collection} (2020) Issues #1-3 & Three Jokers “Playing Card”.  DC Comics

Trade Paperbacks are bagged & boarded and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

All First Printings
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: 2020
Format per TPB: FC, 48 pages, TPB, 10.25″ x 6.65″
UPC: 761941360157

Collectible Entertainment note: Trade Paperbacks #1,2,3 are in Very Fine + condition.  Beautiful Set!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any serious Batman and/or Joker collector / enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Very Highly Recommended.

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