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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2016 11:25:10 GMT -5
For my next review I will be doing the 1975 Joker series. It lasted 9 issues & guest starred Two Face, The Creeper, Green Arrow & Black Canary, Sherlock Holmes (?), Luthor, Scarecrow, & Catwoman.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Sept 12, 2016 11:50:09 GMT -5
I've always wanted to read this. I'm probably in the minority, but I've always felt that certain of the top tier villains, like the Joker and Dr. Doom, could carry their own ongoing series if handled properly.
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Post by rom on Sept 12, 2016 11:51:09 GMT -5
Sounds great - Thanks for doing this. I didn't read The Joker series when it was originally out, but DC did reprint the series in a thin Trade several years ago. I have considered getting this, but since I had 0 familiarity with the series haven't yet. So, your review will be interesting.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2016 13:39:20 GMT -5
 The Joker's Double Jeopardy by Denny O'Neil, Irv Novick & Dick Giordano. A man named Alvarez breaks Two Face out of Arkham leaving the Joker behind. The next day the Joker fills a balloon with helium & floats over the prison fence. The guards try to shoot him down but their guns were rigged by the Joker. The Joker discovers that Batman is in Paris & proceeds to his hideout. Meanwhile at a hotel Alvarez tells Two Face he broke him out to help him steal some gold doubloons. Room service is delivered & Joker jumps out of the cart throwing pies laced with acid into the faces of the criminals. However Two Face escapes. The Joker goes to the museum to wait for Two Face. But Two Face outsmarts Joker. He knocks Joker out who wakes up tied to a table with a buzz saw. Two Face starts the saw & leaves. The Joker uses the acid in his lapel flower to dissolve the ropes & escapes. Two Face successfully steals the doubloons but the Joker is waiting for him. The two of them start fighting. Two Face grabs the Joker's coat & his hands are stuck to it by a glue the Joker had applied to it. They knock each other out as they fight. The police find them & arrest them. Two Face is shocked that the police ignore the doubloons. They tell him that Batman discovered Alvarez had stolen them already & replaced them with fakes that Two Face stole to cover Alvarez' theft. But Alvarez showed up at a hospital with acid burns (from the Joker's pies) & was arrested. The Joker finds this hysterical that Two Faced was "double crossed". |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2016 13:50:56 GMT -5
 Back in 1975 the CCA required any villain to be captured by the end of the story. This was an entertaining Two Face vs Joker story. Being the star the Joker was a little tamer than usual. No one was killed. Acid burns but not killed. Even though Batman never appeared his presence was still felt. I liked Novick's art. IMO he was so overshadowed by Neal Adams & Jim Aparo as a Batman artist but his work was just as influential to the look of the Batman titles (& Flash) at that time. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 12, 2016 13:54:23 GMT -5
The first DC series that I ever bought for three consecutive issues was The Joker! (I was mainly a Marvel fan but I would occasionally pick up stray issues of Batman, Superman, Brave and the Bold, JLA and the odd reprint collection.)
I picked up #7 (the first comic I read with Lex Luthor and still one of my favorite Lex stories), #8 and #9 brand new off the spinner rack. And when #10 never came and I finally had to accept that The Joker had been canceled, little Hoosier X was inconsolable until the next Marvel Treasury Edition came out!
I picked up most of the rest of the series at used-book stores, usually getting two for 25 cents.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,211 
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Post by Confessor on Sept 12, 2016 14:09:50 GMT -5
This should be interesting! Great idea for a thread, md62. I've always been curious about how good (or not) this series is.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2016 15:56:44 GMT -5
I never, ever knew that the Joker had it's own Comic Magazine that's has a limited run of 9 issues. It would be interesting what md62 has to say about it. Joker is one of my favorite villain in Batman's long history of DC Comics. Looking forward to it.  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2016 16:19:16 GMT -5
This should be interesting! Great idea for a thread, md62. I've always been curious about how good (or not) this series is. Overall it was a fun & slightly silly series. It was repetitive since the CCA required the Joker to be defeated at the end of every story. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 12, 2016 20:35:10 GMT -5
The Joker series would not have happened if it weren't for Brave & Bold #111, in which Batman "teamed up" with the Joker. That issue had unexpectedly phenomenal sales, inspiring DC to hustle The Joker into his own headlining series. Evidently it was the surprising notion of a team-up with Batman that appealed to readers, not just The Joker himself.
I was among those readers that got a huge kick out of the B&B issue, and I was certain I was going to love the solo series, because it was just so unheard of and audacious, but the execution didn't live up to my expectations. I would have continued to follow it, but I wasn't really loving it. I do remember wishing that this would inspire them to try a Two-Face series, which I still think could have been pretty nifty.
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Post by Action Ace on Sept 12, 2016 21:13:57 GMT -5
Given his popularity, I'm very surprised that DC still hasn't done another Joker solo series since this.
I was quite happy when the trade came out as I could never get the back issues at a reasonable price. (If I could find them at all)
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 12, 2016 23:04:30 GMT -5
The Joker series would not have happened if it weren't for Brave & Bold #111, in which Batman "teamed up" with the Joker. That issue had unexpectedly phenomenal sales, inspiring DC to hustle The Joker into his own headlining series. I did not know this. Thanks for this little tidbit of information. Maybe they should have had Bob Haney writing the Joker series! (I love the Joker series as it is, myself. Two-Face in #1. That bizarre Willie the Weeper story in #2. The "Peanuts" parody in #3. (Not to mention the Creeper!) The GREAT ART on the Green Arrow/Black Canary appearance in #4. (The first comic I ever read with GA and BC, by the way.) The Royal Flush Gang in #5. (I've loved them ever since!) The inspired wackiness of the Sherlock Holmes issue (#6). The story in #7 where the Joker and Lex Luthor exchange personalities by accident. (Classic!) And then the Scarecrow in #8 and Catwoman in #9. A lot of baffling Bronze Age bananashenanigans.) |
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Post by hondobrode on Sept 12, 2016 23:07:04 GMT -5
Given that the series still had to work within the ridiculous confines of the CCA.
They're goofy but ok.
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Post by hondobrode on Sept 12, 2016 23:07:40 GMT -5
Given that the series still had to work within the ridiculous confines of the CCA.
They're goofy but ok.
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 12, 2016 23:12:56 GMT -5
The Joker series would not have happened if it weren't for Brave & Bold #111, in which Batman "teamed up" with the Joker. That issue had unexpectedly phenomenal sales, inspiring DC to hustle The Joker into his own headlining series. Evidently it was the surprising notion of a team-up with Batman that appealed to readers, not just The Joker himself. I was among those readers that got a huge kick out of the B&B issue, and I was certain I was going to love the solo series, because it was just so unheard of and audacious, but the execution didn't live up to my expectations. I would have continued to follow it, but I wasn't really loving it. I do remember wishing that this would inspire them to try a Two-Face series, which I still think could have been pretty nifty.
Though I wouldn't necessarily call it a prelude nor a case of foreshadowing, there's a certain sense of synchronicity between Batman 258, 260, and The Joker 1 involving, as all three issues do, The Joker and Two-Face in Arkham Asylum. Actually, Batman 258 marks the first appearance of this Home for the Criminally Insane and so it's fitting that these two villains should so prominently feature in those sequences.
Anyhoo....
Batman 258 features a lead story written by Denny O Neil and penciled by Irv Novick (sound familiar?) which opens with Two-Face escaping from Arkham and in so doing, passing The Joker's cell.
The Joker's grudge however, doesn't last long for when The Joker does manage to break out of his cell in Batman 260 (again, written by O Neil and penciled by Novick)
we see that he's courteously released Harvey Dent from his cell.
Neither story involves the two villains interacting with one another beyond what I've posted here - Batman 258 is a Batman vs Two Face feature and 260 a Batman vs Joker tale - but it's nice to see the same team which is going to bring us a Joker/Two-Face crossover in May, 1975 presenting us with these individual showings in October 1974 and February 1975 respectively. Strange though that O Neil would have The Joker vowing revenge in one issue and then rewarding him with freedom two issues later. Still, O Neil is the same guy who once said "The Joker might decide to kill you because he doesn't like your shoes, or give you $1000 because he doesn't like your shoes." You can't tell with that guy.
And for the sake of completeness, here's the opening page of The Joker 1 with a now familiar sequence between Batman's two greatest foes though it certainly looks as if it could have come from Batman 258
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