Down! Down! And Near!

I’ve been reading an awful lot of comic books lately. Not because I particularly prefer them to normal ol’ books (having a preference at all there would be awfully silly) but because they challenge and entice an entirely different part of my brain than my school reading does, making them a better break from that than, say, Sir Walter Scott. (I am currently reading Scott’s Quentin Durward… slowly.) Making the prospect of reading lots of comics even better is the fact that my wonderful girlfriend is a big DC fan, whereas I’ve always been into Marvel, and so I’m being introduced to some new stuff.

Just recently, my aforementioned wonderful girlfriend bought the Superman trade paperback Emperor Joker for both of us to read. It’s great, and I ran through it in a day or two. The book collects a crossover that ran through all of the Superman titles back around ‘00 or so (you always know a character is big when there can be a crossover all within their solo titles) that stuck the Man of Steel in an outlandish version of the DC Universe. It plays wonderfully upon our basic knowledge of Superman and other DC heroes, but thankfully requires little to no understanding of specific continuity (although, such an understanding would probably make some of the side jokes funnier).

When our story opens, Superman is the most dangerous criminal in the world. He is currently being held at Arkham Asylum, yet every night he escapes, only to be caught and thrown back into captivity by the greatest hero of Gotham City: Bizarro. Oh yeah, and Superman can leap tall buildings in a single bound, but can’t fly, Wonder Woman stars in exploitation films, pies rain from the sky, and the city is run by evil, bald industrialist Lois Lane. It doesn’t take a major comic book geek to know that things are a little off. The bulk of the story is funny, outlandish, and nonsensical, although near the end it gets downright disturbing, and it’s a pretty enjoyable ride throughout. I really don’t want to give away too much but, unfortunately, one immediate downside to reading it in trade paperback (as opposed to in original issues as they came out) is that the very title and cover are a spoiler: Joker doesn’t make an appearance until almost halfway through the story. Trust me when I tell you, though, that it is a Joker story through and through… with all of the humor and chilling insanity that that implies.

Being a crossover, the story switches off writers as it goes; those involved are Jeph Loeb, Joe Kelly, Mark Schultz, and J.M. DeMatties, and they all do a good job, keeping it so consistent that, honestly, I could hardly tell the difference from one to the next. Were they each telling different stories that would be a criticism, but in something like this that says to me that they did a good job of collaborating and working out a specific tone. The artists are Ed McGuiness, Doug Mahne, Kano, and Mike Miller, and the cartoony style that many of them employ (which, granted, was big at the time) fits the narrative very well.

Emperor Joker would be a poor choice as someone’s first Superman story, but a cursory understanding of the world that these characters are supposed to be in is more than enough necessary for one to appreciate this absurd little story. (Although, it probably doesn’t hurt to know who Mr. Mxyzptlk is, hint hint.) Really, if you’ve watched the cartoons you’ll get most of what’s going on. But, on the other hand, those of you with a deeper understanding of these characters and their world will probably get more out of it than I did… and I really enjoyed it. The book is full of bright colors, action, heroes, villains, psychology, and dark, dark humor, all with a strange twist that topples the whole thing towards the surreal. That’s what comics are about.