Comic Review: Joker: Year of the Villain (2019-) #1

Year of the Villain – Joker (2019-) #1

DC Comics

Writers: John Carpenter & Anthony Burch

Artist: Philip Tan

One of DC Comics’ current events (there’s like four going on at the same time right now) is the Year of the Villain. Lex Luthor gave gifts to a bunch of different villains to help them defeat their respective hero counterparts. Some of these are shown in regular ongoing comics, some are in one-shots like this one. These one-shots have all been pretty different so far, so I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it. Let me tell you, I’m pleasantly surprised.

Year of the Villain – Joker takes place in/during another DC event, the City of Bane, currently happening in the Batman comic. The villains are running the city, and taking advantage the Joker breaks out of prison, and run wild. With one henchman by his side, Six of Hearts, they put on Batman and Robin costumes and patrol the streets. Of course, it’s in an evil way, as the Joker is to do.

What I wasn’t expecting from this comic is that it’s completely from the point of view of Six of Hearts, the henchman. They’re both crazy, Six of Hearts admits as much in the story, and their attempt at being vigilantes goes how you would expect. The story as a whole, to me, feels like a much better representation of the Joker than another, Joker based thing that came out recently. What really took me by surprise is the writers behind this particular issue. Anthony Burch, lead writer of the video game Borderlands 2. But also by John Carpenter. Yes, that John Carpenter.

The art in this book is also fantastic. There’s a lot of cool imagery, including the Joker wearing a Batman costume. I like the look and tone the art adds to the story. There are panels throughout the issue that really grab my attention though. The border for some panels is just a long string of Joker “HaHaHas” and it’s great. A lot of things, including the coloring, all just add up to give it the dark/gritty tone that both the story and the character give.

This comic is great. I didn’t think it would be bad, but I’m surprised how much I came out liking it. The other Year of the Villain one-shot comics are good too, don’t get me wrong, but this one kind of took me by surprise. The story takes the view from someone other than the Joker and offers more than I think it would if it had been from the Joker’s point of view. The art on top of that matches the tone really well. For a semi-loose tie in comic, I think this is something that people should pick up and read.

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