If Joker corrupts everything he touches, is there any hope left for the rest of us? If he had it his way, no, no there wouldn’t be any hope. Spoilers for Joker: Killer Smile #3 follow.
The first two issues of Joker: Killer Smile were fantastic. This really came as no shock given that Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino are one of the best creative teams in the industry right. Green Arrow, Gideon Falls, and now Joker: Killer Smile. This is genuinely one of the best books that DC has published under their Black Label imprint, despite its similarities to other stories that have just been released.
What this series has done well since the beginning is establishing the horror tone of the story. It has been relatively terrifying since the beginning, but this issue starts out creepy and continues to the entire way through. There’s such a fantastic feeling that Joker finally got a horror book and it’s being done by the premiere horror team in comics right now. This issue will make your heart race just from the cover.
What really pushes this issue over the edge horror-wise though is the framing of it. It’s framed and structured like a children’s book. Unsettling just with that structure this is upped by the children’s book-style captions as well as the drawings present throughout. It’s like we’re truly in the Joker’s mind in this issue and he sees the world as a story book where he’s the hero. It’s creepy as hell and it’s awesome because of that.
This book succeeds so much based on the horror and uneasiness it creates within in you, but it falters on the story level. Basically, this is a Harley Quinn origin story just with a divorced man, who doesn’t completely give into the Joker. The basic premise is very much the story we just saw in Harleen by Stjepan Sejic and other Harley origins. There are enough differences where it can’t be construed as a carbon copy, but there are a lot of similar beats. And it can’t even be called a copy really because of the presumably similar production schedules of the books. It’s just coincidence and bad luck that this book came out after Harleen. It also helps that this book is a psychological horror and Harleen was a sexual thriller to differentiate the two stories a bit more.
But really, the star of this issue is Andrea Sorrentino. His art is mind-blowing in pretty much every issue he does, no matter the series and that continues here. He manages to balance the horror that we are witnessing on-page, as well as the genuine emotion the characters feel in an incredible way. There’s a fluidity to his page layouts that really shouldn’t work, but they do with aplomb and really accentuate the horror. He also uses negative space very well to create a feeling of isolation throughout the subliminally enhances the story being told. It’s extremely well done. Combine that with Jordie Bellaire’s gorgeous coloring work, this is one beautiful issue.
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[…] CHECK OUT: Joker: Killer Smile #3 Review: Children’s Stories are Terrifying […]