Macabre Art – comic book review “Joker / Harley: Killer Mind”

The Joker is a cult figure. This is perhaps the most famous opponent of Batman. Will the genesis of this iconic villain in Joker / Harley: The Killing Mind bring a breath of fresh air to the world of DC?

 

City of crime

Joker / Harley: A killer mindit begins, of course, with a crime. A halved body was found on a park bench. Nevertheless, this murder is not as crucial as the tragedy that happened five years ago. It was she who directed Harley to a completely different career path. When she found her roommate dead in the bathtub, something broke in her and she wanted to get the murderer at all costs – this was called the Joker. In this way, Harley became a profiler and an invaluable support to the police, including Commissioner Gordon. The authors constantly interweave events related to the present and the past! Fortunately, it’s easy to get caught up in it thanks to the graphics. Well, current events are presented mainly in black and white. The past, on the other hand, is shown in color, with a truly photographic precision! So, on the plane of retrospect, we find out which put the Joker on a crime path, and at the same time we can see that Harley didn’t have an easy life either. In contrast, the action in the present focuses on the investigation of a psychopath who creates macabre works of art out of people.

Psychopath versus profilarka

The story of this comic is undoubtedly intriguing. The crimes of the Jokerthey are very brutal, sometimes even shocking. The flashbacks, thanks to which we learn about the characters’ motivations, should also be appreciated. Not only that, in fact, these frames also contain a fairly simple, but interesting genesis of the Joker. However, even while reading this comic book, I had mixed feelings. I did not expect Batman here, although he appears in several frames and even plays a significant role in a certain event. However, it didn’t feel like Gotham at all. The names, characters, and places match, but it’s closer to this comic book for a thriller or detective story. All the time I felt that it would be enough to make small corrections, just to change the names and we would simply have policemen at the head of the brilliant profiler hunting for a psychopath. I am completely unfamiliar with the Joker from this position. He’s neither so erratic nor crazy like the one known from other comics or games or movies. He plans everything, leaves no traces, if he doesn’t want to, no one will catch him. He is a ruthless and cruel murderer, and at the same time a macabre artist. You can see that the authors wanted to create an authentic, realistic psychopath that could exist in the real world. However, I did not like this vision of the Joker. In this respect, I felt disappointed unfortunately.

The laughter of a psychopath

Joker / Harley: The Killing Mind is a solid volume in an enlarged format. Compared to the DC Deluxe series, for example , it makes an amazing impression, and at the same time, the cartoonists could do their best. The frames of the past are extremely detailed, they just look like photos! On the other hand, the black and white scenes build a dark, terrifying atmosphere. It’s worth reading this comic for the sake of the visuals! In addition, about halfway through the volume, the entire chapter was filled with tons of documents related to the investigation – great idea! There is a very interesting interview at the end that shows how the cartoonists worked together!

Is it worth getting to know the Joker?

I really have a problem judging this comic. It is undoubtedly, in all respects, a great comic book. Nevertheless, it did not fully meet my expectations. The Realistic Joker is scary, but has no charm at the same time. He is a drop in the ocean of all kinds of psychopaths who have seen masses of movies and books. To think that in this vision he is not even laughing because he is focusing on his task all the time! I expected the authors to go in a completely different direction, which of course does not change the fact that the story is to some extent outstanding. However, when I think about these gruesome crimes, I honestly don’t really feel like going back to this position again. To sum up, Joker / Harley: Killer Mind is a piece of a solid comic book, although the character of the Joker will probably not appeal to everyone.