Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I pre-ordered this paperback after reading the outstanding teaser. The concept of The Joker going good as another play, in his long line of schemes was intriguing. I think the writer did a fantastic job of setting up the argument, used by the joker in his case against the collusion between GCPD & an increasingly unhinged Batman. Personally, I’m a big proponent of tossing canon out the window to enjoy a writer’s exploration of characters in a new space, which was why I was so excited to read this book. Here comes the but, the insistent dog whistles and head nods to leftist cause de-jure became repetitive, with the subtlety of a ball pin hammer. I think Mr. Murphy has talent, I would be enraptured then flip the page and run smack into loaded cultural or political jab with zero nuance. Which I think makes their inclusion so jarring, the book goes from a great story to bad political editorial page-to-page. Let me give you an example. Early in the book people are protesting GCPD because a viral video of Batman beating The Joker to a pulp, while GCPD looked on, was released. The video is synonymous with police brutality and the public is rightly upset. It’s a head nod to BLM and policing standards, it works. It’s certainly a political message with references to real world events, it’s well executed, and it works within the framework of the story. In another scene a slight of frame Harley Quinn kicks another woman in the face, insults the size of her breasts, then through dialog preaches to the reader about feminism. It’s incredibly poorly executed and just all round bad. Unfortunately, there’s more bad examples than good, which constantly pulled me from what should have been a spectacular story. In my opinion, it’s more than fine to inject politics into comics but the author has a narrative to craft and nurture. The political points must intermingle seamlessly with that narrative & can’t have more in common with a twitter post, than a point in a story.