Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told (DC Comics)

Rating:
Summary: See the Best of the clown prince of crime!
Review: I loved this book. The beggining comics are genius. The later ones can be crude I wouldn't advise this book for children under 10.But if your looking for the best this is it! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Rating:
Summary: You'll laugh, you'll....laugh, you'll........laugh more...
Review: Most of the stories in this book are a hillarious example of how corny comics were in the 1940's. Great stuff, you'll smile all through it. Unfortunetly, one of the last and most critically acclaimed Joker stories in the book, the Joker Fish, isn't what I expected. I found Dennis O'Neil's writing style to be overly worded and, well, dull. I could barely finish it. But that can't ruin the wild ride into the past you'll get from the old stuff.

Rating:
Summary: The joke is on you!
Review: The joke is on you if you do not buy this great collection of Joker stories. This collected edition is a goldmine of joker stories that are now classics in the Batman mythos. Stories range from the golden age of comics to the modern age. It is a must have for any Batman fan. A great collection of some of the best Joker tales in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: The Joker
Review: The Joker is my favorite Batman villian. I've just started to collect Joker comics again and am enjoying it and this is definitely a nice addition. I'm very picky with the way the Joker is drawn. Sometimes he has too big of a smile and doesn't even look human, but he looks good in a lot of these cartoons.

Rating:
Summary: Has some great moments, but overall disappointing
Review: This book looked great. Great cover, great concept - the Joker's best stories since his inception in 1940. Sadly, the kind yet insane people at DC Comics chose the strangest selection ever considering this was supposed to be the greatest stories EVER told. Included at the back of the book is a section by Mark Waid, who describes other Joker stories which didn't make the cut. Most of them actually sound better than the ones included, such as "The Last Laugh", in which the Joker erects a giant monument - of himself, naturally - in Gotham Harbour, and an issue in which he forces Batman into a boxing match with spiked gloves on. Sounds interesting, right?

Sadly, some genius decided that including numerous, interchangable, and mind-numbing stories from the 50s and 60s was more important in terms of page allocation. Each story is indistinguishable from the next, and none are especially interesting.

Two early highlights are from the early 1940s, when Bob Kane was still drawing Batman. These stories take place in a Gotham that consists of spooky haunted houses, with the Joker lunging out of the shadows to spook the bejesus out of you. Clowns are scary that way. One weird moment, however, is in "The Case of the Joker's Crime Circus", in which the writers make a point about introducing a midget called "Tino" to the reader, as if setting up a major plot point for later on. After Tino's eloquent introduction courtesy the Joker ("THIS IS TINO!"), he vanishes completely. Way to go, guys.

Things pick up, after 165 pages, with 1973's "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge". Regarded as one of the single best stand-alone Batman issues, it features a Denny O'Neil story and inventive Neal Adams art. The Joker sets about murdering his ex-gang members, coincidentally in the exact order Batman chooses to track them down in. The Joker is taking babysteps back to being threatening after the creative hell that was the 50s and 60s, and Batman is as heroic and compassionate as ever. The shark tank sequence is frankly awesome, but the ending is strange... after Batman catches the Joker, he leads him off by the scruff of his neck, and the Joker calmly complies. The Joker is supposed to be a homicidal, intelligent dynamo of evil, not a five-year-old kid. Still, this is cool.

The absolute high point is the double-whammy of "The Laughing Fish"/"The Sign of the Joker", by Steve Englehart. Despite some baffling-to-novices subplots, the result of its being from the middle of Englehart's run on Detective Comics, this is bloody beautiful. The Joker here is a murderer, a bully, creative, intelligent and, best of all, actually funny. Batman, also in top form, is run through the wringer to stop him. The art by Marshall Rogers is truly top-drawer stuff, but it's recommended you buy instead "Strange Apparitions", which collects Englehart's complete run.

There are only 3 other post-1970 stories, which range from fair to appalling. In "Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker", an otherwise acceptable story from 1980, the colouring is garish and disgusting. Which brings me to my next gripe: the original colours of these stories has been jettisioned for no discernible reason, and is instead coloured by contemporary (as of 1989) colourists. This is unnoticeable in most cases, but it's disappointing that the original colours weren't retained, in order to keep the stories as they were. The colours for the aforementioned story, though, are simply unforgivable. The Joker's suit at one stage appears to be bright blue. Nice one, Julianna Ferriter, whoever you are. May you never work in comics again.

This suffers badly from a baffling, terrible selection of stories, with really on three "great" ones in the whole bunch, two of which are really part of the same story. There were many, many other interesting selections which could have been made. The 1980s is sorely underrepresented, especially considering this collection was produced in 1989, and the most recent story contained within is from 1980. A three-part story from 1983 in which the Joker attempts to take over Guatemala, as detailed in the notes section, is a damn sight more interesting and worthy of inclusion than the umpteenth 50s story involving the Joker dressing up as Old King Cole or whatever the hell else he did back then. Sadly, their excuse is that they "didn't have enough space". Yes, you did, DC Comics. You just squandered it badly.

That said... it's OK. The best stories drag the rating up a star or two. The rest are either cute or intolerable. How intolerable? In "The Great Clayface-Joker Feud", Clayface escapes our heroes by morphing into a mystical flying sphinx. Loser.

Rating:
Summary: WARNING: IT'S A COMIC BOOK
Review: This is a COMIC book! It would have been nice to know that, since I was expecting something to READ, not a CARTOON picture book for children. If a comic is what you want, get it.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly good
Review: This is again one of those collections that proves 'old' comics (from the 40's-60's) don't neccesarilly have to be corny. The stories in this collection about the best (for me) Batman villain there is are all pretty enjoyable and some of them even very surprising as in aspects of storytelling and outcome. There some great stuff in here (also some mediocre, but can't win them all) with even some work of the great Neal Adams, the man who redefined the look of the Joker. Everyone who likes Batman comics will probably like this collection. A welcome addition to my collection at the very least.