“Joker: Killer Smile” explores the fall of an ambitious psychiatrist who dares to cure the Clown Prince of Crime.
Written by Jeff Lemire
Illustrated by Andrea Sorrentino
Colored by Jordie Bellaire
Lettered by Steve WandsEveryone knows The Joker doesn’t have the most promising history with psychotherapists. In fact, no one’s even been able to diagnose him. But that doesn’t matter to the confident, world-beating Dr. Ben Arnell; he’s going to be the one to unravel this unknowable mind. There’s no way The Joker could ever get through the therapeutic walls Ben has built around himself. Right? There’s no way The Joker’s been entering his house at night…right? There’s no way The Joker has stood over his son’s bed, and put that book in his hands, the one with the, the, the…
The Eisner-nominated creative team of Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino (GREEN ARROW, Gideon Falls) reunite for a psychological horror story where nothing is as it seems, your eyes can’t be trusted and Mr. Smiles is waiting behind the basement door.
Wait, who’s Mr. Smiles?
In “Joker: Killer Smile” #1, Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Jordie Bellaire, and Steve Wands deliver a psychological horror starring the Joker. Audiences have seen the Joker bend and break well-meaning people before but not like this. Despite this story existing in the DC Universe, with men dressed up like bats and killer clowns, Lemire and Sorrentino create a grounded horror that makes not only the protagonist Ben Arnell, but the audience feels like we are losing our grip on reality.
Lemire’s script is tremendously solid and well-paced and sets the premise and world of “Joker: Killer Smile”. Lemire starts with the Joker talking about beauty in one of his many massacres of the people of Gotham and we are then introduced to our protagonist, Ben Arnell. The man who would cure the Joker. The smartest thing about the book is that Lemire doesn’t try to make the audience empathize with the Joker. The Joker is about as sympathetic as Hannibal Lecter. He’s the monster of the book, one that we feel like we need to scream at Ben run out of the room. The premise of a psychiatrist seeking to cure the Clown Prince of Crime is not a new approach to the character and Lemire puts that on the table in a scene with Ben and an Arkham administrator who gives a really human and empathetic sentiment to not lose another young mind to that monster. Lemire not only gives the personal stakes for this story but also places the question of ego in Ben. The whole story seems to have shades of Malcolm Long’s story from “Watchmen” which is likely referenced by the giant Rorschach painting in Ben’s home (which is a wild thing to have in your home as a psychiatrist).
Lemire also drip feeds the effect of his work life on his home life and those relationships. Lemire’s dialogue creates a very human atmosphere which is enhanced by Sorrentino’s natural gestures and facial expression which makes it all the more unsettling when this home life is disrupted and tainted by the Joker’s influence such as the storybook about Mr. Smiles a killer clown come to destroy Happyville that ends up in Ben’s son’s room.
Andrea Sorrentino and Jordie Bellaire’s artwork does so much to sell the descent in the rest of “Joker: Killer Smile” #1. As Ben wakes up in the middle of the night to investigate a sound, Bellaire shifts the color scape to an unnatural blue with a messy red distinguishing Ben. As Ben gets closer to the sound the panel borders get distorted and skewed before nearly falling off the page which is an excellent storytelling decision to emphasize the suspense of the scene. Sorrentino and Bellaire continue to go nuts with page layouts as the book continues and as Ben gets more and more affected by the Joker. There’s a page that recounts “The Laughing Fish” Joker story which is just gorgeous to look at but what really pushes the horror is Joker referencing “Mr. Smiles” in front of Ben which sends him out of the room. Ben’s in the bathroom and the same distortion of the panels hits leading to another intense page layout on the next page. Panels of Ben noticing a bloody bathroom are done in the shape of teeth that reference that killer smile. These teeth recreate the suspense of the earlier sequence but the horror is upfront because teeth are…gross. The suspense builds to Ben finding a dead body with a telltale Joker smile but it immediately revealed to be just some guy using the restroom.
Continued belowWhile Ben has been having this break, the Joker continues to narrate the story of Mr. Smiles and Happyville and how one animal came to Mr. Smiles who invited him in and the animal fully knew he’d be killed but he did it anyway to know what it felt like. This ending of this first issue does feel as though it leans into a bit of an artificial “twistedness” that’s easy to get into with the Joker, it does create intrigue and mystery along with an unsettling cliffhanger to see just how badly Ben’s life is going to get before “Joker: Killer Smile” is over and done.
“Joker: Killer Smile” takes a familiar concept of an uncurable patient and an ambitious psychiatrist and exacerbates the horror of that story by pushing the intimacy of the scope. The Joker isn’t locked in a life or death conflict with Batman on whether he kills half of Gotham. Readers are drawn into the story through investment in Ben and his family and just how Ben’s proximity to this darkness affects his life. The story has the potential to lean into the “twisted” but the expert collaboration of page layouts of Sorrentino and colors of Bellaire create a well-crafted horror comic that creates suspense in extremely creative and diabolical ways.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – “Joker: Killer Smile” #1 utilizes incredibly suspenseful storytelling techniques to create a captivating and grounded horror book centered around Gotham’s Clown Prince of Crime
