Written by Paul Cornell
Illustrated by Pete WoodsThe last place Lex Luthor expected his quest for the Black Lantern energy to take him was Arkham Asylum — specifically to the cell of The Joker! What clues about Lex’s quest could The Joker have to offer, and why on Earth would Lex trust him? Get ready for a one-of-a-kind confrontation between comics’ two greatest villains, as brought to you by the twisted minds of Paul Cornell and Pete Woods!
Cornell and Woods are back with arguably the best Luthor story imaginable, and the upward trend of issues continue. Last issue we had Luthor, Savage, and the Secret Six, but now? Now we have his polar opposite, the Clown Prince of Crime.
While we might certainly be feeling the loss from the Jimmy Olsen back-up, a Joker-centric fracas is certain to be entertaining. So as much as we all may love Superman/Batman team-ups, how does the “team-up” between Luthor and the Joker play out?
Find out after the cut.
Action Comics has long been the most enjoyable Superman family book. Even with recent memory, we’ve had Geoff Johns on a terrific run through the book, followed by the book being taken over by Greg Rucka featuring Nightwing and Flamebird (one of the more interesting Kryptonian-mythos based storylines from New Krypton) before finally landing with Cornell and Woods. And as good as those runs were, it’s fair to say that – with three more Luthor issues left (that we know of!) – Action Comics is the best Superman-related story at the moment, and the irony is that it stars his greatest villain.
Blackest Night was a lot of things, but despite your feelings towards it it’s undeniable that it left a massive fallout in the DCU. It was almost a surprise to see Cornell take Luthor to Action Comics like this, but while the rest of the heroes are trying to figure out the mystery of the light, Luthor is focusing solely on the dark. It’s with this that he now finds himself face to fa ce with his polar opposite and one of the darkest characters in the DCU, the Joker. From the moment that Joker appears in the story, the entire mood shifts from the eccentricities that have been apparent with the rest of this book. Of course, the oddity of that is that you’d imagine that a meeting with the Joker might be one of the most light hearted sequences, as the opening scenes are certainly filled with twisted jokes from the maniacal clown, but the entire sequence is rather dark, tense, and sinister – and honestly, there’s no better way to have it.
Anyone who has read Cornell’s Knight and Squire knows that Cornell is certainly no stranger to injecting humor (or humour) into his villains, but oddly enough Cornell doesn’t do that directly with the Joker here. The Joker has been portrayed many different ways, but Cornell’s Joker is a bit more bi-polar and that much more twisted. He bounces between being a clown, someone much more existential than the Joker, and even the Riddler. It’s a tad bit uneven, but at the same time it honestly makes sense for a character like the Joker. The Joker has always been mental, but with a bullet lodged in his brain this is even more true. While this isn’t necessarily Grant Morrison’s recent work with the Joker, elements of the Oberon Sexton mentality are still there, and in the end the Joker is – well, the Joker.
Of course, as the Joker is the carrier for one the black orbs, the ending takes it’s own twist as Luthor once again makes an attempt to harness the power of the energy, and this leads to one of the strangest endings of the books yet. Cornell had been planting tiny seeds of something bigger happening the entire time, and not only does Joker somehow have the knowledge of the meeting between Lex and Death, but even more additional information about the story comes to light by the end of the issue that a) is rather confusing b) is borderline existential and c) will assumedly make more sense within the next two issues. I say this in regards to a specific scene which I’ve whited out in order to not spoil anything: Lex’s Lois-bot pushes Lex’s science advisor into the ensuing disaster that is the expanding black orb, watching him die and then immediately blaming it on the Joker who takes ownership of the event. While this is a somewhat confusing moment, it does kind of make sense to the characters (especially from a line of dialogue between Lois-bot and Mr. Mind last issue), and it can be assumed that this will make sense as the story wraps up soon.
Continued belowWith the last issue, Woods art was a tad off, but I’m pleased to note that he is back on fire with this issue. While I’m not actually sure why the last issue looked so weird, this issue looks great if but for one thing: the uneven Joker face. Woods has a very noticeable style that actually brings a lot of youth to these older characters (I can only guess how old Lex is by now), but with the Joker Woods ends up dropping elements in and out. The Joker has a bullet in his brain, very visually apparent in Morrison’s run with the character in Batman. In Action Comics, the Bullet mark appears and disappears at times. But while I think that’s ultimately forgivable, the weird thing here is lines that the Joker has on his face. From the corner of each lip, the Joker now has visual markings that curl up his face in a facsimile to a clown mask, but it rather noticeably changes length and angular shape as well as downright disappears at points. The rest of the book looks absolutely great, with huge moments captured by great characters (and Lois-bot looks particularly fetching/bad ass in this issue), but the Joker is the odd man out. The Joker is an insane character with wild character shifts, but the inconsistency in his artistic portrayal here is rather apparent.
Action Comics is definitely one of the best things to happen both in the wake of New Krypton and Blackest Night, and the comic has managed to contain some of the most fun Luthor stories in quite a while. It’s undoubtable that in the future, when all is said and done and the story is collected, this will be a rather popular and revered storyline for the character, which is entirely deserved. Luthor being matched up with different villains per story is a genius move, and Cornell and Woods are doing wonderfully with the whole premise. The next issue promises to be an absolute blast, and the teaser at the end not only gives extreme confidence in Cornell’s handling of the character of Larfleeze(even if the location doesn’t match up with where the character is in Geoff John’s run) but also shows an absolutely awesome design by Woods, which will hopefully make up for the oddity of the Joker’s shifting portrayal in this issue.
Final Verdict: 8.9 – Buy
