BW Media Spotlight

I’m on record as hating the whole “Three Jokers Theory” bit because it’s just unnecessary. The Joker is insane. If he goes on robberies one caper and a revenge-fueled murder spree the next, and some lethal version of slapstick just to cause chaos, it’s not because there are three of them. It’s because falling into the vat of chemicals screwed up his mind. He doesn’t need an origin. Any attempt to give him one takes away from the character, no matter what Alan Moore or Tim Burton want to do or not do. He doesn’t need backstory before the chemical bath. He doesn’t need a name. He’s the Joker. Anything else ruins him narratively as a character by taking away part of his menace by being knowable. As I’ve said before, we should learn the Doctor’s name before we learn the Joker’s. (Hey, links to three BW articles about the Joker. Am I part of the problem?)

Not that it stops someone like Retcon Geoff Johns.

Before the next reboot occurred, Johns bought in to the “Three Jokers Theory” and was going to make it canon. Instead he went to Black Label for the canon-questionable Three Jokers miniseries. Black Label is the more “mature” of the DC imprints, allowing for darker, more violent stories…in a comic franchise that has included a guy who disfigures children for the…actually, I don’t know what Professor Pyg’s motives are and I don’t care. I hate that he exists, like I hate what they did to Superman’s villain Toyman in recent years. Point is Black Label seems already pointless when the mainline titles aren’t the same as what I started reading as a kid and wouldn’t show to a kid the same age because DC now hates kids or something.

Linkara of Atop The Fourth Wall doesn’t really like this comic, the theory, what’s been done with Jason Todd, and a few other things. In an extra long 800th episode, he tackles this comic and everything wrong with it and the current state of Batman comics. Since it is so long, it’s more Saturday Night Showcase material than anything else, but I’m putting it here because I need the buffer this week, and because Saturday Night Showcase is more about me showcasing some old show, new webseries, or long fan video that’s meant to be fun entertainment. This is examining a comic that isn’t bad as a story, because for all of my issues with Johns (which he seems to agree with), it’s one that really doesn’t need to exist and is a continuity mess all the way around, which Linkara also goes into.

Two things of note, though. Lewis Lovhaug has been having scheduling issues lately that has taken up his time (I can relate), and thus part of this video uses his own continuity through characters he created to make the reviews fun and homage his own love of storytelling as a sort of catharsis. He explains to the audience and himself why his release schedule has been slipping for so long. Personally, he should consider hiring an editor. One person I follow does four live streams a week, appears on other podcasts, recently wrote an autobiography, does fan meet-ups, and still puts out at least a video a week because he has three editors and a stream producer. If he can afford one editor, it would help him a lot.

The other is that despite calling his show “escapist entertainment” there are a couple of spots where…let’s just say he reminds you he’s a former conservative. He doesn’t get as bad as other more politically minded reviewers, but I should warn you he takes a couple of shots. And his guests might swear…so three things. I still watch his shows despite his current leanings because he still has good opinions on storytelling.

Continue reading →