Why Joker by Brian Azzarello is no joke

  

Watch out, the Joker is out of jail, and he isn't happy. He gives Gotham the middle finger, and now it's time for him to seek revenge on those who wronged him while locked up. 

While that's a pretty basic summary, it is how the story unfolds throughout the pages of this well-written graphic novel. 

This graphic novel, published in 2008, is by far one of my favorites from DC in the past decade. And just so we are clear, this is not the Joaquin Phoenix-dancing-in-his-living-room-while-smoking-and-loving-his-mother type of story. But, not a diss on the film, it was terrific, and one fantastic aspect was the human side of the Joker; and of course, Phoenix's performance. However, it would help if you understood that this comic has an entirely different tone from that film.  
 This comic is violent and shows an animal side of Joker that is incredibly ruthless, unpredictable, and for lack of a better word: insane. 

This story is told from the perspective of Jonny Frost, a low-level henchman who volunteers to pick up the Joker on the day of his release from Arkham Asylum. The story proceeds as the Joker makes his way around Gotham, wreaking havoc and chaos. He recruits old henchmen and kills a multitude of others along the way. All the time, Jonny Frost continues to have some conflict, a sort of internal battle about where his life is going and how quickly it has changed since he started driving the Joker around. 

The depth of Frost's character is excellent, with several short monologues that show the internal conflict he's having. At several points in the story, the reader might begin to wonder if Frost will turn against the Joker or perhaps even run away to escape the violence. The ending of the story provides an answer to this foreshadowing, but not in a way the reader might have expected. 

The artwork by Lee Bermejo, is sensational. The colors and details juxtaposed with the dark manner of the story complement each other well. One thing that stood out to me is the extreme detail in the character's faces. During certain scenes in the comic, you can almost sense what the character is feeling based solely on their facial expressions. No endless droves of dialog are needed to get into these characters' heads. At first, the overall "darkness" in the drawings made me a little upset, making specific details harder to see. But as the story develops, I realized that the darkness is there for several reasons: one, to continue the overarching theme of violence and despair and the darkness that comes with it; and two, because these criminals are committing a vast majority of their crimes at night. The artist's talent seeps through the pages of the story with scenes in various locations, from dark and shadow-ridden, fireplace-lit dens to a shootout scene in the zoo; his range is displayed thoroughly. 

Overall, this graphic novel reads quickly, and the dialog flows through the story smoothly. In addition, the character development is intriguing, especially that of Jonny Frost. I highly recommend this graphic novel to anyone who is a fan of Joker's character in the DC universe.