The Joker is pregnant in DC’s new Batman comedian

It’s troublesome to jot down a narrative the place the Joker is the principle character. That is the case with many villains, however the Clown Prince of Crime’s conventional stream of consciousness method to criminality doesn’t precisely assist.

I imply, certain, James Tynion (et al.)’s The Joker is a incredible comedian — however that’s largely as a result of it’s secretly a narrative about James Gordon the place he hunts down the Joker, somewhat than a straight-up Joker story. However, Matthew Rosenberg (What’s the Furthest Place From Right here?) and Carmine Di Giandomenico (Batman: The Knight) try simply that: The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing actually is only a guide concerning the Joker.

And it comes with some really stream of consciousness again up tales, drawn by Francesco Francavilla (The Joker) by which, nicely. Yeah. The Joker seems to be pregnant for a web page or two.

What else is going on within the pages of our favourite comics? We’ll let you know. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly listing of the books that our comics editor loved this previous week. It’s half society pages of superhero lives, half studying suggestions, half “take a look at this cool artwork.” There could also be some spoilers. There is probably not sufficient context. However there will likely be nice comics. (And should you missed the final version, learn this.)

Picture: Matthew Rosenberg, Francesco Francavilla/DC Comics

Now, it seems that what truly occurred is that he swallowed a bunch of mud on the similar time that Zatanna was cursing him and one thing magical most likely occurred and anyway he barfs up a little bit Joker mud duplicate — and if that sounds darkly zany, that’s very a lot the purpose.

Rosenberg has advised press that The Man Who Stopped Laughing’s again up tales are his tribute to the Silver Age, an period by which superhero comics obtained a bit dada, with extra fashionable, violent incarnations of the character courtesy of creators like Alan Moore, Brian Bolland, Scott Snyder, and Greg Capullo. And certainly, in his backups with Francavilla, there’s loads of bisected our bodies, level clean executions, and gorilla-with-a-machine-gun carnage, and all of it appears like an entire mpreg fever dream.

Picture: Steve Orlando, Sara Pichelli/Marvel Comics

Author Steve Orlando generally favors deep continuity dives and frenetic pacing that leaves me overwhelmed, however his first problem of Scarlet Witch is a beautiful one-and-done fable. If the collection retains up the framing of Wanda fixing the issues of every new character who walks via her magical final resort door, I can see myself having fun with many extra problems with this bantery, episodic journey comedian.

Picture: Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Tom Taylor, Joshua Williamson, Nick Dragotta/DC Comics

The Superman mythos took a swerve on this New 12 months, by giving Superman a secret identification as soon as once more. Lex Luthor did some machinations with a psychic and, now, apart from Superman’s closest family and friends, no person is aware of that Superman and Clark Kent are the identical particular person and should you attempt to inform them they might have a large stroke.

In honesty, I might have favored to have frolicked within the place of “all people is aware of Superman is likely one of the world’s most trusted investigative journalists” for some time longer, however I’ve to confess that Luthor’s reasoning for it — “If the world wants Superman, then I’ll give them the very best model attainable… The world must imagine you’re a god. That you’re above them, not certainly one of them” — is such a direct shot throughout the bow of the final decade of Superman movies I feel I felt my hair transfer.

However “Susana,” you say, “this picture has nothing to do with that,” and also you’re appropriate. It’s simply that this Nick Dragotta-drawn web page fuckin’ guidelines and everybody ought to take a look at it.

Picture: Ryan North, Francesco Mobili/Marvel Comics

OK so not solely did Ryan North put a wordless Squirrel Woman cameo in Secret Empire, this story about Skrulls and Maria Hill and the Avengers can be a direct sequel to an Unbeatable Squirrel Woman arc? This guidelines.

Picture: Pornsak Pichetshote, Jeff Stokely/DC Comics

Useless Boy Detectives — they’re two ghost boys from totally different eras, they clear up crime and run from Loss of life — is my favourite The Sandman spinoff. Like most Sandman spinoffs, DBD collection don’t normally final very lengthy, however I hope this one goes 1,000,000 years as a result of I love how author Pornsak Pichetshote and artist Jeff Stokely staged this second when our traditional boy detectives meet some Thai ghost youngsters.

Picture: Ryan North, Iban Coello/Marvel Comics

I didn’t anticipate to learn a comic book concerning the Human Torch unionizing his minimal wage office this week, however I did and I loved it.

Picture: Kelly Sue DeConnick, Nicola Scott/DC Comics

Surprise Girl Historia: The Amazons has lastly reached its conclusion, which implies I can formally say, for the primary time, that its collected version will likely be certainly one of Polygon’s finest comics of 2023.