21Six.net

I know this is a couple of months old, but I’d like to talk a little bit about Detective Comics #826. For the sake of records, #826 was written by Paul Dini and is set around Christmas.

Unlike most issues of modern Detective Comics, this issue doesn’t directly focus on Batman and his detective skills, but focuses more on Robin (Tim Drake, for those who forgot) and The Joker.

The story starts out simple enough, Robin is being chased by various unsavory types, and eventually manages to lose them by breaking his motorcycle of one of the cars and hitching a ride on someone else’s vehicle. Only that someone else happens to be The Joker, who quickly incapacitates Robin and binds him with tape and Christmas lights.

Along the way, Joker runs over various people, calling in hit-and-runs to the police while Robin sits there look horrified, wondering if this is part of an elaborate torture method to break him. This method also includes putting the seat warmers on really high, and going to a drive-through and killing the manager of the burger joint following a rather rough altercation with the woman was on that section.

Towards the end, Joker starts towards a Santa, with children on his lap and says to Robin, “Last chance, junior. Sure you’ve got nothing to say to dear old Santa Claus?”

Robin looks to him and says, “You can’t fool me. There ain’t no Sanity Claus.”

Joker starts laughing, and veers away from the Santa, congratulating Robin on being a Marx brothers fan (something referenced earlier in the comic book, as well). Robin, however, uses this odd bonding moment as a means to escape from The Joker, by breaking free from his bindings and punching Joker in the face.

Robin uses some of Joker’s gas on the clown to finally escape. Joker thinks about the situation, noting how humorous he would find this if he happened to someone else, though upset it happened to him. In the end, however, he decided to go with “the joke” and managed to escape himself.

To me, this is one of the best Joker stories out there. It’s almost definitive. Joker is there, he’s crazy, his humor isn’t “So two guys walk into a bar…”, but it’s funny in his actions. He isn’t outrageous, or anything. It also shows that he’s more than just a “LOL!” kind of guy. He thought through what he was doing, at least, it seems like it he did. He placed a toy car on Robin’s seat to taunt him, to give him the illusion that he had control in the situation.

I want more Joker-related stories like this, instead of like Batman #663, or the thing in Batman Confidential.

Arkham Asylum was a good Joker story, too.