This book is a multi-part story spread across various Super-titles and collects Superman #160-161, Adventures of Superman #582-583, Superman: Man of Steel #104-105, Action Comics #769-770 and Superman: Emperor Joker #1. As the story is spread across the four titles and one special so the it and the art is also divided amongst the regular creative teams on each title.
In the story, Mr Mxyzptlk has been tricked into giving his power to the Joker who uses it to reshape the universe in his image and torment his enemies. In the Joker’s universe the JLA are made up of villains, the superheroes are all villains and Batman is tortured and killed every night. Superman is subjected to a groundhog day where he escapes from Arkham but is always captured and returned by Bizarro. Mr Mxyzptlk tries to help Superman break out of the cycle so that he can return the world to normal.
This was an OK book. I think the number of writers on the story and the fact that it was spread over several titles probably didn’t help the flow – there was too much time spent on Superman’s groundhog day for me (it wasn’t until the third chapter that it was broken). The Joker didn’t make his appearance until the middle of the book which I thought was way too long – it might be fine in the monthly titles when trying to build a mystery or suspense but in the collected edition the pacing doesn’t feel right. The Joker himself is in full deranged/deluded mode as he constantly remodels the universe as he sees fit for the maximum torment of the principal characters. The fact that it has taken me a while to get through it is not a good sign – though it was also over the holidays when I had other pulls on my time – but still it was worth a read to see the Joker go up against the boy scout (though he still needed help from you-know-who).
First published on RevolutionSF on Wednesday Jan 05, 2011
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