As team ups go, there are few more unlikely than one between Batman and The Joker. Just the very idea of Gotham’s Dark Knight and perhaps its most lethal and deranged villain—one who is obsessed with said Dark Knight—has a surreal quality to it and it’s that surreal quality that makes Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo #1 not just an intriguing concept, but one that seems tailor made for Marc Silvestri and DC’s Black Label. By taking what feels like an unconventional and unsettling pairing and attaching it to a harder, more authoritarian take on Batman and Gotham that Black Label allows, this dense issue both captures a great deal of Batman’s noir aspects and pushes the boundaries of what readers expect from both hero and villain.
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The issue spends most of its time setting up for The Joker’s pitch for a team up with Batman and in doing so, makes it clear this Gotham is something akin to a “classic version,” with a Harley Quinn who when in trouble still has faith that her “Puddin’” will come to her aid. While on many levels that is a questionable choice—there is something unnecessary about damsel-ing Harley to set a tone—it certainly gives the reader a landmark for where they are in Gotham. There is no mistaking from these opening pages that Silvestri is going for a dark take on the city and its characters, something that is quickly realized as we find Batman dealing with a deranged serial killer possessing eerie similarities to the Joker. The issue culminates in the actual Joker showing up with a bit of leverage that he uses to secure Batman’s help in saving Harley.
As a plot, it’s simple and straightforward, but it works exceptionally well as it allows for the mood and approach to shine. This is a very atmospheric issue, one that is at turns gruesome, action-packed, and over-the-top all while leaning hard into the gritty, pulpy aspects of Batman that many readers enjoy. This Batman is hard and calculating, but not without some humor – there’s banter between Batman and Alfred that works particularly well in that regard because of how serious the rest of the issue is. The narration is heavy throughout, providing a noir feel, but it keeps readers rooted in the moment. When you pair this with Silvestri’s rather distinctive and almost frenetic style of art and then layer onto that Arif Prianto’s muted colors the result is a hard-edged comic that feels very much like being caught in a cold rain with a puzzle to solve before you can get somewhere warm and dry. In other words, it feels very much like an elevated, modernized take on 90s neo-noir and it works. If there is any aspect of the issue that feels like a miss—the Harley of it all notwithstanding—it’s that the issue does feel like it’s a few pages too long. There’s perhaps a bit too much time building this particular world – a touch too much of Batman being, well, Batman.
Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo #1 is at its core a team up that no one would really expect and thus could easily devolve into gimmick territory. Fortunately, Silvestri instead delivers a substantial and gritty opening chapter to a tale that feels like it’s only going to drag the reader into darker territory before it brings them back into the light. While not without flaw, it’s very much an intriguing start for this standalone miniseries and definitely satisfies the craving for dark takes on the Dark Knight.
Published by DC Comics
On November 1, 2022
Written by Marc Silvestri
Art by Marc Silvestri
Colors by Arif Prianto
Letters by Troy Peteri
Cover by Marc Silvestri
