The Joker is pregnant in DC’s new Batman comedian

It’s tough to jot down a narrative the place the Joker is the primary 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 improbable comedian — however that’s largely as a result of it’s secretly a narrative about James Gordon the place he hunts down the Joker, moderately than a straight-up Joker story. Nonetheless, 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 e-book in regards to the Joker.

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

What else is occurring within the pages of our favourite comics? We’ll inform you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly record of the books that our comics editor loved this previous week. It’s half society pages of superhero lives, half studying suggestions, half “have 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 in case you missed the final version, learn this.)

The Joker gets out of bed wearing an open dressing gown and boxers, revealing his swolen and apparently pregnant belly to his henchmen in The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #4.

Now, it seems that what really 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 somewhat Joker mud duplicate — and if that sounds darkly zany, that’s very a lot the purpose.

Rosenberg has instructed press that The Man Who Stopped Laughing’s again up tales are his tribute to the Silver Age, an period wherein superhero comics acquired 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 looks like a whole mpreg fever dream.

“You’ve come through the Last Door. A portal of my own creation,” the Scarlet Witch explains as she serves her guest tea. “It appears only to those in the direst of need. Those who feel they have no one left,” in Scarlet Witch #1.

Author Steve Orlando typically favors deep continuity dives and frenetic pacing that leaves me overwhelmed, however his first concern of Scarlet Witch is a beautiful one-and-done fable. If the sequence 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.

Close views of Lex Luthor’s back as, far away and framed between his legs, Superman catches a car in midair, then disappears in a streak of speed, then taps Luthor on the back. In the final panel of the page, a huge POW appears around Superman, whose punch has just thrown Luthor into the far distance in Action Comics #1050.

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

In honesty, I might have favored to have frolicked within the place of “everyone is aware of Superman is without doubt 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 doable… 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 have a look at it.

Iron Man explains that his plan to hire Skrulls to pretend to be him and do superhero work was inspired by Squirrel Girl. “I’ve taken Doreen’s advice and done more with it than anyone would’ve thought possible,” in Secret Invasion #3.

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

A giant snake suddenly attacks a screaming boy — and passes right through him because they are both ghosts. In fact the giant snake is actually coming out of the neck of a normal boy ghost. “What the fuck was that?!” they both yell. “Bro,” a girl yells at the snake boy, “Dom said don’t —” He protests back at her, his snake head wobbling and his arms gesturing emphatically and hilariously in The Sandman Universe: Dead Boy Detectives #1.

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

Johnny Storm reveals to his minimum wage coworkers that he’s secretly the Human Torch. “We knew, Johnny,” one says. “Johnny, you wanna turn that off before you trigger the sprinklers?” in Fantastic Four #3.

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

A series of concentric circles depicts the Amazons rending Hercules limb from limb. An outer circle of standing Amazons, a large inner circle of furious Amazons stabbing, slashing, and beating him as he screams, and a small center circle of ants overwhelming a preying mantis in Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons #3.

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

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