#the fucking joker year one arc or whatever it was called changed art styles at the drop of a hat

[athena14044]

I just got done reading the most recent issue in the Evil Zur-En-Arrh Alternate Personality Batman made a murder robot because Bruce won't go far enough Arc, which was interrupted in the middle by Incomprehensible Joker Origins: Origins of the Joker Arc, and before Evil Zur-En-Arrh Batman was Gotham War: Batman says All Crime is Wrong (don't worry about the fact that he's a vigilante), and before Gotham War was Shadow War: Kill Ra's al Ghul, and before Shadow War was Fear State: Future State 2 but with Scarecrow this time, and before Fear State was Joker War: This one had Punchline or something, and before Joker War was City of Bane: uh oh Alfred is dead, and somewhere in there was The Wedding: Or Not Actually because Batman Can't Be Happy, and if we go back even farther there was the War of Jokes and Riddles: The Joker and Riddler have Beef for Some Reason and before that, you get my point.

Last week I read Detective Comics 612-621 and guess what. Every issue had a new plot. There were no wars. Batman saved people. The only issues that had an ongoing story arc were the issues where Tim Drake's mother died. And you know why that worked? Because it didn't come right after some other Life-Changing Event.

At some point Comic Book Writers all decided that they had to leave a Mark. Alfred is dead. Batman gets married. Batman has a homoerotic frenemy from his past who's the Coolest Guy Ever that sooo much page time is going to be devoted to instead of like, Robin or someone. There are Three Jokers and at least one of them, it's unclear, was trained by one of the guys who trained Batman. Everything always has to one-up itself. I'm so fucking tired of it.

I genuinely think that every Batman writer should be forced to write like twenty issues featuring the Condiment King or some equivalently stupid villain before they're allowed to touch the Joker. Either they'll give up or they'll be forced to take themselves less seriously.