Joker is back again. Seriously what the fuck. This makes three out of four arcs Snyder has written in the New 52 that has featured Joker.

Snyder's New 52 Batman run consists of the following:

1. Court of Owls
2. Death of the Family
3. Zero Year
4. EndGame

The Court of Owls storyarc is the only one that hasn't featured Joker.

Anyway, that's not even the worst thing about EndGame. This storyarc is just fucking stupid. It's on the second issue of the arc now, and I am really hating it already. I sorta kinda liked Snyder's previous three arcs, but EndGame is just really really bad. It takes the whole BatGod thing to the EXTREME baby!

The plot of EndGame in a nutshell:

Joker is back and he has somehow poisoned/mind controlled the Justice League to fight Batman. The first issue featured Batman easily taking down the whole League: Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, all the big hitters he takes down with ease (except Superman who doesn't appear until the last page). It was stupid watching Batman take them all down so easily. (Aquaman was kinda funny though because it played on the whole "Aquaman is lame" thing.)

The second issue is the next big Batman versus Superman fight. Oh my god, this was just pure stupid. Batman had a fucking miniaturized red sun in his gauntlet. Seriously what the hell. Comic science is fucked, but this is just retarded. A miniaturized red sun in Batman's gauntlet?? How does Batman even lift a sun, even a "miniature" one? Next up, Batman has some chewing gum made out of kryptonite that he spits in Superman's eye when Superman gets him in a chokehold. Kryptonite chewing gum...

Reading this issue reminds me so much of that infamous Billy Madison quote, "We are now dumber for having listened to it..."

And Batman in crazy armor pounding Superman to the ground with big-ass gauntlets powered by mini-red suns qualifies as "spectacle" to me.

However, I cannot suspend disbelief enough for Batman having red suns inside his gauntlets and being strong enough to actually lift a sun. Since when has Batman ever had sun-lifting super-strength? Are his gauntlets like Mjolnir? You just have to be worthy to lift them? "Whosoever holds this gauntlet, if he be worthy, shall possess the POWER OF THE BAT!"

that the Joker has been working at Arkham as orderly Eric Morder.

I have no issues with the over-the-top storytelling and when you get down to it, most people just want to see Batman kick ass using everything in his arsenal. The red sun gauntlets didn't bug me (especially if they've been Palmer-ized) but I did laugh out loud at the Kryptonite chewing gum. I was like "Really? Doesn't Batman know he'll get cancer from that?"

This is the third part of the Endgame storyarc, which just came out this week.

The whole BatGod vs Justice League is done now thankfully, and this issue was an improvement because of that.

Some very interesting things happened this issue.

Gordon was looking through old newspaper clippings and he noticed Joker in the background of a few of them. The very strange thing? One clipping was from 1910 and the other from 1940. So is Joker some kind of immortal supernatural boogeyman who has been haunting Gotham for at least a century? That seems to imply so...

Also, Joker definitively knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne now. It has been hinted at for a very long time, but it was never definitive until now. The issue ends with Joker blatantly saying "Hello Bruce" to Batman.

I haven't been reading this recently but not really sure how I feel about the implied notion that The Joker is immortal. Seems kind of cheesy to me.

I don't mind that The Joker knows that Bruce is Batman though. It sort of makes sense that he'd eventually figure it out.

Crazy Quilt returns! OMG! They never actually call him by the name Crazy Quilt, but you can tell that is who it is meant to be.

Last issue we saw Gordon finding those newspaper clippings from 1910 and 1940 with Joker in the background. This issue Batman finds a picture of what looks like a 1600's Mayflower type ship with Joker. WTF. So Joker is 400+ years old?

Joker is shot, and it should have been fatal. He regenerates from the shot.

It is revealed the virus that Joker has been infecting everyone with came from Joker's spine. It is this virus that basically makes him an immortal regenerating Wolverine-wannabe, but it doesn't work on anyone else. Everyone else infected by it becomes like a zombie.

This storyarc has been some really bizarre stuff. I'm not really sure what to make of the whole thing with Joker being some eternal boogeyman. On one hand, it makes him far creepier than he has ever been since he has been literally haunting Gotham forever. On the other hand, I don't like Joker having a definitive origin or a supernatural origin.

Ra's Al Ghul & Vandal Savage.

Someone posted that this may not actually be happening at all. It may be a Scarecrow story. Maybe Batman was dosed with fear gas and this whole thing of an immortal Joker is just a fear playing out in Batman's head. Maybe none of this is actually real.

That would be an interesting twist. There haven't been any clues to indicate that this is actually a Scarecrow story though, other than that it is all so incredibly bizarre and seems like it may be fear-induced rather than reality.

The Scarecrow idea would be a way better twist than suggesting that The Joker is immortal somehow. Not that storylines like this don't get retconned all the time in comics, but still I hate adding some goofy unneeded element to a character.

remember when Joker had his face cut off Face/Off style earlier in the New 52? I always hated that idea because 1) it is just stupid and 2) because realistically he would die from massive infection very quickly. Well maybe this whole immortal regenerating thing will explain why he didn't die from infection. He simply can't die. It would also explain his origin about how his acid bath didn't kill him but just bleached his skin white and hair green.

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