James Tynion IV

The Joker War Saga collects Batman #95-100, Batgirl #47, Detective Comics #1025, Harley Quinn #75, Red Hood and the Outlaws 48, Nightwing 74, Catwoman 25, and Batman: The Joker War Zone #1 written by James Tynion IV, Cecil Castellucci, Peter J. Tomasi, Scott Lobdell, Sam Humphries, Dan Jurgens, Ram V, John Ridley, Joshua Williamson, and Sam Johns; with art by Jorge Jiménez, Robbi Rodriguez, Kenneth Rocafort, Brett Booth, Danny Miki, Ryan Benjamin, Richard Friend, Fernando Blanco, Riley Rossmo, Guillem March, Carlo Pagulayan, Oliver Coipel, David Lafuente, Laura Braga, and James Stokoe; colors by Jordie Bellaire, Tomeu Morey, Dan Brown, Ivan Plascencia, Arif Prianto, Rain Beredo, FCO Plascencia, Matt Hollingsworth, Hi-Fi, Antonio Fabela, James Stokoe; and letters by Clayton Cowles, Andworld Design, Rob Leigh, Dave Sharpe, A Larger World’s Troy Peteri, Tom Napolitano, Deron Bennett, and Gabriela Downie.

Following Alfred Pennyworth’s death, the Joker has managed to take control of Wayne Enterprises and publicly reveals that the Batman has used materials taken from the company, leveraging the company’s assets to wage war against the Bat-family. He uses the Wayne fortune to keep his goons on the streets, destroying Gotham in his plan to lure people to movie houses around the city in order to recreate Batman’s origin by playing Zorro and then dosing them with Joker toxin. Adding to his army is Punchline and a brainwashed Lucius Fox and Dick Grayson. The Bat-family must put aside their arguments to take on Joker’s army, with Harley Quinn joining Batman in order to leverage her unique insights into the Joker so that she can help defeat the man who nearly cost her her life. Batwoman and Red Hood have lately been on the outs with Bruce, but come back into the fold to play their parts to saving Gotham.

This storyline spanned all the main Bat titles, setting up stories that would expand upon its fallout for quite some time. It works as a major story tying together all these characters, though some of the adjacent stories seem disjointed from the primary action at times and this collection could do with a bit more of the background stories that built to the climax it features. Good for fans of the current Batman stories, but requires some prior knowledge of ongoing storylines across several titles.… (meer)