For the record I began reading this comic over a month ago but after I saw the first couple of pages I got so incensed and unruly that I needed to put it down and walk away for a bit. What an absolute fucking debacle the first page was. Are you kidding me? Dude, like, get Murphy back on this, stat! I wanna see Murph throw on some kicks and bust a move over to wherever the hell this Clay McDoobedyboobedy is and knock a sucka out. Knock him out Moiph! I’ve had it! My beloved White Knight now a Pudgy Beige Pawn. For all that is good and holy guacamole in the comic book galaxy can you please wipe away the stankity stank stank that has been smeared on the greatest alternative Bat Universe that has ever been created?
Sean, look, clearly this ridiculous attempt to be a White Knight book isn’t your wonderful wife’s fault. I can see it now. You two were tenderly holding each other in bed in the morning chatting about all good things, maybe I should do this, maybe you should do that. You both came up with an idea about a new White Knight story. Murph said ‘I got you Baby’ made a phone call to DC, they were like, ‘Sounds amazing send Katana in!’ She hopped in her whip and coasted over to Burbank, headed upstairs, met with some suits. They were down but then – then, one of them said:
Suit: Hey you know who would be great on this? My nephew Clay!
Katana: Oh, uh, yeah, he just, umm, Red Hood thing? Uh, I don’t -
Suit: Hey, Regina, can you send Clay in here?
[Clay walks in, he’s wearing jorts, flip flops, a retro Chewbacca t-shirt one size too short and a red tinted visor]
Suit: Clay, Katana has a great idea for a story about Hologaphic Joker’s kids.
Clay: Bagga Boogah Bagga Boogah Shmoogah
Suit: I know, it’s great, let’s hook you two up and get this story crack-a-lackin'!
That’s how an innocent lovely idea birthed from the Egyptian Cotton sheets of Murphy and Collins turned into a rotting turnip of a comic. What did he do? What happened on that first page that sent me in a tailspin?
Okay, ready for this, the cliffhanger from the first issue is that Scarface’s kid had the Holographic Joker and his kids surrounded by a bunch of other, I dunno, Actors maybe, with puppets. Here, look:
Totally a Batman 66 vibe, but, whatever. So the second issue starts and they’ve already escaped the circle! Like they went from being surrounded by psychotic ventriloquists to climbing a ladder! HOW THE FUCK DID THEY GET THERE CLAY MCNUMBNUTS??? Did Katana have a great idea and at the last minute you called the guy you buy your meth from at the printer and told him to delete the panels, just because? Look at this:
What happened? How did they get from being surrounded by the Mistress of Puppets and some avante garde lower east side actors/puppeteers to climbing a ladder to freedom! This is a joke right? It’s like if James Bond was tied to a table and the buzzsaw was heading for his nuts and the filmmakers then cut to him punching out the baddie with no action sequence of him escaping. It’s like Luke, Han, Chewie and Leia in the trash compactor one moment and then, boom! They’re running down a corridor talking to Alec Guinness’ floating head. Dude!
Real quick, I love that there’s like 5 Actors in full black get-ups operating the other puppets. What a casting call that would have been! I would have loved to audition for Creepy Second Rate Villain Accomplice #3. It would’ve been Non Union but you would’ve gotten: Free Meals, Uber reimbursed, IMDB credit, Free black spandex onesie.
So the Kids escape, send HoloJoke back into a hard drive and then are beset upon by the Joker’s gang in a cemetery where his tombstone rests. Clay really did that? Yes he did. It’s a Gang in a cemetery! Oh fer goodness sake. We have veered off into total Scooby Doo vibes. Yes. That is exactly what the Jokers Motorcycle Gang would be doing. They’d drive their motorcycles into a cemetery and just hang out there for no reason whatsoever. They wouldn’t be robbing anything or doing flash mobs or selling fentanyl at Coney Island on the cheap, of course not. One bald headed insane clown posse looking nitwit would say:
‘Hey, why don’t we take our cycles to the cemetery and weave between the headstones and just sit there with no booze or drugs until Fred, Velma, Daphne and Shaggy show up.’
Who is this Clay MickShaNaNaDammaLammaDingleberryDong anyway? His Twatter/X bio says he’s a “barstool intellectual w/a masters degree in small talk”. I’ll pay $20 for any Hacker who can get in there and change it to a masters degree in poor plot development, dumb AF cliffhanger follow ups and owning his McSchnookieDookie nickname. I’ll Venmo you, no questions asked. Here, this is him:
Look, Clay, I’m sure you’re actually a wonderful guy and that you love comics, I’m sure you do. But, Dude, you’re killing me. At the back of this issue there’s bit where each writer is asked what inspired this story for them. Katana regales us with a lovely answer of how road trips have been an intricate part of her and Sean’s life, how they’ve bonded and become closer because of them. She then says that she and Sean were watching ‘Onward’ a film about two brothers who "embark on a magical quest to spend one more day with their late father". Wow, that sounds a lot like what’s going on in this series doesn’t it? The Joker Kids, wanting to know their dad, embark on a trip through his Gotham haunts. Solid AF Premise.
What does Clay answer as his inspiration to this series? Guess.
Thelma & Louise.
Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking of as well! The film about a couple of friends who are on the run from the law because one of them shot and killed a guy who was trying to rape one of them is an identical match to a fictional villain's kids wanting to get to know their father in an alternative universe of that fictional villain. I suppose the kiddies and HoloJoker ride their Batmobile off a bridge in Gotham in the final issue, is that what happens? Oy to the Vey.
Welp, I'm down to zero Bat Books on my pull, again. Seems impossible what with 1,532 Bat Titles on the solicits but that's where I've ended up. What the hell is going on with Black Label??? Last year they were pumping out genius book after genius book now it's a slow trickle. Generation Joker doesn't even feel like Black Label at all, it's more like a Walmart label, the kind of thing you'd find in the magazine section there that was made specifically for parents to buy for their kids when they didn't want to splurge on a $50 video game, 'Here, take this cheap comic book instead and I'll get you some chicken nuggets after we check out'.
Gotta go. I'm gonna walk up over to Wilshire Blvd and wait until I see Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis ride by in a convertible so I can toss this in their back seat.
Rating: 3.1
Verdict: Drop
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