The Joker is the recipient of celebration this week at DC, with the release of the much-awaited The Joker 80th Anniversary 100 page Super Spectacular #1.

It’s similar in format to other recent 80th Anniversary issues from DC, with the requisite inclusion of first appearance covers and pinup pages.

There are some heavy-hitting creative teams presenting short stories starring The Joker: Scott Snyder and Joks, James Tynion IV and MIkel Janin, Paul J. Tomasi and Simone Bianchi, and plenty of others. It’s a pleasure indeed to see Denny O’Neil return to these pages with art by José Luis Garcia-Lopez! And pinups by Kelley Jones and Michelle Madsen, Fiona Staples, Tim Sale, and Brennan Wagner, and several more.

It’s a collection of ten stories meant to make you squeamish and uneasy. Disfigurement, discouragement, disappearances of parts of faces. Enough crime and depravity to leave you relieved that you can still take a breath. And that’s the adrenaline we receive from The Joker, that assassin of insanity.

There are no clunkers here, the stories are vicious but they ‘go’ somewhere, even if it’s just to chase us around the block in the dark, sweating and worrying.
One particular favourite is ‘Birthday Bugs’ written by Tom Taylor, with art by Eduardo RIsso. Its tale of the young boy who’s celebrating a birthday is surprisingly effective.

Similarly, The War Within, written by Paul Tomasi, with art by Simone Bianchi is a tour-de-force of words and images. Imaginative, inventive, disturbingly imaged, and realized.

All in all, well worth the money. This one is a keeper!

DC Comics, The Joker 80th Anniversary 100 page Super Spectacular #1, $9.99 for 100 pages of content. Assume Teen +

By Alan Spinney

After a career of graphic design, art direction and copywriting, I still have a passion for words and pictures. I love it when a comic book comes together; the story is tight, and the drawings lead me forward. Art with words... the toughest storytelling technique to get right. Was this comic book worth your money? Let's see!!

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