10 Terrifying Joker Stories You Never Read
6. Gotham Central: Soft Targets
As a general rule, it is perhaps fair to say that art which imitates real life, or at least skirts uncomfortably close to reality, is more effective and more visceral than more fantastical examples of creative expression.
In this regard, Soft Targets is perhaps the most terrifying Joker story of all.
Gotham at Christmas time is an understandably busy city. Families walking hand in hand past husbands out buying presents for their wives, while snow falls and colourful lights blink.
Gunshots ring out.
Using a high-powered sniper rifle and seemingly choosing his targets at random, Joker indiscriminately murders regular citizens who pose him no threat and have committed no wrong.
Gotham is on high alert, as nobody knows who the shooter is and haven’t yet entertained the notion that it could be the Joker.
The level of violence in evidence here, the juxtaposition of the Christmas setting with the bodies on the streets, their blood turning the snow red, and the uncomfortable yet inevitable parallels with real life atrocities make for a genuinely horrifying ride.
A shocking, nightmarish vision, Gotham Central: Soft Targets remains one of the most terrifying Joker stories ever committed to print.