Hidden Gems of Comics: SUPERMAN: EMPEROR JOKER

Our story begins with another typical night in Gotham City. The world's greatest hero, Bizarro, is patrolling the city. The worlds greatest villain, Superman, has yet again escaped from his cell in Arkham Asylum. Bald billionaire Lois Lane watches over the city from her LaneCorp headquarters.........Yes, I was confused too. Masterminded by, amongst others, Jeph Loeb, J.M. DeMatteis, Ed McGuinness, and Joe Kelly, Emperor Joker was a crossover that ran across then Superman titles Superman, Superman: Man of Steel, Action Comics and Adventures of Superman. In it, Joker had somehow been granted ultimate power which he used to remake the world in his own image. Needless to say, things went a little crazy. The only person who remembered the world as it was Superman, who takes it upon himself to bring the world back to the way it was. The storyline began with Superman: Arkham, which threw Superman into this crazy world with no explanation of how it got that way. It wasn't till the last page of that arc, with the reveal of a cube shaped earth with all landmasses making up the face of the Joker, that Emperor Joker truly kicked off. It's a fantastically weird story with so many great touches (Plastic Man now turns himself into any credit card he can imagine, ) and fourth wall breaks (Joker at one point changes the alphabet, leading to a dialogue box full of unintelligible symbols) that you would believe that the writers were raving mad men themselves. It's not all fun and games though, it is the Joker we are talking about here, and gets quite dark in places, especially when the fate of Batman is revealed. It's quite shocking, and really shows how sadistic the Joker is. This is by far my favorite Joker story (I can hear fans of The Killing Joke sharpening their pitch forks as I type this). It shows him letting loose, fulfilling all his fantasies and reveling in the full extent of his sadism (he eats the entire population of China!) now that there is nobody around to stop him. It's a really fun version of character, his Deadpool-esque asides to the reader are hilarious, and there is an extremely sweet (yes, really) scene between him and Harley that shows how much he really cares for his former psychiatrist turned girlfriend/punching bag. Also his relationship with Batman is explored, which really sheds a new light on their dynamic. There are a few minor niggles with it. The art changes way too drastically from issue to issue, a problem most crossover running over ongoing series suffer, and Bizarro plays a big part which means his backwards speech begins to grate after a very short while. But other than that, it's a really fun story and well worth a read.