The Joker's Last Laugh

The Joker might be the only supervillain who helps society understand why Charles Manson receives so much fan mail in prison. Well.... not really, but my point is that for being a psychotic cold-blooded murderer, he's a fun character to read, and Batman: Joker's Last Laugh proves that he might be one of the few supervillains who could carry his own series. Hidden behind the insanity, there's a genius intellect inside of Joker. So what would he do given the announcement that he has an inoperable brain tumor that will soon put him to rest forever? Cure cancer? Seek redemption? Apologize to all his victims? Hell no! He's finally going to get really serious, and expand his murder spree to a level never before seen. It's not just Batman, it's not just Gotham, Joker has now become the international public enemy number one. In this book, the above scenario does occur and Joker leads a supervillain prison break-out that rivals New Avengers and any other hoodlum frenzies seen in recent comic books. Joker discovers that the chemicals used to sedate him and other villains can be combined into a form of the Joker laughing gas and uses this to his advantage while turning the entire prison populace into an army of super-powered murderous clowns. Not willing to stop there, he establishes his base of operations on Easter Island and plots to release his toxins on the entire world. There are several subplots in this book. One of the more interesting dramas is Barbara Gordon dealing with the traumatic memories of her injury to the Joker in The Killing Joke. She also leads Nightwing, Robin and Huntress on a series of missions to stop Joker's new gang. Batman and the JLA play small parts in this series, although it's disappointing how little Batman appears, but in some ways that makes for a better story as characters like Nightwing who are usually thrown aside have large contributions. Lex Luthor comes into play in this tale as the President, and maybe the first person to realize how truly dangerous Joker is when he has nothing left to lose. Speaking of famous villains, Harley Quinn also has her own segment in this book. There's also a story involving the guards stuck inside the prison that Joker has trapped in a temporary black hole with the assistance of his fellow inmates. Sadly, DC chose not to include some of the side-stories that stretched off into other books so you'll only read the mini-series which is still easy to understand, but you'll miss the details of a few JLA fights and other escapades. Batman: Joker's Last Laugh is definitely one of the funniest versions of Joker. Not only Joker, but all of his supervillain cronies turned into their own Joker versions make for some great laughs. One of the coolest creative jobs I've ever seen in a Joker story is a full-page spread that details Joker's confusing yet amusing hand-written notes on a piece of notebook paper as he scribbles out his Last Will & Testament. If you still want a serious approach in your