As promised before heading to Adventures....

 Hello all, Look I know that it has been at least a few years since I have put together a blog post of any  kind and in truth I will admit that it's not because of not trying.....but because of a simple thing called existing. Now I will also say that this is also my first post of 2020. As you all know about me that I love a art form called comic books, today before returning to the comic shop known as Adventures Underground I am going to tell you my thoughts on a certain trade that I got around  last year just before the release of a comic book film that just last week came out on multiple media it happens to be called "JOKER". I'm not entirely sure of if I will be getting the movie right away. I think before adding it to my collection I will be viewing it on Netflix after seeing it there, I will add it because it is a very different from superhero films.                                                                                                 Now before I take us on the overall review of this trade I want you to know when I went an purchased it I also got these two   

, trades seen here JOKER and BATMAN year one, and one of them is over one hundred pages of story. So let get into this set of battles of which I can tell you that I really know the deep background of one these very well. Altogether this trade has seven stories that span from nineteen seventy three up to twenty sixteen, I'm going to give a brief summary of each tale with a couple of pictures of each one.

The first story is from BATMAN # 251 Sept. titled "THE  JOKERS FIVE WAY REVENGE!" the story is by Denny O' Neal and art by Neil Adams. On the outskirts of Gotham city the police and commissioner Jim Gordon are looking at a murder suspect wondering who committed the violent crime in the first place and why? Gordon is wondering where THE BATMAN is, when he arrives he tells Jim that he has been there doing his own investigation work. He then shows them the give away clue 

 that it is his old foe known as Joker by the card he left at the scene. THE BATMAN then stars visiting Joker's various mob bosses he has worked with to find out that Joker has beaten him to finding each of them before BATMAN is there to help the poor saps. Except for the former forger Bing Hooley, whom was recently taken from a charity home by a Mister Genesius to Gotham's aquarium who is in turn really Joker and wants to kill two birds or rather foes with them being shark food. When Joker tosses both BATMAN and HOOLEY into the tank 

 you for a moment as the reader realizes even if unintentionally  that this reminds you of the BATMAN THE MOVIE from the campy live action series of the late nineteen sixties that starred Adam West as the hero, Batman and Cesar Romero as the clown prince of crime, the Joker. Need I say more... In the BATMAN'S DETECTIVE COMICS, #475 Feb. titled "THE  LAUGHING FISH", story by Steve  Englehart, penciler Marshall Rogers. We come to realize that like all heroes even BATMAN, has had his share of girl problems... and to top it off this girl seems to know his name 

hers by the way Ms St. Cloud. While swinging through Gotham's night and pondering it himself BATMAN'S attention is distracted by a call for help from a fish catcher who shows the detective a very odd set of fish. Meanwhile the Joker himself is in the bo office of Gotham wanting to trademark something and well I will let you see for yourselves ...

While at the same time Joker seem to be setting up a gains for himself among other mob bosses and his fellow foes of possession of learning BATMAN'S identity. One very cool things, I did find out while reading this one was the artists hid their names through out the story.                                                                            The third story in this trade is the continuation from the last one. BATMAN'S DETECTIVE COMICS # 476 with the month Apr, the story is titled "SIGN OF THE JOKER!" Things are going crazy from the Joker's copyrighting of fish with his own face by affecting other animals. Whom seem to inherit the madness from the aquatic life as seen by this cat 

 named ERNEST. Who attacks BATMAN... which turns out isn't the real Batman but is ERNEST'S true master THOMAS JACKSON.Which we find out minutes later is a murder that Joker had promised from earlier in the night, in an unknown place. Once BATMAN has dealt with the Joker he sees Miss Cloud 

where she tells him her feelings for him after they share a kiss before she walks away from his life...maybe forever? This story showed a great multitude of foes of BATMAN that even I have never heard of and that was a very interesting surprise for me, it makes me smile when a comic can do that!

             Earlier in this post I told you all about a comic in this very trade, that I know the inside and outs of it's history. We are at that one right now so here is my personal story of the addiction that is the safest ever for a teenager. Since the spring of nineteen eigthy seven I have been collecting comics. My family had moved back from living on the east coast in the summer of nineteen eighty eight and I had found the local comic store called Infinite Frontiers. A whole year later I remember that when I saw this very comic cover 

 when I was attending my very first comic convention, it was also BATMAN'S fiftieth year anniversary so a lot stuff was going on that year even a upcoming feature film. "DEATH IN THE FAMILY" was written by Thanos co creator Jim Stalling with art by Jim Aparo. In the course of this story earlier parts BATMAN'S ward Jason Todd was the second Robin and comic fans loathed the character completely to the point of hate. In the previous issue the Joker killed Robin, at the end of the issue there were two one nine hundred numbers with  BATMAN holding a bloodied Robin in his arms...                                                                 In "a DEATH IN THE  FAMILY", It finally seems as though the JOKER has bested BATMAN by taking away his partner of fighting crime against his foes by taking his ward Jason and blowing him and his mother up. That was in part at the end of issue 428, Dec. 1988. In this one BATMAN is out for no matter how you say it utter revenge no matter what, but the Joker has gone to great extremes to make  it impossible. How you are asking?               

 It is a C.I .A. agent by the name of Ralph Bundy, who tells BATMAN that the Joker has made himself an protected diplomat of Iran with that being the case no one but especially BATMAN can not lay a hand on him with out a international incident happening... like maybe world war III could be the final outcome if things were to result in Joker's favor! Even though Batman's hands are legally tied with dealing with the Joker he happens to get some help from the man of steel better known as by the Joker as 

 "SUPERHAM!" in throwing a proverbial wrench into killink  the Iranians delegates to start that hopeful war. Yes, the saddest part of this arc ends as Batman words describe it best of all between himself and the Joker... "UNRESOLVED."

In the next fight against these two comes from the "HUSH" storyline by writer Jeph Loeb and Image  artist Jim Lee, in BATMAN # 614. With the story titled THE JOKE. It has BATMAN seen here 

 breaking all of his might on the clown of crime. While telling us the readers what the Joker's past history has lead to this very showdown! In the end it  takes Jim Gordon's gun at Batman's noggin 

 to make the dark knight remember his very own code of honor rule. Does BATMAN crossover to being a true villain for the first time ever? I'm not telling mainly because I really don't know but I know that I have said trade of this storyline from last Christmas and am now very much wanting to devour it into my comic loving brain is all I can say about this one!

" BATMAN:ENDGAME part six is by writer SCOTT SNYDER and another Image comics artist as penciler this time it's GREG CAPULLO in BATMAN # 40 from twenty fifteen. This tale has not only BATMAN but all of his other foes, battling Joker...

What is very,very, interesting to me as a reader is that not only is BATMAN'S trusting alley Alfred Pennyworth not part of the leading help that goes to SNYDER'S newcomer character Julia...and he still makes his very arc as I was saying intriguing by having

 JOKER know who BATMAN really is! As they fight each other in some deep cave under Gotham's city streets... I am glad if I don't know for sure, because I felt it was the two them in the Batcave? but it is great having a good time getting to guess where the true location is!  I'm not sure if I liked this story as whole but it was still a fun reading experience none the less.         At last we have now arrived at the final yarn for this very trade, it is called BATMAN: EUROPA, the story is by MATTEO CASALI and BRIAN AZZARELLO with pencils and finishes by JIM LEE. After a fight with the Joker and him he yet again getting away and then fighting Killer Croc whom I am guessing is very similar to Spider-man foe the Lizard? BATMAN and his butler Alfred find out that not only is the Bat-computer has a virus with the word COLOSSUS as a pun or a clue to a possible answer?

Also at the same time BATMAN has a infectious breakdown of his blood cells. Thinking that computer information is formatted like a joke he heads overseas to Berlin. When after looking for Joker and eventually finding him threatening a computer hacker named  Marlene...BATMAN quickly puts together that both he

 

and the Joker have various peices to the very same computer virus and as well the same infectious disease. So to keep your pulse pounding and wanting to know how they get out this all you really know is that they have to work together to find out who is trying to kill both them and why?                                                        This last one really has me wanting to hunt down this very title in it's own individual iusses or the full BATMAN EUROPA trade! Soon I will have those other two trades having a posting real soon. I promise and love always the four color worlds of comics with joy in your souls.