Writer: Landry Quinn Walker
Artists: Keith Giffen + Bill Sienkiewicz
Rating: 8 of 8
Joker's Asylum II
The Mad Hatter #1
A hero is only as good as their villains, their demented dark mirror and, with that being the case, Batman must be one of the greatest heroes of all. With such an expansive rogue's gallery, ranging from crime bosses like Black Mask and Penguin, to serial killers like Zsasz and the Joker, it only makes sense that DC'd make numerous series zeroing in on them.
That's exactly what they did with Joker's Asylum, in which the Joker both introduces and bookends tales centering around various Batman villains, this time focusing on the Mad Hatter. Hatter, or Jervis Tetch, is a man fixated around the idea of getting his Alice, like the girl from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
To that end, he hypnotizes different women using the unique machinery in his hat, but usually fails to get his Alice. Here, though, he's doing his best to resist the urge to capture another 'Alice', struggling to resist the hat and the tea. Resisting the hat means resisting the urge to hypnotize and take another 'Alice' and resisting the tea to me means resisting the urge to dive into his own madness.
One thing I've definitely gotta praise about the issue's the art. Whether it's the cover, delivering such a simple, yet creative, image, or Tetch's simpler, more childlike drawings, Giffen and Sienkiewicz bring us some really memorable, praiseworthy imagery. Tetch's drawings give us a little insight into his psyche, which I really appreciate. The team also make Hatter a really diminutive figure, with a really big nose and large, protruding teeth, which match his animated iteration's appearance.
The duo also do a great job in illustrating just how fractured Tetch's mind really is and how much of a struggle resisting his lesser devils is for him. They really help elevate an already very good story. Overall, it's a pretty good issue, with very few flaws, though I think it could've delved more into why he's so obsessed with Alice and Wonderland itself. Despite this, the issue's well written and very well drawn and definitely worth a spin.
Nicely done! I think this read would pique my interest given my love of other new books playing with both well known and obscure literary tropes! Definitely going on my list of books to grab during the quarantine.
ReplyDelete:) Thanks very much, CBP!!
DeleteReally appreciate it.
Hope you've given it a go since and, if so, that you've enjoyed it.
Sorry for not replying sooner.