YMMV / Batman: Three Jokers

• Ass Pull: Batman having known the Comedian’s real name since about a week after they first met. Not only was it never foreshadowed that Batman would know something like that, but it also creates a Continuity Snarl, because it had already been established that Batman didn’t know any of the three Jokers’s identities, since the Joker had no fingerprints, dental/medical records, DNA, or anything that could be used to identify him or trace his past back to him, so even Batman wouldn’t be able to figure out his identity that easily. And of course, the story doesn’t even bother to properly explain in detail how Batman figured out the Comedian’s true name, so it just comes across as him simply knowing things he shouldn’t for no reason. It also raises the question of how he was able to figure out the Comedian’s identity, but not the Criminal or the Clown’s identities. After all, if he somehow managed to, against astronomical odds, determine the Comedian’s identity, why would he have trouble with the identities of the Clown or the Criminal? Even other stories like Death of the Family have only implied it to be possible.
• Heartwarming Moments: Bruce holding Joe Chill's hand on his deathbed, finally forgiving him after seeing that Chill had felt sincere remorse for his parents' murder.
• Older Than They Think:
  • The concept of three people sharing the Joker identity originated years ago in Tangent Comics where its version of the Joker was a fun-loving anarchist who might've potentially been one of three women. The ending of her first comic implied she actually disguised herself as all three, until a follow-up revealed the three women collectively shared the Joker identity.
  • Additionally, the Joker's next appearance following his "death" at the end of A Death in the Family was to deal with an impostor. Ironically, in that comic it was implied that Ace Chemicals had disposed of the Joker's creation formula.
  • Not exactly the same situation, but Batman: White Knight had already set a precedent for Harley Quinn being actually two different people.
  • Not to mention an animated film where Batman deals with a new costumed crimefighter who turns out to be three people.
  • The idea of a swarm of Jokers is treated as a shocking development, but it's been done. The Dark Knight opened with it, it's one of Joker's key scenes, and it's the entire plot of Joker's Last Laugh. Given this last one in specific, the splash page of it in Three Jokers is bordering on Narm, since Jason and Barbara should be aware of this trick.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: Like in Batman Eternal, this has been a common criticism against the Jason/Barbara romance. Not only does it come out of nowhere, but it also doesn't add anything of value to the story, often derailing Jason and Barbara's characterization for drama's sake.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The reveal that the "Comedian" Joker had always been a violent psycho even before his incident and that his wife faked her death to escape him has received mostly a negative reaction, especially from fans of The Killing Joke, with many wondering why this Retcon was done in the first place. Though some think this ironically helps back up Joker's famous claim from the same story about how he doesn't always remember things completely, there is also a third camp that dislikes this simply because it confirms that Joker's past in The Killing Joke really happened, thus giving a definitive backstory to a character (or at least one of the three) known for his Multiple-Choice Past, even if it's what people already considered to be the closest thing to one.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The Jokers' relationships with each other get almost no screentime, despite being the very premise of the comic. Given that the Joker's historically one of the poster children for Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, seeing how they get on should have had more than a couple pages' time. Instead, it's supposed to be a shocking twist when the Comedian betrays the other two, rather than anything but business as usual for him.
  • The Jokerized shark? Entirely extraneous other than a Call-Back to the Clown's attempt to trademark fish.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Geoff Johns does not treat Barbara particularly well, and even seems to blame Jason's negative character development on Barbara rejecting his advances, as if she should be help responsible for his mental development. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of readers found this to be rather gross and misogynistic, and felt sorry for Barbara instead. It also doesn't help that Johns seems to imply that Barbara's own recovery was easy and stress-free, completely ignoring her growth and development as the disabled hero Oracle.

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