Over on Substack, Zdarsky revealed the 2024 timeline that led to his departure from Batman
1. He was burnt out from doing a number of other projects in addition to Batman
2. His editor at the time left for Skybound and he started missing him
3. He gave his notice to DC at C 2 E 2 back in April
4. After wrapping the Failsafe arc up, DC asked him to stay for the fall story and he agreed
5. Because of the bi-monthly schedule at the time, Zdarsky lost Jorge as an artist, but then they switched it back to monthly, which meant he could have been able to use Jorge. Blames things on “the financial quarter” and “CEO Mac Guffins”
I know it could easily be botched because of the "lol Joker's an invincible chaos entity" mindset but I am interested in the idea of him having his own Zur-En-Arrh equivalent. Not in the sense of when writers decide when he's temporarily becomes sane (read: he isn't a flamboyant sociopath) he becomes meek and crippled by guilt, but in that he's still a villain but goes in a different angle. Like maybe you could suggest at Hidden Depths by having "Joker without the man", an altered Joker with zero ties to his humanity...or flip it on its head and force Joker to be just as nihilistic but he loses his sense of comedy, going from Tonio to evil Pagliacci
Okay reading the Detective Comics twist, yeah not a fan. Taylor is basically pulling the same twist as he did with Melinda in his Nightwing run.
For context Melinda is Dick's half-sister who was born from a relationship Dick's father had before he got with his mom. Melinda's mom was a runaway in a relationship with Tony Zucco the man who killed Dick's parents, so Melinda was raised as Zucco's daughter. She is a very blah character, barely did anything during Nighting as mayor except for being a low-rent Gordon.
These family legacies feel like ways to inflate the new characters importance, to force readers to immediately care about them. For Melinda she's Dick's half-sister and this is to rush her position into his social circle.
And this new character sounds like an escalation of that. So Chill had an estranged daughter, why is that relevant? He was a nobody, nothing about him was special. The point of Chill is that everything about his encounter with the Waynes was a random act of violence. There's nothing about him that should make this connection between the families Wayne and Chill. Why should readers care that he has a daughter, why is that important? Simply because she's one of Martha and Thomas Wayne's many charity cases?
Edited by slimcoder on Oct 23rd 2024 at 1:22:27 AM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."From the DC Vault: Robin Lives ended.
Jason killed the Joker and Bruce hung up the cowl, becoming a real philanthropist who married the psychiatrist narrating the story, while Dick became a new, more compassionate Batman. Jason graduated with honors and became Arkham's associate director...and also the new Joker.
On one hand it's an effective gut-punch, on the other it feels really mean, especially with the buildup of everyone healing from trauma.
The Protomen enhanced my life.From the DC Vault: Death in the Family: Robin Lives!. It's 4 issues total.
Edited by lalalei2001 on Oct 23rd 2024 at 7:34:47 AM
The Protomen enhanced my life.Zarius, when I grow up, I hope I can finally put to paper that whole idea of mine of DCAU Joker doing a deadly gameshow with the rest of the rogues that turned out to be just a big set up.
I miss funny Joker.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"Yeah that's the actual title I had.
The idea was that the Joker kidnaps various rich people in Gotham to host a live TV show where he humiliates them depending on how much money the good people donate. Enough money and it's a live execution. Some guest appearances with other Gotham villains.
But ehhh.....maybe one day.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
I mean, technically speaking, his charity donations are secondary to the whole batman thing, so technically he's not a "real philanthropist", he's a "real batman" who's also a philanthropist on the side.
I hindsight, this could've done with a Joking Mode, technically speaking.
Edited by Marchen on Oct 23rd 2024 at 4:13:47 PM
Read Otr of the Flame (She/Her)Are there any 'real' philantropists then? Because all millionaires who donate are businesspeople first then philantrophists. And without a fortune you can't be a philantropist in a meaningful level.
Edited by TomWithoutJerry on Oct 23rd 2024 at 9:58:00 AM
Please remember that, ultimately, fictional works of entertainment are just that.Okay, I've read the latest issue and holy shit, someone was right that Jason Todd would become the Joker thanks to something the Joker cooked up. That feels like such an ass pull because it comes after such a happy ending. Granted, no Batman story can really end happily if you kill the Joker to justify why they don't kill him. So Jason becomes the new Joker I guess? And how? Why? Because he's traumatized? Joker implanted his DNA into a microchip? What the heck happened?
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"

Wait I thought Chill had a kid who already did an elaborate revenge scheme against Batman?
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"