Joker (2008) story by Brian Azzarello and art­work by Lee Bermejo and pub­lished by DC Comics.

I really enjoyed Alan Moore’s clas­sic ori­gin story of the Joker in “The Killing Joke” and was more than happy to pick up and read Azzarello’s remake of “Joker.”

The Joker has been given new life thanks to the bril­liant per­for­mance by late actor, Heath Ledger. The Dark Knight actu­ally releases on DVD this Tuesday.

The story opens with the Joker being released from Arkham; and the news about his impend­ing release spreads like wild­fire through­out Gotham. While he was away, many of the mid-level bosses had split up his ter­ri­tory and pock­eted the profits.

Joker doesn’t waste time in reassert­ing his dom­i­nance and respect by reclaim­ing what he feels belongs to him. He is utterly unpre­dictable, leav­ing behind a bloody trail just about every­where he goes. Croc gives him a hand as does Pen­guin, albeit, under duress. Most of his asso­ciates never thought he’d be free again and most didn’t live to regret it.

Jonny Frost wit­nesses the Joker’s deeds first hand since he spends most of the book in his com­pany. The story is told through his eyes and his thoughts tended to be pre­oc­cu­pied by his admi­ra­tion of the Joker and his own self-delusions of grandeaur. The truth is that Jonny is a loser, a jail bird who lost his wife and kids. As a lowly hench­man, he thinks he can make a name for him­self by rid­ing on the coat­tails of his boss, the Clown Prince.

How­ever, Jonny dis­cov­ers some hid­den truths about him­self while join­ing the Joker in his revenge. He re-evaluates some things about him­self and reassess his bound­aries and lim­i­ta­tions. He con­cludes almost too late, that he is in way over his head and that the Joker is truly a dis­turbed man. He real­izes he doesn’t have the stom­ach or the balls to fol­low the Joker into mad­ness.

The “Joker” was a quick and enjoy­able read. The art­work was excel­lent and the char­ac­ter­i­za­tions and the plot were good. Azzarello didn’t do half bad here with his vision of a more mod­ern day Joker. Fans will clearly see how this world that Azzarello has cre­ated aligns nicely with the films by Christo­pher Nolan. My grade, B and a nod to Vanessa Jaye for the recommend.