Batman: Three Jokers (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

To paraphrase Dickens, to enjoy this story, you have to accept that it's part of the discarded grand vision that Johns had for the DCU, the vision that DC abandoned before he had a chance to finish "Doomsday Clock."  Johns set this series in motion in "Justice League" #50, when Bruce reveals that the Mobius Chair told him that three Jokers exist.  This series now serves a a coda to Johns' vision.

The plot itself is fairly straightforward.  At some points, the original Joker created two other versions of himself, and the Batfamily has been facing the three of them over the last several years.  The Jokers have decided to create a new and improved Joker, and the Batfamily are brought on the case given the escalating body count.  (As we know, it isn't like everyone survives Jokerization.)  After Red Hood kills the Clown (the Joker responsible for killing him), Bruce, Barbara, and Jason face the remaining Jokers - the Comedian and the Criminal -- who's brought Joe Chill to Ace Chemicals for their own reasons.  The Comedian kills the Criminal before he can realize his (the Criminal's) plan, revealing that his (the Comedian's) goal was to heal Bruce's rift with Chill so he - the original Joker - can be Bruce's greatest enemy.

In the end, this series has less to do with the plot and more to do with Bruce's relationship with the Jokers on one hand and Batgirl and Red Hood on the other hand.  Johns handles the former much better than the latter, in my opinion.

The Jokers
Johns wisely dismisses some of the most ridiculous parts of Bruce and Joker's relationship as the series progresses.  For example, Johns makes it clear that Batman and Joker have always known each other’s identities but keep them secret for their own reasons.  Moreover, three Jokers certainly explains how Joker has managed to be so omnipresent over the last several years.

From the start, Johns comes down firmly on the side of the argument that holds that Joker has always known Bruce's identity but has no intention of revealing it since it would take away Batman.  In fact, both the Comedian and the Criminal involve Joe Chill in the series' denouement for the same reason:  for their relationship with Batman to have primacy.  The Criminal wants to turn Chill into the Joker who Matters, inserting himself into Bruce's origin story in the process.  (He comes to this conclusion after realizing that Jason is too unsophisticated and Barbara is too full of heart to qualify to be the next Joker.  Poor Jason.  Even Joker doesn't want him.)  For his part, the Comedian wants to heal Bruce's relationship with Joe Chill so he (Joker) can be Bruce's greatest villain.  The Comedian eventually kills the Criminal to keep him from killing Chill, winning their game.

But, Johns' most inspired take -- where this series does something no other author has done, at least in the same way -- is that Bruce has always known Joker’s identity:  he was the comedian who we saw in “Killing Joke.”  Bruce has never revealed it -- even to Alfred -- because the cops hid Joker's wife and son from him.  Johns tweaks the "Killing Joke" here, revealing that the Comedian was an abusive husband and the cops helped his wife's fake her death so she could relocate to Alaska with their unborn son.  Bruce is committed to protecting their anonymity since the press would be all over them if he revealed Joker's identity.  (More on this part in a minute).  In a way, Johns is asking us to make an easier leap than we've had to make in the past.  It’s easier to believe that the Comedian, in the days after he became Joker, didn’t see a reason to confirm his wife's death than it is to believe Batman never knew Joker's identity. 

All that said, Johns doesn't resolve all issues with Joker, leaving open future stories.  In issue #2, he raises the possibility that the Comedian may know his family is alive as he were see him play-acting a meal with them.  Moreover, the "JW" emblazoned on the Comedian's wife's luggage as she flees in issue #3 matches the focus on the letters "J" and "W" across several interstitial pages throughout the series.  In fact, the series opens with Bruce crashing the Batmobile into his parents' graves and the "W" in Wayne is prominently displayed.  Johns may be hinting that Joker's real identity might be a distant relative of Bruce's, which might explain Joker's obsession with him.  Johns also never tells us why the Comedian felt the need to create the Criminal and the Clown in the first place.

My only criticism of Johns' treatment of the Batman-Joker relationship is that he fails to address the core problem in every Batman-Joker story:  Bruce has ruined countless lives by letting Joker live.  This hypocrisy is on display when we see Bruce travel to Alaska to make sure Joker's family is OK but barely seem to notice the Batmobile mowing down the zombie Jokers who attack him and Barbara in issue #2.  The revelation that the Comedian was out there creating even more Jokers while Bruce did nothing to stop him makes it hard not to be Team Jason here.

Batgirl and Red Hood
Although I liked Johns' rumination on Bruce and Joker's relationship, Johns drops the ball when it comes to the other members of this square.

First, Johns strips Jason of some of the character development that we've seen since he returned.  For example, we get Jason pining for Barbara here in a sophomoric way, leaving a note confessing his love for her (and promising never to mention said note if she doesn't) taped to her door.  The note falls to the ground, and a janitor ominously employed by "Funtime Cleaners" sweeps it down the hall.  It felt like the ending to a "Saved by the Bell" episode.  I get that Jason struggles expressing his emotions, but could he not have put the note on a table?

Then, as I often find with DC, we endure the fact that this story is complicated by the multiple versions of these characters and their relationships that we've seen as a result just of the DCnU and Rebirth, let alone the various Crises.

For example, in issue #1, the Clown tells Jason that he left him alive to crawl from his shallow grave so that he could hurt him and, ipso facto, Batman more.  In issue #2, Bruce even refers to this shallow grave.  I'm not even sure which version of the DCU the Clown is referencing here, since it definitely doesn't fit the details of any of the various versions of Jason's return that I recall.  We're supposed to believe that Jason died and then just...un-died?

In issue #2, Barbara tells Jason that they all wish they had been there for him after he died (or, now, almost died?), like Barbara's dad and physical therapist were there for her.  After all, she's not wrong when she says that he was already the Red Hood, committed to a path of violence, by the time they realized that he was alive.  He says that no one’s ever told him that before, which is just flatly untrue.  Bruce has at least come close to that at some point, and Tim told Jason in "Red Hood and the Outlaws" #8 that he understood returning from the dead was a lot to "digest."

I liked Johns contrasting Barbara and Jason’s victimization at Joker’s hands but he leans too heavily into undoing the parts of Bruce and Jason’s characterizations and history that didn't fit with the story he wanted to tell.

For example, in issue #2, Johns posits that Bruce has never really spoken with Jason about how he "healed wrong" after he returned from the dead because he was hoping that he would be more like Barbara.  What?  He fucking died.  Bruce was just hoping for the best?  Moreover, this assertion ignores the moments where we have seen them bridge the divide between each other, like the heartfelt moment at the end of "Death of the Family" where they hold one another when Jason regains consciousness (cf. "Red Hood and the Outlaws" #18).  Did moments like this one just not happen now?

In fact, Johns makes it seem like Bruce hasn't so much as spoken to Jason since he returned from the dead.  Even if you concede that, did Bruce really think throwing Jason into a wall here was going to show how much he cared?  After all, his lament about wanting to put a bullet through Joker's head after what he did to Barbara and Jason (in that order) rings a little hollow, since Jason pretty quickly reminds him that -- once again -- he had to do the dirty work.

We have smaller inconsistencies, such as all of Bruce’s scars, which no longer should exist after the dionesium healed him in "Batman" #50.  Also, Chill's storyline has gone through so many versions it’s hard not just to shrug at whatever version we get here.

Conclusion

I would recommend this series to anyone interested in a more realistic take on the Batman-Joker relationship.  If you're a Jason fan like I am, it's going to drive you to distraction at times.  But, it presents a more realistic version of Joker than we've seen while still raising all sorts of questions about the decisions that Bruce has made along the way.  It's a shame that it now exists as essentially an "Elseworlds" story, but that's a lament for another time.