By
Elizabeth Airelle
"It Only Hurts When You Laugh"
Continuing from last issue Jason is
in Isabel’s apartment; she was drugged and forcibly overdosed. Jason is
surrounded by Gotham SWAT and Detective Bullock. He tells Bullock he is going
after whoever did this to her, Bullock doubts an “ordinary citizen” dressed
only in a towel is getting past Gotham’s Finest. Jason takes them out fast with
a shower rail and takes Bullock’s keys. He mentions he can trust Bullock and
calls him a good cop. He makes off with the police cruiser to warn the other
Batfam but Joker ambushes him with knock out gas.
When Jason comes to he is unable to
move and is alone with the Joker. The Joker got his hands on one of Jason’s
helmets and drove a crowbar through it. The Joker wants to try “new material”
on Jason. When Jason doesn’t laugh Joker states that the two of them were quite
the team back in the day. Joker wrote
the material and Jason read the lines, until he improvised the ending. Jason
has no clue what Joker is talking about but can’t let it get to him. Joker is
about to strike him with a crowbar until Jason kicks him off. Under Ducra, he
learned how to overcome toxins in his body, Jason gets the upper hand until he
grabs the crowbar which electrocutes him and knocks him out.
At the hospital Bullock gets Isabel’s
phone. He thinks it’s suspicious that a girl with no drugs in her house, no
track marks and no priors would have an overdose. He calls “J-first class” and
states he wants to get to the bottom of this as well. Meanwhile Kori and Roy
are off on her island. After Roy made
some improvements to Crux’s cruiser they intercept Bullock’s call to Jason and
hurry off to Gotham.
When Jason wakes up this time he is
wearing a helmet and is somewhere else. Jason runs off to find Joker who is
speaking over an intercom. As he races
forward he notices the bullet fragment that was pulled from his Father. Joker
hits a nerve and Jason keeps moving and stops when he comes across a couple
manikins displaying the scene when he found his mother “dead” from an overdose
on the street. Jason doesn’t understand how Joker knows all this and he trips
over a medical box he tried stealing from Doctor Leslie years ago. Jason
doesn’t believe Joker was there throughout his life, that’s he is “punch line
to some stale joke”. Joker says that he kind of his and would he lie to family?
Joker then releases a trap door which Jason falls down and he is again rendered
unconscious next to Tim Drake aka Red Robin!
Kori and Roy have arrived in
Gotham. She states that Gotham city feels less safe than the prison camps she
grew up in. She is surprised that someone as warm as Jason came from here. They
have no leads on Jason other than a call from Wondergirl to Batgirl. Kori asks
what it has to do with them. Roy states maybe nothing, maybe everything but for
sure it was Joker related. The issues ends with Roy and Kori come upon the Teen
Titans being attacked by Jokerized thugs…..
This issue was a good showdown
between Joker and Jason. Todd holding
his own and doing a good job of not letting the Joker get to him was great to
see. He doesn’t let himself get too emotional while fighting which had to take
a lot. Joker brings up events from issue 0, in which Joker manipulated Jason
into becoming Robin, which now Jason finally knows. He does not seem to believe Joker but this is
far from over between them. I can’t wait to see it play out more between them. I was happy to see Bullock in this as he is
one of my favorite of Gotham’s finest. Jason has known him since he was a kid
so it makes sense that he would trust him.
Also anyone who reads Teen Titans will know that Tim Drake was kidnapped
last issue and this reveals briefly what happened to him. It’s going to be awesome to see Roy and Kori
fighting along the Teen Titans. Speaking of Teen Titans the story should
continue in next week’s issue!
Until Next Time Hoodies!
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