The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox

Like most people, I’ve got a wishlist on Amazon.  It probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that there are a number of comics on said wishlist.  What kind of comics can be found on it?  Ones that I’m interested in, but am not sure that I’ll like and am also not willing to pay the cover price to find out.  Sure, I was interested in seeing what writer Matthew Rosenberg, previously responsible for “What’s the Furthest Place From Here?” among other things, would do with a Joker-centric miniseries, but I wasn’t inclined to pay $40 to find out.  So if you’re wondering why I’m able to write about “The Joker Presents:  A Puzzlebox” now, that’s because John got it for me as a Christmas present.  I’m really grateful for that because while this isn’t a terrible comic, it’s not one that’s worth its exorbitant cover price.

The story starts off with Joker in an interrogation room with Commissioner Gordon and Detective Bullock.  He’s agreed to talk to them about an unspecified crime, and talk he does.  We get to hear from the Clown Prince of Crime about how Batman broke into his place and beat up an assemblage of villains there.  How the Riddler got his hands on a mysterious artifact from the New Gods.  How the Riddler then tried to team up with the Joker to find the other artifacts this one would lead them to.  And how Catwoman found out about it and formed her own team of villains to get the pieces herself.

You’re probably thinking that if Joker is the one doing all the telling here then most of what he’s saying is not to be trusted.  You’d be right and that’s the mentality Gordon takes throughout the story as well.  So in addition to hearing the Joker recount the events that lead up to the present day, we get to hear what the likes of Harley Quinn, Harvey Dent, Roman “Black Mask” Sionis, the Mad Hatter, and more were up to as well.  That said, while everyone’s goal was to assemble this mysterious device of the New Gods, it’s not the reason they were brought in for questioning by the GCPD.  No, they’re all there because the Riddler is dead and nobody knows whodunit.

I’ve generally enjoyed what I’ve read from Rosenbereg at Marvel, though his best work has been his creator-owned projects with Tyler Boss, “4 Kids Walk Into a Bank,” and “What’s the Furthest Place From Here?”  “A Puzzlebox” represents his first major project at DC and it retains a lot of what I’ve come to like about the writer’s style.  There’s a gleeful irreverence to be had in parts, best seen with the fawning adoration everyone (including Batman) displays to the Joker as recounts the initial break-in to his place.  We also get some solid character work throughout the story as the Joker/Riddler rivalry is well-handled, and the twists and turns the story takes are well-handled… up to a point.

That’s because it becomes clear after a while that the storyline’s needless complexity is meant to be seen as a feature rather than a bug.  While it’s easy enough to follow in the early portions, flashing back and forth between the GCPD and the villains’ efforts to get the pieces of the artifact, things start to spiral out of control once everything has been collected.  Then we start getting multiple versions of one specific scene, characters doing unexplained things while they’re in police custody, and the Joker adding his own brand of insanity to things while laughing all the time.

I get that Rosenberg is writing to the character’s trademark unpredictability and general mental instability here.  The problem is that this becomes more exhausting than clever as the story goes on.  It’s the kind of story that makes you go, “That was just a confusing mess,” while the writer is prepared to respond, “Yes, but that was the intent all along!”  Even if this was the writer’s intent it doesn’t excuse how the narrative becomes more of a slog the further into the volume we get.  I’ll give Rosenberg some credit for having a decent wrap-up regarding the question of “Who killed the Riddler?” but it’s also one that requires the Joker to explain what really happened for nearly half of the finale.

Jesus Merino illustrates nearly all of the present-day sequences and he’s got a straightforward style that makes the GCPD look like a realistic setting while also allowing for crazed, costumed supervillains to exist within it.  His work is pleasing to look at and has an appreciable amount of detail to it, even if it doesn’t stand out beyond those positives.  The miniseries also boasts a variety of other artists (Keron Grant, Dani, Vanessa Del Rey, Ricardo Lopez Ortiz, and Mike Norton, to name a few) to illustrate the flashback sequences throughout the story.  All of them contribute distinct work that trends more towards the experimental side of superhero comics storytelling.  That’s not a bad thing, but I’m not sure I’d say that there’s any one artist’s work here that made me go, “Yeah, I’d like to see more of them in the future!”

“A Puzzlebox” can best be summed up as a failed experiment.  Extended stories told with the Joker, and from his perspective, are still a rarity these days that I was curious to see what this would be like.  Unfortunately Rosenberg leaned too far into the character’s insane mindset that trying to puzzle it out became more tiresome than entertaining.  While I’m not about to give up on his work at DC, I don’t think I’ll be checking out his work on the current “The Joker:  The Man Who Stopped Laughing” series.  At least I didn’t have to pay any money to reach this conclusion, so thanks again for that, John!