Batman: White Knight Presents — Generation Joker

You’d think that helping save Gotham from Derek Powers as an AI projection hologram in “Beyond the White Knight” would’ve left Jack Napier without any regrets.  Except that he still has two kids he never got the chance to know, Jackie and Bryce Quinn, and he’d really like the chance to rectify that.  So would they, given that their dad was once both the infamous Clown Prince of Crime and the city’s own White Knight.  Which is why he helps them sneak out one evening so he can give them a history lesson and tour of the city he once knew.  Harley wasn’t told about this, so she’s naturally pissed, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are a lot of people in the city who still remember everything the Joker did over the course of his life, and they’d sure love the chance to extract some payback for it from his kids.

“Generation Joker” is best viewed as an epilogue to what creator Sean Murphy did with his reinvention of the Bat-mythos over the course of that three-volume series (plus one spinoff).  We get to see Jack try to be a father and it’s an entertainingly messing thing to witness as his holographic self tries to be a good dad even as he does some incredibly reckless things and has to deal with the consequences of his actions.  The story also checks in on the other major players of the “White Knight” saga and even manages to give us some proper closure on at least one of them.

This is as “Generation Joker” leaves the door open for future stories in this universe, which are almost certain to be centered around a new version of the Justice League.  I don’t think that’s a bad thing as I’ve generally enjoyed what Murphy has done here.  This is in spite of how no attempt is made here (again) to reconcile the difference in Jack’s personalities between the first and third miniseries.  You’re just going to have to accept that his holographic self is a more irreverent version of the man we were introduced to as the Joker’s best self.  You’ll also have to put up with Jackie and Bryce being really good at escaping adult custody, almost to the point where they make these adults look like fools whether they’re former supervillains or not.

Mirka Andolfo handles the art this time around and the artist of “Mercy” and “Sweet Paprika” delivers work that’s as energetic and detailed as you’d expect from her.  Not only does she give us an impressively gritty and appropriately run-down vision of the city and characters who vividly express their emotions, but her redesigns of old and familiar characters are spot-on as well.  The only real issue with the art is with Alejandro Sanchez’s too-dark coloring.  While I get the feeling it was colored this way to match the look of the city, Andolfo’s art works much better with colors that pop rather than sag.

It’s also worth mentioning that Murphy only provide the story for this volume.  The actual script was written by Katana Collins and Clay McCormack who both have previous experience in this universe.  Their work is better than I was expecting after so-so results in “Harley Quinn” and the “Red Hood” two-parter from “Beyond the White Knight.”  It’s a good note for them to end this story on, even if the last couple of pages make it clear that there’s going to be more to the story.  So if you’ve read all the previous volumes of “White Knight,” but were on the fence about this, go ahead and give it a shot.