Review #23: "What Are You Doing New Years Eve? " (Batman Adventures Holiday Special)
Writer: Paul Dinner
Art: Kevil Altieri & Butch Lukic
Colour: Glen Murakami
No scans, sorry.
It occurs to me to be intrigued how much of our calendar depends on repeated events. Like we are trapped in this mindset of constantly moving forward yet ever going round in a circle.
Sorry. Did not mean to bring pseudo-philosophy into this eljay. Blame it on the three mimosas I’ve had so far this evening.
Of course, by midnight, I’ll be a slurring wreck so it’s better I write the review like this, all things considered. Whilst I’m sure my post midnight insights would be incomparably brilliant to everyone else jumped up on ecstasy and champagne around me, I’m sure you lovelies don’t want the hassle of having to decipher the intricate hidden meaning of shajd alb aqntaklnce eb fechot whilst knowing I am mystically in the future (since I’m fairly sure the majority of the readership here is ain nother time zone).
ANYWAY. Because I’m one of those lame thematic types of people I was twitching at the thought of having to review Mistah J’s The Long Halloween appearances for this holiday season - partly because his role can loosely be defined as “ensemble” and I’m not starting the ensemble reviews till all the starrings are done, but also because, well, I don’t masturbate at the altar of TLH and certainly haven’t got much to say about Loeb’s Joker that could be construed as appropriately positive for the ringing-in of a new year.
Then I remembered this little story and all was saved!
It hardly seems fair to review two Dini stories in a row. There are other good Joker writers out there. But well. Holidays! Christmas! New Years! Need for thematic cohesiveness urgent in my compulsive little mind.
This little tale was told as a part of volume one of the Batman Adventures, in its spectacular, and only, Holiday Special.
First of all: um, why didn’t Kevin Altieri draw more Joker stories? His Joker is HOT. Half the battle is won already when that’s the case. Don’t look at me like that! I never claimed I wasn’t shallow, that was your inference due to the long-winded way I ramble on and on and on so that it seems I have something significant to say. Trust me, I am deeply shallow. DEEPLY. Shallow.
But yes, Mistah J shared his New Year’s splendour with a bunch of other holiday-themed stories so this little story is a mere thirteen pages long, all of them completely action-packed.
Once again the crime here makes a sort of twisted “sense”, at least to the Joker’s insane mind. He’s making a new year’s resolution not to kill anyone for an entire year - so he’ll just have to work twice as hard to bump off as many people as he can before midnight!
I wonder whether Mistah J decided on the resolution then realised the pickle it left him in, or deliberately made it so as he could twist it around. But I wonder even more if it actually matters. Probably not.
I very much enjoy the way this story is told because it’s a very compact story that relies on swift, efficient story-telling to be effective. Joker’s threat is made via broadcast which turns seamlessly into a scene of Gordon showing the tape to Batman and from there to the Joker’s first murder where Batman reveals the nature of the Joker’s hidden clue in his broadcast. A panel with a clock upon the wall shifts to a panel of Gotham Square, with its own clock mounted high. The transitions are so smooth and seamless it’s like watching an episode and indeed this little story was translated to episode in the fourth season. To my mind it suffered with the new animated style - give me Mistah J in a white tuxedo jacket over beadly black eyed lipless J any day. I also think I liked this story better as a solo Batman story, as opposed to a Batman and Tim-Robin story as it became in s4, even though Tim‘s input was very cute and fun. But I digress.
The emphasis in this short story is on the action rather than psychology, so there’s not a lot of time solving clues, travelling, interactive or any such, yet Big D still finds time to give us a few lovely character moments. Mistah J, in particular, shines. This is very much his story with Batman acting as a foil to it, solving his clues and reacting against his acts, showcasing what Joker is doing for the benefit of us as the audience rather than a truly duo Batman-Joker story. To my reading, anyway. Naturally, this couldn’t be a Joker story without the Clown Prince getting in a few jokes. I think it would be difficult for even Mistah J to save a truly atrocious pun (and I doubt he’d go for them) but somehow, cracking Bats over the head with a ice bucket filled with a champagne bottle then remarking “that champagne went straight to your head!” is somehow charming, particularly when you imagine it with Hamill’s viciously gleeful voice work.
Indeed, much of the Joker’s action in this story has that same delightfully perverse twist upon it so characteristic of him; combined with the swift and action-filled story telling and Dini’s usual lovely handling of character, this is a perfectly charming Joker story. And, to give Bats his credit, it also subtly showcases all he does for the city - without giving the punch line away, no one is aware just how many people Batman saved that night - indeed, no one really had any idea they were in danger at all. He just gets in, saves the city and moves on. Onya, Dark Knight, you’re a top bloke.
I really dig the art on this. Altieri directed Harley’s Holiday as well as many other of the episodes and it may be that he was more a storyboard artist or some such (don’t know much about him), but I thought he did a really lovely job on this story. The two pages where the ten second countdown to midnight is captured, second by second to panel by panel, is fabulous. Plus yeah, his Mistah J is pretty and that always gets two thumbs up from me.
I think - perhaps, I don’t claim to be in the man’s mind - that part of Dini’s intention in having Joker well and truly one-upped by the end of most of his Joker stories, is so that we have a chance to laugh at the Joker, rather than with him. Like, it’s a part of Mistah J’s necessary purpose as a clown. We can’t just laugh at everyone else throughout the story as the Joker enacts his brand of sick humour, we have to find a moment to laugh very deliberately at him as well and, since this is the Joker we’re speaking of, that’s probably going to be through some apt injury suffered by the Clown Prince, because most of his stories take place amidst great violence. Am I making any sense at all? Glug glug glug.
I think that’s my cue to go and do my hair. Have a simply spectacular New Years if you celebrate it at this point and if you don’t, well, have a spectacular time anyway!
See ya next year.
(It was so much better in 1999 when you could say ‘see ya next century‘. Sigh.)
Art: Kevil Altieri & Butch Lukic
Colour: Glen Murakami
No scans, sorry.
It occurs to me to be intrigued how much of our calendar depends on repeated events. Like we are trapped in this mindset of constantly moving forward yet ever going round in a circle.
Sorry. Did not mean to bring pseudo-philosophy into this eljay. Blame it on the three mimosas I’ve had so far this evening.
Of course, by midnight, I’ll be a slurring wreck so it’s better I write the review like this, all things considered. Whilst I’m sure my post midnight insights would be incomparably brilliant to everyone else jumped up on ecstasy and champagne around me, I’m sure you lovelies don’t want the hassle of having to decipher the intricate hidden meaning of shajd alb aqntaklnce eb fechot whilst knowing I am mystically in the future (since I’m fairly sure the majority of the readership here is ain nother time zone).
ANYWAY. Because I’m one of those lame thematic types of people I was twitching at the thought of having to review Mistah J’s The Long Halloween appearances for this holiday season - partly because his role can loosely be defined as “ensemble” and I’m not starting the ensemble reviews till all the starrings are done, but also because, well, I don’t masturbate at the altar of TLH and certainly haven’t got much to say about Loeb’s Joker that could be construed as appropriately positive for the ringing-in of a new year.
Then I remembered this little story and all was saved!
It hardly seems fair to review two Dini stories in a row. There are other good Joker writers out there. But well. Holidays! Christmas! New Years! Need for thematic cohesiveness urgent in my compulsive little mind.
This little tale was told as a part of volume one of the Batman Adventures, in its spectacular, and only, Holiday Special.
First of all: um, why didn’t Kevin Altieri draw more Joker stories? His Joker is HOT. Half the battle is won already when that’s the case. Don’t look at me like that! I never claimed I wasn’t shallow, that was your inference due to the long-winded way I ramble on and on and on so that it seems I have something significant to say. Trust me, I am deeply shallow. DEEPLY. Shallow.
But yes, Mistah J shared his New Year’s splendour with a bunch of other holiday-themed stories so this little story is a mere thirteen pages long, all of them completely action-packed.
Once again the crime here makes a sort of twisted “sense”, at least to the Joker’s insane mind. He’s making a new year’s resolution not to kill anyone for an entire year - so he’ll just have to work twice as hard to bump off as many people as he can before midnight!
I wonder whether Mistah J decided on the resolution then realised the pickle it left him in, or deliberately made it so as he could twist it around. But I wonder even more if it actually matters. Probably not.
I very much enjoy the way this story is told because it’s a very compact story that relies on swift, efficient story-telling to be effective. Joker’s threat is made via broadcast which turns seamlessly into a scene of Gordon showing the tape to Batman and from there to the Joker’s first murder where Batman reveals the nature of the Joker’s hidden clue in his broadcast. A panel with a clock upon the wall shifts to a panel of Gotham Square, with its own clock mounted high. The transitions are so smooth and seamless it’s like watching an episode and indeed this little story was translated to episode in the fourth season. To my mind it suffered with the new animated style - give me Mistah J in a white tuxedo jacket over beadly black eyed lipless J any day. I also think I liked this story better as a solo Batman story, as opposed to a Batman and Tim-Robin story as it became in s4, even though Tim‘s input was very cute and fun. But I digress.
The emphasis in this short story is on the action rather than psychology, so there’s not a lot of time solving clues, travelling, interactive or any such, yet Big D still finds time to give us a few lovely character moments. Mistah J, in particular, shines. This is very much his story with Batman acting as a foil to it, solving his clues and reacting against his acts, showcasing what Joker is doing for the benefit of us as the audience rather than a truly duo Batman-Joker story. To my reading, anyway. Naturally, this couldn’t be a Joker story without the Clown Prince getting in a few jokes. I think it would be difficult for even Mistah J to save a truly atrocious pun (and I doubt he’d go for them) but somehow, cracking Bats over the head with a ice bucket filled with a champagne bottle then remarking “that champagne went straight to your head!” is somehow charming, particularly when you imagine it with Hamill’s viciously gleeful voice work.
Indeed, much of the Joker’s action in this story has that same delightfully perverse twist upon it so characteristic of him; combined with the swift and action-filled story telling and Dini’s usual lovely handling of character, this is a perfectly charming Joker story. And, to give Bats his credit, it also subtly showcases all he does for the city - without giving the punch line away, no one is aware just how many people Batman saved that night - indeed, no one really had any idea they were in danger at all. He just gets in, saves the city and moves on. Onya, Dark Knight, you’re a top bloke.
I really dig the art on this. Altieri directed Harley’s Holiday as well as many other of the episodes and it may be that he was more a storyboard artist or some such (don’t know much about him), but I thought he did a really lovely job on this story. The two pages where the ten second countdown to midnight is captured, second by second to panel by panel, is fabulous. Plus yeah, his Mistah J is pretty and that always gets two thumbs up from me.
I think - perhaps, I don’t claim to be in the man’s mind - that part of Dini’s intention in having Joker well and truly one-upped by the end of most of his Joker stories, is so that we have a chance to laugh at the Joker, rather than with him. Like, it’s a part of Mistah J’s necessary purpose as a clown. We can’t just laugh at everyone else throughout the story as the Joker enacts his brand of sick humour, we have to find a moment to laugh very deliberately at him as well and, since this is the Joker we’re speaking of, that’s probably going to be through some apt injury suffered by the Clown Prince, because most of his stories take place amidst great violence. Am I making any sense at all? Glug glug glug.
I think that’s my cue to go and do my hair. Have a simply spectacular New Years if you celebrate it at this point and if you don’t, well, have a spectacular time anyway!
See ya next year.
(It was so much better in 1999 when you could say ‘see ya next century‘. Sigh.)