The War of Jokes and Riddles

But what am I supposed to do? You know. I'm supposed to just quit? Just so they stop laughing? 

 Just so they don't call me a joke?

Tom King's ongoing Batman "Rebirth" series heavily differs from Scott Snyder's work during the New 52. King is more subdued as a writer, preferring to let the dialogue do the work for him and analyze the relationships of the characters he works with. He also is not afraid to make drastic decisions, like when he opened the entire Rebirth run by having Batman be confronted by siblings who could spar with Superman. It doesn't really seem like the Dark Knight's usual class of rogues when he goes solo, yet here King is, writing with fun on the mind as the first priority. It has led to his work being met with mixed opinions, and it really depends on whether the reader likes the decisions he is making. King is not afraid to gamble and it can leave some displeased, but ultimately he has a much longer 100 issue plan. "The War of Jokes and Riddles" is but an eight-issue miniseries in his massive story, a step down in intensity after leaving readers with a rather massive cliffhanger in the previous issue.


Gotham City was unusually bright and sunny in this flashback arc, a telltale sign that this was not going to be a regular Batman story. The setup is basically a pre-wedding vow of sorts. In issue 24, Bruce proposed to Selina Kyle. The Batman was going to be married. In issue 25, he's suddenly going on about a drastic incident that occurred during his early days as the caped crusader. Readers were floored. King was clearly teasing them, leaving the meat of his plan for later on in the run, and it was rather frustrating for some. This was even referenced in itself by Catwoman closer towards the actual wedding, which, for those who were counting, was not for another 26 issues.

Back to the story at hand: Riddler had a plan to break the Batman, and to put it in motion he needed the help of the Joker, who had inexplicably lost his ability to create his iconic laugh. This Joker was sulking, having a bad week. There was something oddly paradoxical about seeing the clown prince of crime frowning in disappointment throughout the story. Yet, though his laugh may have rescinded elsewhere, his sense of anarchic madness remained firmly intact, and Riddler was turned away nearly dead from a gunshot to the chest. Thus set in motion a turf war supposedly like none Gotham had ever seen (although it probably had several times), as Joker and Riddler drew their lines and went around enlisting every possible villain to help. Yes, as artist Mikel Janin marvelously rendered towards the end of issue 26, the entire rogue's gallery was split. It was an enticing premise, a 'choose your side' moniker a la Marvel's Civil War. Disappointingly, King didn't build on it.

The pacing of "The War of Jokes and Riddles" is all over the place. Rather than tell a tale of the overarching war itself, King instead chooses to focus on specific setpieces within it, those he felt had the most impact on Batman's morale and explained the hero's final decision at the end of the run. This leaves most of the title of the story off-panel, and readers have to satisfy themselves with narration informing them what direction it is going in. Keep in mind this is a substory within the Batman run, so there are no spin-offs or tie-ins to further fill the gaps. All anyone can do is believe King when he shows the Riddler winning. Apparently, Joker's chaotic style of leadership is no match for someone who actually takes the time to think about their strategies.

Riddler is the selling antagonist of the run, as Edward Nigma takes on a much darker, more serious role than he is usually known for in the Batman mythos. Writers tend to portray the Riddler a little differently every time. Sometimes, he is cold and calculating, a formidable intellectual foe for Batman to go up against and someone whose motives should not be taken lightly. Other times his riddle shtick is passed off as a joke. He is a laughable madman who deludes himself with fantasies of outwitting the man known for his planning ahead, and it never works. King leans towards the former persona. From the get-go, it appears Riddler knows exactly what he is doing, and at the end of the run he does not necessarily even lose. He just acts his part well. His plan was threefold: return Joker's laugh, break the Batman from a moral standpoint, and answer one of the biggest questions regarding the relationship between Batman and the Joker.

Nigma indeed discovered something writers have played around with for decades but Batman and his rogues remain oblivious to, a codependency between Batman and the Joker. Order and chaos need each other to balance, a yin and yang relationship that invokes a constant struggle for power with no real winner. Joker's laugh had vanished, chaos had become more orderly, and Riddler was the one who correctly realized that to reinstall chaos, order had to be brought down to an even level. Batman's code needed to be broken, and so Riddler set about staging a massive war with drastic consequences that Batman, for all his notoriety regarding preparation, could not stay on top of.

This leads to an increasingly desperate Batman trying to do whatever he can to try and stop the war, and this is where King really starts to have fun with the story. The Dark Knight has been pulled out of his comfort zone, so new methods are needed. Infamously, Bruce Wayne chooses to try and resolve the conflict as himself, not as Batman. A dinner party between Bruce, Joker, and Riddler is an outlandish premise that sounds like it would be reserved for the pages of a fanfiction, yet King is able to make it a central cog of the story. The war doesn't get the spotlight, but the character dynamics do, and as mentioned before this is where King thrives.

Weaving in and out of the central story is the origin of Kite Man. Named after a Peanuts icon and spouting an iconic catchphrase, he gets two full issues to himself and it winds up being the best part of the story (these issues even get their own artist in Clay Mann, who does a fantastic job capturing the emotion King works to convey). The character sports a lot of false bravado, but the journey it took him to get there is much more sobering. Kite Man isn't a superpowered crony with devilish ideals who belongs behind bars at Arkham Asylum, he was just a family man who made the mistake of trying to make ends meet. It cost him his son. At the end of the day, he has to face a realization comics rarely give characters of his caliber a chance to reflect on. He isn't a serious villain, he's just a D-list nobody who exists to get punched around from person to person. It is this meta-awareness that helps the reader sympathize with Kite Man. He may have been a criminal, but he deserved so much better.

"The War of Jokes and Riddles" is a character, not plot, driven story. It's a bit of filler to serve as a cooldown from the bombshell that was the marriage proposal, and as a standalone story it holds up nicely. It also offers a chance to make the Joker a centerpiece, as he was not really present to properly fit into where Batman was in the in-world modern day. Those looking for a continuation of the Batman/Catwoman drama won't exactly find it here, and those hoping for pages of action-packed turf wars might be similarly disappointed. But it is a touching story full of intimate character moments, and it is masterfully illustrated by Janin. Sometimes, that's what a comic needs.