I understood Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil to be crime noir, a realistic, character-driven take on Matt Murdock and his friends and foes. I realize now I’ve been expecting the same thing from Zdarsky’s Batman, and it’s probably why this run hasn’t quite sat right with me. But Batman Vol. 3: The Joker: Year One is so all over the place, so fantastical, so devoutly weird that it’s finally clicked for me. This is not, nor is it ever likely to be, street-level Batman detective fiction; rather Zdarsky’s is dark, Silver Age-infused sci-fi/fantasy Batman, and I think I’ve finally picked up the rhythm of it.

[Review contains spoilers]

Cynically, Joker: Year One struck me as a cash grab; with the popularity of the Joker character and the ubiquity of “Year One” among the DC canon, “Joker: Year One” seems a natural perennial seller. Even Flash has his own “Year One,” a storyline in the midst of a series but packaged by DC to sell on its own, easy to trot out not coincidentally around movies and big media appearances.