Everyone and their brother has weighed in on this book, with a wide range of opinions (although I do like Jog's assesment: "Oh s***. This wasn't very good at all"), and no one seems to have matched my initial impression.
Isn't it possible (and I may be way off, since I didn't see the issue's solicitation) that this was MEANT to be a Kubert-illustrated issue, but when it became painfully apparent that wasn't going to happen, Morrison/Tomasi/DiDio decided to go a different direction with it and essentially publish the script supported by some art? I mean, I'm sure the script was beefed up and fleshed out at times, but there are certain elements that need more - for example, I'm still not sure what happened at the end.
The story itself is a good one, taking elements from some of the best Joker stories of the past twenty years including "Arkham Asylum" and "The Killing Joke," as well as incorporation Harley Quinn. It continues the idea that the Joker posseses no true persona, only a series of "super personas" which serve to leave him more and more fractured each time he is psychologically or psychiatrically deconstructed. The latest incarnation seems (and I say seems because as I say, there were elements of the story that were difficult to follow) to be among the most insane of all - killing Harley would be one thing, but horribly disfiguring her another entirely.
The art itself makes me want to cry. I'm not familiar with John Van Fleet, so I don't know if he traditionally works strictly with computers, but the art here was very stiff - comic books are not ready for CGI; not yet. Certainly we've seen many books with computer rendering or coloring, but Van Fleet goes too far too fast and while some of the characters look appropriately freaky (especially the Dwarves), the rest look out of place.
I did appreciate the "Un Chien Andalou" reference.
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