After my last review, I spent a lot of time thinking about what was next for these books and what they were heading toward. I was anticipating this issue most of all, I think, because this would make or break the Three Jokers story as a series. This middle point will decide whether or not this arc was worth the wait and if it is a worthy addition to the Batman mythos when Three Jokers #3 comes out next month. But, I would like to refrain from too much speculation about the story as a unit until I can read them all together. I still will be touching on where this issue stands with the trio, but I want to focus mainly on this installment.

Three Jokers #2 has much more momentum from its beginning to end that I’d expected. The issue begins high and only goes up save for a small moment of levity in the last third of the book. As a standalone story, it obviously cannot come to a full resolution, but it works in a vacuum as a strong character study of both the Bat-family characters and the remaining two Jokers. There’s enough flashback to the first issue for someone just picking up this book to be able to catch up on the plot, without being annoying to those of us who have read from the beginning.

Handling the ideas of trauma on both sides of the battle is this issue’s strong suit. We see a glimpse into Barbara’s home life that we don’t get to see much anymore, and find that she holds onto some of the pieces of her time spent crippled as Oracle. She has a self-help book on pain management in her closet with her wheelchair, which is indicative of the ever-emerging theme of this series: how we deal with pain. The pain of each Joker, the pain of Batman’s family, the pain of Batman himself. Jason Todd is used as the middle ground of these two portraits of trauma, as he stands on the precipice of the justice of Batman and the cruelty of the Joker. While both sides have their toxicity, one thing is clear: when Jason hits rock bottom, the Bat-family wants to understand and save him, while the Jokers want him to fall victim to his pain and be consumed by it.

There are little teases throughout our story as to the identities of our remaining Jokers. We can say, beyond a reasonable doubt, that one of our Jokers is the very same one from The Killing Joke, or from a very similar continuity. The other Joker seems to be someone of great significance, and while we will probably not get a concrete first name, last name identity, I believe that he is someone we know from the Batman mythos, or an equally powerful twist. We also get glimpses into Joe Chill’s place in this story, which on one hand makes me excited for another big twist, it also further complicates things more than I expected.

What will happen when we reach Issue #3 is a mystery to me, but I can say that this issue quells a number of my fears, aside from one: Geoff Johns’s insitence on telling slow-burn stories. We have been given more information, more excitement, but also more setup that I worry for the payoff of. Doomsday Clock was a success that cannot be understated in spite of its infuriating delays. However, I worry that the opposite effect may occur in the case of Three Jokers. There’s a lot of wheel-spinning, which can be great if they stick the landing in the third act, but they absolutely must stick that landing, especially since this story has the potential to be adopted into the greater canon of Batman. For this story to be a success, Issue #3 cannot have the checks the story has written bounce. I am faithful they will do this right, but cautiously so.