'Brave and the Bold' Promises Reign of Emperor Joker

*Originally published on 1/11/10



If you go to the Wikipedia page for Batman: The Brave and the Bold and go to the list of episodes, you will find that there are about a half dozen titles for episodes that haven't aired yet.
One of these episodes is titled Reign of Emperor Joker. This one caught my eye above the others.

You see, there was actually a comic book arc (featured in the Superman titles oddly enough) called Emperor Joker. In it, Mxyzptlk (an omnipotent imp from the fifth dimension) makes a bet with the Joker. He loses and ends up forfeiting a vast majority of his powers (I think it was about 99 percent of it) to the homicidal clown. Granted the powers of a god, Joker remakes reality in his own image and enslaves hero and villain alike.

It was one of those stories that had a great concept, but didn't live up to its potential. Oh, it's enjoyable enough, but I left with the feeling that it could have been so much more.

The writers of this show seem to have comic book zaniness down and giving their lighter and funnier Joker the powers of a fifth dimensional entity seems like a recipe for awesomeness. Game Over for Owlman was great and Legends of the Dark Mite ranks as one of my all time favorites so I really have high hopes for this. Speaking of Bat-mite, an article says that Bat-mite will make his return in this episode, lending credence to the idea that this will adapt the story.

There are a few problems with this though. Not with the idea, but with the story itself. It's not exactly kid friendly. I mean, Joker captures Batman and tortures him before killing him, only to bring him back to life and do it again. It's true that this Joker is more playful, but he is shown to still have a legitimate menacing streak in the right circumstances. I guess that stuff could all be implied, but it's still pretty dark.

It's also a pretty lengthy story, it would most likely need 2 parts if you wanted to adapt it. With just 20 minutes, I have a feeling it would be a very abbreviated adaptation.

Another problem, albeit one that's pretty easily solved, is the fact that the original story is a Superman tale. Batman doesn't really have a large part in it. This becomes a problem seeing as the writers are purposefully avoiding A-Listers like Superman (even if they wanted to, legal complications won't allow them to use Wonder Woman). My suggestion would be to use Captain Marvel in Superman's place. Yes, the bond between the two isn't' as great as the one between Batman and Superman, but I have no doubt that Marvel would do the exact same thing Supes did at the end of the story. It would also give the writers a way to let Captain Marvel star in a full episode whereas he has only appeared in a teaser so far.

It would be pretty cool to see characters like Lex Luthor and Harley Quinn make debuts in this series.

While there are some possible setbacks, I'm excited for this episode to air. I think that the writers have a handle on silver age wackiness and will deliver the type of story that such a great concept deserves. I really hope that this isn't all just a red herring as it will be cool to see the lesser known story given some mainstream exposure.