Did you ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight? While doing a Rubik’s Cube? Your Major Spoilers review of The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox #7 from DC Comics awaits!

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THE JOKER PRESENTS: A PUZZLEBOX #7

Writer: Matthew Rosenberg
Artist: Jesus Merino, Mike Norton & Vicente Sifuentes
Colorist: Roman Stevens & Ulises Arreola Palomera
Letterer: Ferran Delgado
Editor: Katie Kubert
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: February 9, 2022

Previously in The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox: The G.C.P.D have a mysterious corpse, a magical box, and a murderer’s row of the city’s most dangerous villains sitting in a jail cell. Now all they need to figure out is what exactly happened. Fortunately, one suspect is willing to talk.

Unfortunately, it’s The Joker…

“DID YOU FIGURE OUT WHO KILLED THE RIDDLER?”

The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox #7 opens with The Joker being thrown in jail by Harvey Bullock for the murder of Edward Nygma, The Riddler. But even once the perpetrator is in jail, Commissioner Gordon realizes that something doesn’t feel right. He and Bullock try to break it down over lunch, but the diner is rocked by an explosion, followed by a series of them across the city, as the various fake puzzleboxes explode, including the one in GCPD headquarters! They barely make it to the lockup in time, only to find Joker patiently waiting, as though he wanted them to know he was in custody. Gordon assigns one of his men to protect their only witness, but as she and the armored officer leave the lockup, the truth comes out, thanks to one of the patented perfectly realistic rubber face masks! You’ll never guess who the actual killer is!

“THIS IS A REALLY CONFUSING STORY!”

The previous six issues wound through the Gotham underground, connecting and implicating Deathstroke, Two-Face, Killer Moth, Doctor Phosphorous, Clayface, and The Joker himself in a roundelay, but the reveal of who’s really behind the scheme comes at a very awkward point about halfway through the issue. As the story unfolds, the listener (both of whom are remaining unnamed in my review) actually says outright that the story is incredibly confusing, and they’re right. Norton, Merino, and Sifuentes do their best, but the story jumps back and forth in time so much that they’re barely able to develop any storytelling from panel to panel. More damning, though, is the unusually stylized anatomy sported by the villains. Scarecrow and Joker are impossibly wiry, while Penguin and Bullock are practically round. It’d work if characters like Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Batman himself are realistically proportioned, making the exaggerations more noticeable and more difficult to justify.

BOTTOM LINE: UNECESSARILY CONVOLUTED

After issues of twists, turns and shocking swerves, The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox #7 wraps things up in a confusing and overly complicated manner, combined with a less-than-successful art job, making for a disappointing 2 out of 5 stars overall. While I’m all for stories that underline how unpredictable the denizens of Gotham are, having Deathstroke kidnap the Riddler, sending Two-Face to steal him from Deathstroke, Clayface to steal him from Two-Face, while a fake Batman manipulates Scarecrow, Penguin, Poison Ivy, and Mad Hatter against each other is facing an uphill road, but when the final reveal is literally meaningless in-universe, it’s hard to justify spending five dollars for the journey

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