Punchline: The Gotham Game by Tini Howard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Anyone else feel like they’re getting more social commentary with their comics these days? No? Just me? Okay, moving on.
There is something about Punchline that parallels a horrific traffic accident. You know you shouldn’t stop and stare in admiration, but you can’t help it. You have this compulsion to gawk. Sure, you feel bad deep down inside, because you know better. But you can’t help marveling at the sheer level of destruction all the same. And it’s that balance that Mr. and Ms. Howard capture so brilliantly. Punchline is the perfect foil for the Joker – in a way Harley Quinn never was: Psychotic and completely without boundaries. Yet insanely brilliant and so far ahead of the curve, you can’t help but grin in admiration.
And I’m not just saying that because I have a penchant for villains.
There’s no loss in momentum between this volume and the previous Punchline volume. Capitalizing on her internet fame, she carries it to the next logical step. It’s a sickening treatise on the dangers of social media and impressionable minds. Paralleled with the grip of “harmless” addiction. Wrapped up in the glossy pages of entertainment (I know, ironic much?). I’m at a loss for words. Turning page after page, presented with the hopeless genius of madness – well, it wasn’t the calming nighttime read I envisioned!
I don’t say this lightly (believe me): DC impressed me.
