>>5584974>Pencils & Inks: Jorge Jiménez. Colors: Tomeu Morey>Alt-Text: The Joker stands in front of a computer screen vandalized with HAHAs painted on it.>Dialouge Sample: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, David S Goyer. Tom Taylor.>CW: ViolenceYou lunge but stand back as he holds up a vile like a shield.
JOKER:
Hands to yourself Bats. Don’t get any ideas just cuz it's the third date. Ha! I drop this and those two take their smiles to the grave.
BATMAN:
What do you want?
JOKER:
To talk shop with a fellow performer, of course! You think those squares could appreciate what I’m pulling off?
BATMAN:
Destruction?
JOKER:
ENTERTAINMENT! The ingredients for the greatest show on Earth literally fall out of the sky and these people were using it for what? Gangster crap?
He walks to the balcony and gives a wistful gaze at the city skyline.
JOKER:
This city deserves a better class of criminal. And I’m gonna give them a masterpiece.
BATMAN:
This isn’t a game. You’re hurting people.
JOKER:
Of course I am! They gave the Oscar to a cannibal for Pete’s sake! Folks spend all day doom-scrolling articles to get mad for fun. People love a villain because they want to be terrified, enraged, and disgusted. They see a larger-than-life baddie they can feel scared of through the safety of their screen and they forget the day-to-day torture they’re so desperate to escape. T-shirts, Halloween costumes, memes, everyone loves The Joker baby!
BATMAN:
Yarghh!
You push him off the balcony and hold him over the ledge. All this fear, all this suffering, he did it just for attention!
JOKER:
Yeah, now THAT’s the stuff. Perfect brooding anti-hero. Think we could get Eastwood away from the chair long enough to play you in the movie?
BATMAN:
I could end you right here.
Joker holds the antidote over the dam.
JOKER:
Go ahead. The Moritaray fall’s a bit cliche for my taste but you can't go wrong with the classics.
BATMAN:
NYARGH!
You pull him from the ledge and he rolls back into the control room.
JOKER:
I knew you wouldn’t spoil the fun yet.
BATMAN:
Fun?! Do you think I’m playing?
JOKER:
Bat, please! You run around in a logo-covered fursuit yelling out BAT in front of everything like an anime. This is just as much a show for you as it is for me. You tell yourself this about justice or revenge or skipping rush hour traffic, but the truth is, this is YOUR escape just like it is theirs.
A phone rings from his pocket.
JOKER:
Oooh, upload time! You’ll love this one.
