Tom King has proven already that he can write good Joker stories, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold: The Winning Card doesn’t disappoint. As we’ve seen before, King’s Joker is deceptively, disarmingly mad, just as likely to kill his victim as to leave his victim unharmed and kill the next person he sees. There’s a logic to King’s Joker, but it’s the logic of surprise — of saying “orange” again and again and then saying “banana” — that impressed me in DC Nation #0’s “Your Big Day” and in this book.

Notably in Winning Card, Joker goes toe-to-toe with Batman, really rather seeming his physical equal. That’s uncommon, I think, though for King’s story it helps to reflect the “Year One” setting, retelling Batman and the Joker’s first meetings. It’s not, I don’t think, that King’s Joker is stronger than Batman, so much as we see a Batman over-relying on violence here, not quite at the point yet where he doesn’t think with his fists.