Joker is death of Gotham; Obama is death of America, Part 1

By Stone Washington

"Eyes that let in no light, that see through the darkness, stare into you, each pupil a tiny black pearl fixed in space. A bullet coming at you. Eyes that say he's more than a man, eyes that say he knows you."

~ Batman (describing Joker)

Prologue to madness

In the sinister epic Batman Vol. 3 Death of the Family is a continuation of the Batman New 52 comic series. This volume defines not only Batman in an unobserved and transformative perspective, but also a dark, Freudian philosophy within American governance that has plagued our nation for over 100 years. This volume is separate from the previous two Court of Owl volumes in the Batman series by revealing a more ominous and perhaps just as dangerous threat toward the Batman family and America.

Knock Knock

"Knock-Knock": Two innocuous sounds that would soon unleash the horrors at the police station. "In hindsight there were signs... omens of terrible things to come. The first one came with the rains. With the early snows blocking its mouth, the rains flooded the Gotham River, actually reversing its course for days. The second sign came soon after," says Commissioner Gordon. "A lion at the Gotham zoo gave birth to a deformed cub, a cub with two heads. Rivers running backwards. Beast born wrong. We should have seen it coming."

Commissioner Gordon and Detective Harvey Bullock of the Gotham Police Department wonder and worry over these omens as being a sign of something dark to come to Gotham. Bullock departs while Gordon enters into the police department just as a mysterious van pulls up to the building. Inside, Gordon talks with his fellow police associates when suddenly the building goes dark, only to start up again by a backup generator. But as Gordon keeps the police calm, he is disturbed to find someone he had hoped to never see again. His loud bantering drawl echoes as he turns off the power, leaving everyone in a state of confusion.

Only Commissioner Gordon is on the offensive against the clown prince of crime as he utters whimsical jokes for the police to answer only to kill them in the darkness as they attempt in vain to resist. Joker taunts Gordon about how he's been watching him since the one year he has been away from Gotham, and how he missed him almost as much as Batman. Suddenly the Joker's hand appears and slaps apart the flash light from Gordon's hand and Gordon draws fire as he hears someone. The lights turn on and Batman appears demanding to know where the Joker is, while Gordon kneels frantically beside his dead police brethren. The Joker has disappeared into the night having retrieved his ghoulish prize... his original face.

Back at the Batcave Batman and Alfred are troubled by the return of the greatest villain in Gotham. For a year Joker has disappeared from Gotham city after insanely allowing his face to be removed from his head by a psychopath surgeon. He had left it within the police department as some type of twisted message, and has now stolen it back (explaining his return in the previous scene). Now Batman along with his allies and family: Nightwing, Robin (his young son Damian Wayne), Red Robin, Batgirl (Commissioner Gordon's daughter-secretly a hero), and Red Hood wonder what the Joker has schemed. Suddenly a man dressed as Joker appears on the TV screen warning Gotham of an impending attack upon the Mayor at midnight. The man is being manipulated by Joker who kills the victim on the local news channel, laughing menacingly before a horrified public watching this spectacle. The man was revealed to be the son of the first man Joker killed in Gotham; Batman deduces that the Joker is reenacting his past crimes for some reason.

Later that night it is shown that the Mayor of Gotham is being heavily guarded in a bullet proof building, surrounded by helicopters, secret service agents, and dozens of police officers led by Commissioner Gordon. Gordon worries, as he surveys the building's elevators only to find Batman hidden within one of the shafts watching the Mayor's stable condition on a hologram. Suddenly Batman realizes something hidden in the Joker's plot to attack the Mayor through analysis of his strange behavior. As Batman and Gordon burst through the Mayor's office they find diseased police and security officers who are suffering from a Joker toxin secretly placed on their uniforms. The men and women all die within minutes, leaving only Batman, Gordon, and Mayor Hady. In the midst of this tragedy Alfred (through earpiece) tells Batman the contents of the lethal toxin which gives everyone a frowned face the opposite of the typical Joker grin. When the ineffective chemicals: chlorine, ethane and aspirin are announced, the Dark Knight deduces that the first letter of each spell A-C-E, as in Ace Chemicals where Joker was first created through his fall into a chemical vat of acid after Batman failed to save him.

Following this lead Batman enters the abandoned factory only to find a costumed stranger dressed as Joker's old alias: Red Hood. Joker thanks Batman for showing him the skin beneath his skin when they first encountered each other at the chemical factory and tells him how he has missed the "real" Batman. Batman interrupts and charges at Joker, telling him that he is an imposter. Suddenly a large hammer swings into Batman causing him fall into an empty chemical vat below. Joker tells Batman that he has lost his edge and that he is on a mission to redeem him. Suddenly acid is poured into the vat Batman is trapped in as the Dark Knight deduces that the person dressed in Joker's old costume is none other than Harley Quinn (Joker's psychiatrist/partner) with a radio broadcasting Joker's voice.

Funny Bones

Batman shouts for Harley to tell him where the Joker is. Harley begins to cry and tells him that "Mr. J" is gone and that maybe Batman will become beautiful like Joker used to be in the acid tank. As Harley exits, Batman places a gas mask on his face and begins to cut a hole out of the now full tank of acid. He barely escapes alive as the acid burns through part of his armor. Batman wonders how Joker survived this lethal acid before and despite being the world's greatest detective could never solve this mystery. After driving the Batmobile home, Batman enters into his cave calling out for Alfred. After no sign of his butler, he finds only an unknown cassette tape which reveals that Alfred has been kidnapped by Joker.

Batman meets with Commissioner Gordon at his house and reveals that the tape had the name Gordon on it, meaning that the Commissioner is Joker's next target. As Batman tries to convince Gordon to stay safe with him, he begins to bleed out from a blood thinner Joker secretly sabotaged him with. Later, outside the hospital where Commissioner Gordon heals, Batman reveals all that has happened to only one member of his family: Nightwing (his first sidekick now a grown man). Batman tries to convince Nightwing not to tell the rest of the Bat-family about Alfred, and to aid him in what he foresees as Joker's next reenactment crime where he attempts to poison the Gotham reservoir. Reluctantly Nightwing helps, but questions that Batman is hiding something.

Riding his Batcycle, Batman drives to the very spot where he battled Joker for the first time on the Gotham Bridge. Batman demands Alfred's location and tells him that he is ready for Joker's crime. But Joker is glad to see his "old friend" and tells Batman that he has already taken care of their "business" by blowing up the aqueduct to prevent it from being fully poisoned (just as Nightwing had before) and drowned the people in the river that, according to Joker would have been killed if the water had been semi-poisoned (as it had before). Enraged by this Batman charges at the villain only to be chained down by a laughing teeth rope trap. Joker than moves on to tell Batman and his allies over the radio, that he knows their secret identities. Joker calls them fakers and phonies and announces that they will all be dead in 72 hours and Batman will be the one to kill them.

But Here's the Kicker

Batman tries to look into Joker's eyes and humanize him in his mind, but Joker's persona is practically inhuman, "On everyone else you face – even the most hardened criminals – the pupils contract or expand depending on emotion. But not his. His pupils stay fixed, tiny points of blackness, the eyes of someone who hates everything, everyone."

As Joker rants and raves about his future plans, Deputy Bullock surrounds the bridge with police cars and helicopters, ordering that Joker is under arrest. But as Batman tells them to evacuate the area, Joker signals some sniper men from the surrounding trees who then blow up the police cars and helicopter near Bullock. Suddenly Batman breaks his chains and charges toward Joker who orders a sniper to blow a hole in the ground between them. But Batman bursts through the flames of the explosion and punches Joker down. As Batman strangles Joker, demanding Alfred's location, he finds himself frozen in place, as Joker's toxic blood had paralyzed his body. Joker then invites him to his twisted surprise he has planned for Batman and then moves to kick him off the bridge into the river, causing the Dark Knight to sink deeper into the abyss.

Epilogue: significance for modern times

There are numerous different messages and symbolic meanings found within Batman lore, especially with this Joker story that parallel the downfall of America in the twenty first century. This new Joker represents all the dark humor of the past Joker, but in an inverted, and much more ominous manner. Just as President Barack Obama (2009-2016) represents a new level of Progressive tyranny over American politics superseding his past Socialist predecessors: Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09), Woodrow Wilson (1913-21), FDR (1933-45), and LBJ (1963-69), Joker represents the true evil plaguing society, and like Obama will do anything to leave his crippling mark of mayhem upon his foe, Batman, and for Obama, America and her Judeo-Christian traditions and institutions.

We should have seen the signs America; the dark omens to come, that paralyze us with decadence and regression, leaving millions of Americans frowning at our pathetic predicament – In five days (Obama declared on Halloween Eve, 2008) we will fundamentally transform [destroy] America." Likewise Joker leaves his victims in frowns of death and defeat as each day he cause more chaos, mayhem and destruction to Gotham City. Unlike past tyrants Obama under the new Progressive Democrats has vastly twisted the political spectrum, defining what is right or wrong, and has deconstructed many of the principles that make America the greatest nation on earth. Like the vulnerable Bat-family is representative of the weakened America, Obama has threatened to devastate the U.S since his election on Nov. 4, 2008, having each year more and more destructive over American liberty, economy, global protection, and everything else he falsely promised to defend as "President"... all with his joke-like smile hiding his evil intent to the apathetic and ignorant masses.

Batman represents America's political salvation: Conservatism, which as Joker described has gotten "fat" and "soft" over the years. Just as Batman is with Joker's schemes, the GOP is only reactive to Socialist chaos and allows U.S. to suffer the foreseeable consequences from the Left. As with the impulsive Bat-family, Joker and Obama love keeping America in a state of war toward one another (divide and conquer) and his Saul Alinsky community organizing tactic: "never allow a good crisis to go to waste" (i.e., Ferguson and New York riots, toying with the rising ISIS, upper class vs. lower class, hatred of Israel and the Jews, promoting Iran and ISIS, etc.).

In conclusion, Joker holds strong love/hate feelings toward Batman just as Obama has an obsession toward America to deconstruct her Judeo-Christian traditions and institutions, but we as Americans must not be deceived by Obama's phony charm and cheap rhetoric just as Batman should not succumb to Joker's mad "love" for him, because in reality there is no love from these criminals, only a pathological hatred to destroy all that is blessed, prosperous, and resolute in this great Land of Liberty. We must not fall prey to this treachery as the battle between good vs. evil rages between Batman and Joker, America and Socialism. What is the sinister "love" both Joker and Obama posses toward their foes? And will Joker and Obama's reign of terror be brought to justice before Batman/Gotham and America drown in defeat?

© Stone Washington