It looks like Joker’s days as the Clown Prince of Crime in Gotham are numbered. DC has just announced Punchline: The Gotham Game, a new six-issue miniseries showing Joker’s current paramour Punchline staking out her own claim as Gotham’s newest Harlequin of Hate.
It wasn’t long after Harley Quinn’s permanent breakup with the Joker that the villain found himself a new partner-in-crime. Alexis Kaye was once a college student who had an encounter with Gotham’s number one supervillain that changed her life forever. Kaye saw a twisted beauty in the Joker’s work and set out to impress him. Joker took Punchline under his wing and the two became an inseparable and destructive pair the likes of which caused much more chaos than Joker ever did with Harley. But Punchline is ride-or-die with Joker and was instrumental in the Joker’s attack on the Bat-Family in the “Joker War” storyline.
But now, it looks like the student has become the master. As part of DC’s exciting reveals from San Diego Comic-Con, the publisher has unveiled Punchline: The Gotham Game, a six-issue limited series from Tini and Blake Howard and Gleb Melnikov. The first issue is coming in hot with multiple variant covers for Punchline’s new series from artists such as Guillem March, Rafael Albuquerque, and a standard cover from series’ artist Gleb Melnikov. Fans got a sneak peak at the miniseries’ interiors that shows a Gotham in chaos while the GCPD tries to regain control. Throughout the city, anarchy brews as people wearing Punchline’s insignia riot and criminals dressed as clowns begin causing trouble. Though Punchline is only seen briefly, she appears to be central to the current climate that’s boiling over in the troubled city of Gotham.
The mounting tensions seem quite similar to when the Joker was making his play in the “Joker War” storyline. While Punchline played an important role in in the Clown Prince of Crime’s epic war against Batman, he doesn’t seem to be returning the favor for Alexis. But his absence may hint that Punchline is following in her inspiration’s steps and making a power play all of her own.
Punchline has proven herself to be quite the loyal acolyte to the Joker, poisoning and killing for him. But that doesn’t mean her efforts are going to be reciprocated in full. While Alexis has proven that she can be a valuable asset, she can grow independently from the Joker by going out on ventures of her own. It would be a good for her as a character to show what she can do on her own and how she can adapt the Joker’s gimmicks in her own way. Even Joker has admitted to the potential he sees in Punchline, so Alexis having her own “Joker War” could help her realize that. If there’s going to another Joker running Gotham, this could be Punchline‘s chance to prove it should be her.
Punchline: The Gotham Game will be available October 25.
