Fool’s Comics Cavalcade: The Greatest Magic Trick In ‘Detective Comics’ #833-834

It’s April Fool’s Day, a fake holiday devoted to pranks, jokes, and other general mayhem. We wanted to take a look at some of the biggest “pranks” pulled on our favorite heroes, and what better hero for that than Batman?

Detective Comics #833-834 is fairly deep into the run of Paul Dini, Don Kramer, Wayne Faucher, John Kalisz, and Travis Lanham. The run to this point had generally been single issue mystery stories with serialized elements, such as Penguin building his empire and Riddler going straight. This story arc used an opportunity to tell a rare two-parter following up on a huge plot point dating back to Identity Crisis.

Here Batman is unable to save the assistant of an edgy magician after one of their illusions goes wrong. He feels there’s something off though, and he calls in one of his oldest friends — Zatanna Zatara — thanks to both her expertise with stage magic and a personal connection with the victim. The two must navigate their damaged friendship from the Dr. Light crisis, and a horrifying secret about their investigation.

I absolutely adore this story. Now yes, Dini writing Zatanna is absolutely well-trodden ground, to the point of jokingly referring to his stories with her as “the writer’s barely disguised fetish.” But here it’s so good. I didn’t talk about Zatanna as one of Batman’s better love interests in my column about them back in February, but she really has an amazing relationship with him.

There’s something about two people who have known each other all their lives, who grow into a mutual love and respect. While Selina is probably my favorite Bat paramour, Zee is close behind. Dini writes the hurt between them from her betrayal during Identity Crisis so well, as he does the two mending their friendship. It’s deep and incredibly real, and Kramer is able to enhance that in subtle moments across the two issue.

But then, here’s the twist, both in the story and the column. At the end of issue #833, Batman and Zee almost have it figured out. They know that Ivar Loxias killed Katy, his assistant, by exploiting her nut allergy. But he surprises them both (in a reveal paced perfectly by Kramer). He’s not Loxias. In fact, he’s killed Loxias.

This is a Joker story.

And our April Fool’s column is actually a Joker column.

Surprise!

I’ll say this: if I didn’t read this story in a “greatest Joker stories” style trade, the reveal would have shocked me. In the same breath, both Dini and Kramer set up the reveal perfectly. It’s not totally a “playfair” mystery, but there’s enough clues that do line up that it makes sense. Dini has “Loxias” make multiple references to killing his old life, and Batman talks about a shift in the magician’s style and how he sought out some of Gotham’s worst villains. Kramer gets in by providing visual clues — like the character’s body language — that’s familiar but not outright saying “hey, it’s the Joker!”

Not only does the reveal work, but it’s made better by how Dini did it. The only other appearance of the Joker in this run at this point had been a single issue Robin spotlight story in Detective #826. Dini basically gave the Joker enough time to recover in real time before bringing him back into his run. It’s a great long play that’s made even better by the well done reveal.

The Joker is really one of comics’ greatest villains. He’s lost so much teeth by appearing so often. By giving the character time to breathe between appearances, his reappearance in this issue has that much more impact, which is something editorial has forgotten.

They absolutely nailed it, and it descends into nightmares for our heroes. This is a story I’d recommend to anyone looking for a little Joker fix. This one nailed it.