Writer: Mark SchultzPlot: The Joker forces Superman to act in a bizarre movie, designed to destroy his willpower.
When you're in a position of infinite power, eventually, there will come a time when you get bored. Emperor Joker discovers that becoming a god isn't as fun, nor as funny, as he'd hoped. He squashes Super-Mutt with a fire hydrant without cracking a smile, and he continues to lose his grip on the twisted reality he's created, as Superman gradually fights back in a bold way that only he can.
After I opened the book, I thought I was staring at Krypto, Superman's former best friend. But alas, it was Big Blue himself! I suspected in earlier issues that the Joker's pal Enigma was really the Riddler, and was glad to see that it came to be true.
While Batman's subjected to the Shame Of Metropolis! movie, he sounds a bit strange. I've never heard him refer to the Joker as "laughing boy", even under duress. He stutters a whole heck of a lot, too, but I guess that's what happens when someone duct tapes your eyes open.
Hal - that's right, folks...Hal, not Kal - repeats himself unnecessarily, forcing Superman to carry the universe on his shoulders once more. And Luthor, that crazy cat, has something brewing in his megalomaniacal mind, for the first time since his inception as the Joker's jester, since his Emperorness tries like mad to get the movie to end the way he wants it. It's a futile move, because so very few modern, cinematic masterpieces have an ending we expect. Then again, the Joker isn't your average dictator...I mean, director.
