In this artistic retelling of Harley Quinn’s slow descent into the criminally insane mind of the man she could soon call Puddin’, Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity’s fifth issue makes The Dark Knight.
The Joker's origin story in the fifth issue easily overshadows the modern-day storyline with Harley, despite the former only consisting of a few pages and the latter not only continuing the series' pattern of presenting the Joker's latest creative killing in every issue but detailing the of Harley and Joker’s pivotal first meeting (one that involved the deranged clown breaking into her home). The fact that Harley's highly eventful storyline pales in comparison to the brief flashback should underscore the horror that took place in the Joker's origin story.
Up until now, a 17-year-old boy named John Kelly had originally been the lead suspect in the murder of his father Mick, a man who is infamously known as the Joker’s first of many artistic fatalities. But the police quickly dismissed the perpetual-London-Bridge-Is-Falling-Down whistler as a possible suspect due to his age. The boy couldn’t have possibly transformed into the monster who displays his killings in overly theatrical ways, could he?
Issue #5 answers that question with an emphatic and resounding “yes.” John begins slipping into his future persona as the Joker the moment his father Mick starts to apply "the ice" by saying he is not John’s real father. Since Mick is an abusive alcoholic, this new information no longer gives John the excuse to stay in Mick's life (or, more accurately, the excuse for John to keep him alive). As Joker - err, John says, “it changes everything,” before proceeding to grab Mick’s hair and slitting his throat in a grandiose gesture.
As Mick’s corpse lies on the floor in a growing pool of blood, John wipes his face with his blood-slathered hand, but rather than this cleaning the evidence, the gesture leaves a smear that is unmistakably similar to the one that now stains his lips in the present. But the scene doesn’t end there. The demented teen calmly contorts a coat hanger in such a way that when he slips the mangled metal into the corpse’s mouth, it forces the face into the unnatural, creepy smile that the Joker is known to inflict on his victims, all because it would be “interesting.” Interesting is one way to put it.
Meanwhile, Harley and Joker’s momentous first meeting plays out in the present-day storyline (again, in black and white) before the escalating serial killer’s first public “display” enters the story with a colorful splash.
