The Joker, The: Devil's Advocate (Batman) [Paperback]

Storywise:
The Joker is put on trial, being accused of masterminding the recent spree of "Stamp-Deaths", a period in which several people are found dead carrying the trademark "Joker-smile" after licking stamps of the "Great Comedians Series".
Where the Joker always claimed insanity in previous occassions in court, having him come off with milder punishments, this time he furiously claims to be innocent of these crimes. By this taking the risk of getting the maximum penalty, the death-sentence. He refuses to carry the punishment for crimes he hasn't committed and were executed so amateurish, or so he claims. Obviously the jury finds him guilty and he IS sentenced to death. Once in death-row the Joker is enraged at first, but once he notices the attention he is getting from the outside world he starts to love it ..... more and more.
In the meanwhile Batman has his doubts wether the Joker is guilty or not and starts his own investigation.

Together with "The Killing Joke" this is the book that defines the Joker better than any other Batman (or Batman-related) title and for fans of the character this is a must-have. And I don't say that a lot of times ! (which can be seen proven in my other reviews). Especially look for he scenes which are set in the court-room where they have the Joker communicate brilliantly with his facial expressions instead of words. A big plus for the art there. Also nice is that this book works as a self-contained story so people who are less familiair with the Batman-mythos can enjoy this just as much.

In "Killing Joke" Batman says to Joker "I've been thinking about you, me. We're going to kill each other aren't we?"

In "Death in The Family" Bruce Wayne thinks to himself, "we've been linked together so long, neither of us truly understanding the bond"

And now comes another chapter, with a twist. After all he's done--crippled Batgirl, killed Jason Todd (one of them, anyway) -- Batman finds himself in the position of having to actually save the monsters' life. He's accused of distributing poison stamps, which translates into premeditated murder, and you can't plead insanity on that (let's remember of course that this is the DC universe law book here, and that the Joker's done dozens of things that could just as easily be construed that way. But then, he'd have been fried in the chair years ago, and what fun would a world without Joker be?)
Against everyone else's wishes -- Gordon, Alfred, the cops, -- Batman solves the murder and gets Jokey off. Reason would dictate that he just wait until the Joker's executed and THEN find the real killer, but as he says to Gordon "It doesn't work that way." Once again, Batman is the iconoclast, going his own way. This only rates three stars because there's not much that has a lasting impact on the reader, unlike KILLING JOKE and DEATH/FAMILY.

There is one poignant sequence featuring Oracle (nee Batgirl) when Batman actually has the gall to ask her to help him in his case. This draws on the suggestion that Joker and Bats really are intertwined in some twisted binary string. Joker is madness and chaos. Batman is rational and intellectual. Yet, Batman uses his rational thinking to preserve the existence of the Joker's madness. To some, Batman's madness may be worse, since it comes cloaked in friendly attire. (Well, you know what I mean...)

Of course, this does go back to the point of KILLING JOKE. Batman will not--cannot--sacrifice his ideals on the altar of the Joker's madness, no matter what. (Ok, so he left him to die in Death in The Family, but he went a little insane after Robin's death. He would later save Joker's life AGAIN in both Hitman #3 and the Legends of the Dark Knight arc "The Demon Laughs")

A good book, get it for [$$] or under if you can.