Summary: <br> More Batman and the Brave and the Bold team-ups as Batman teams up with the Joker, and later joins forces with the Metal Men to stop radical Native Americans from taking the Constitution and Declaration of Independence hostage.<br> Affiliate link included.<br> Transcript below:<br><br> <br> Get ready for the ultimate Batman team up. It’s Batman and the Joker! We’ll tell you all about it next as we conclude our look at Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo Volume One straight ahead.<br> Welcome the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host, Adam Graham.<br> In the previous episode, we took a look at those Jim Aparo stories that appeared in Issues Ninety-Eight, 100 to 102, and 104 to 108. Now we turn to those that were between 109 and 122, and again I’m only focusing on those that I think are interesting. ‘Death has the Last Laugh’ is probably one of the more intriguing titles. The front cover advertises it as the strangest team up in history, Batman and the Joker with Batman protecting the Joker from the police. That doesn’t actually happen in the story, but it draws you in. Actually, when the story opens Batman is at the scene of what appears to be the Joker’s latest crime, killing an entire family and leaving each one holding a Joker Card. And this leads to Batman proclaiming, “By God, Joker, you’ve done your last criminal act! I swear, this time, to hunt you down and destroy you like the mad dog you are!” I love how Aparo sets that apart – the frame is separate from the opening spread, and it has Batman on a red background which reinforces the anger.<br> Now when he is leaving the crime scene Gordon reminds Batman that he can’t actually kill the Joker legally. Batman says, “I’m making no promises. You’d better catch the Joker before I do – if you want him alive.” That’ not something we’re used to Batman saying but Batman is truly ticked off and he doesn’t actually end up killing the Joker in the comic. It’s a human moment and it works. However, evidence begins to emerge that maybe the Joker didn’t commit the crime, and it appears that someone else has framed the Joker, and the Joker doesn’t like it one bit and we get the setup for a team up between Batman and the Joker. I won’t say how it plays out but it is a brilliant story with some great twist and it also highlights the importance of Batman’s relationship with Commissioner Gordon.<br> Issue 112 is ‘The Impossible Escape’ and it features Mr. Miracle, and Batman in a case that requires going into an old Egyptian temple. There are some good twists and what’s really interesting about it is they’re pretty much apart and interacting until the final few pages. Issue 113 is ‘The Fifty Story Killer’ where a new regime comes into City Hall and Gordon is forced to retire and Batman is sympathetic as you would always expect Batman to be. But his thought bubbles shows his thoughts, “Poor Gordon is getting too old. They did him a favor retiring him before he becomes decrepit. Hope someone does that for me when my time comes.” And immediately he’s informed that he is being retired as the city’s defender and being replaced by the Metal Men. Batman continues to fight but is given a cease and desist order. I guess that’s a downside of the whole Deputized Agent of the Law thing that Batman had going on in the 1970s. So, Batman is forced into retirement until the Metal Men run into something they can’t handle, which not surprisingly doesn’t take long. I’m not a huge fan of the Metal Men, and this story doesn’t really do enough to justify some of its silly terms. <br> ‘The Last Jet to Gotham’ is a fascinating story because a jet carrying a key wit...
