Character Profile—Punchline
The Joker has a new lieutenant in crime and she is a little more shocking and a little more dangerous than Harley Quinn.
Everyone knows Harley Quinn. Initially the Joker’s psychiatrist, turned love-interest, turned trying-to-do-the-right-thing vigilante. She is the number one character for cosplayers around the world. Did you know the Joker has inspired a new criminal in the insane world of Gotham?
The Joker’s new second in command has a distinctive appearance (a cosplayer’s dream), but is nothing like Harley.
Punchline is a new generation of Joker inspired criminal who takes a great deal more of the Joker’s insanity and applies it with a good deal of current generation thinking.
Alexis Kaye first appeared in Batman #89 in February 2020 and became a key element of the Joker War. She adopted the name Punchline after proving herself to the Joker.
Alexis was a student at Synder College just outside of Gotham. You might recognize the name, Synder is probably more homage to Scott Synder who did a ton of work on Batman including creating the Court of Owls and the Batman Who Laughs. It also works for Zac Synder (you know, the guy who was the first director the Justice League movie).
While at college, Alexis is on a class trip to Gotham where she encounters the Joker in the middle of a crime. She becomes interested and then obsessed with the Joker and begins a correspondence which culminates in her proving herself to him after developing her own brand of Joker gas.
There is a good origin story in the Joker’s 80th Anniversary comic.
Punchline is a significant player in the Joker War, but isn’t in the same kind of relationship with the Joker as Harley Quinn. In the first instance the Joker is 80 and Punchline is just out of her teens, talk about an age difference.
While Punchline’s philosophy is in line with the Joker’s there is something more criminally anarchic about the character. She also lacks the Batman/Joker dynamic which in many ways continues to define the character of the Joker. The lack of a nemesis is very obvious in the Joker War and while subsequent stories have attempted to set up Nightwing or Batgirl in a similar relationship, nothing has stuck yet.
After the events of the Joker War, Punchline is taken into custody and what becomes interesting is the criticism she offers of modern culture. There is little doubt that Punchline is psychotic. She is willing to kill and enjoys inflicting pain on others, what becomes terrifying about the character is her justification and her ability to manage the system.
While in college, she is intentionally antagonistic, but also wants to reveal the façade of social interaction. When Synder College has a ‘dress like your hero day’, Alexis wears a Joker shirt. Even though her roommate’s brother’s co-workers were killed in a Joker attack.
However, Alexis also highlights the superficial and attention grabbing approach of society. As much as a her roommate is playing victim, Alexis knows that her roommate’s brother hadn’t even been at their job for long enough to affected by the death of co-workers he didn’t even know. And that he avoiding the actual issue of his own inferiority, let alone her roommate’s attempt to grab attention for a vague connection to something distinctive.
As Punchline, Alexis blames her parents, the college, television and just about everything for what has happened to her. She has not been handed a world of opportunity of the means to define herself in the world. She is offered what she describes as “a world of slow decay”.
Punchline wants to strip away the shackles imposed upon her and create her own existence. Sound like a great mission statement, if it wasn’t for the mass killing of people in a host of terrifying ways.
In addition to being psychotic and having an unsettling world view, Punchline has an ability to manipulate the system to suit her objectives. When she is arrested for the mass killing during the Joker’s War, she uses social media to present herself as a victim of the Joker, enabling her to escape incarceration.
Punchline doesn’t need extravagant prison escape plans. She is able to manipulate the system that she considers to be constrictive and destructive.
After the events of the Joker’s War, Punchline distances herself from the Joker and even has her own limited series. She becomes a combination of crime boss and insane criminal, while inflicting carnage and suffering on others.
We haven’t heard the last of Punchline.
For Punchlines’ origin story check out The Joker 80th Anniversary edition.
For more about the Punchline’s role in the Joker War, pick up Batman: The Joker War.
You can also read her limited series in Punchline: The Gotham Game.
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