. . .

You do realize A Death In The Family BEGINS with the Joker escaping from Arkham.

In fact, it and Killing Joke occurring so close together probably jump-started the revolving door idea of Arkham in a lot of writer's minds.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Oh, really? I thought it opened up with him on the loose. (In retrospect, I suppose that it's possible that I'm mixing it up with the annual where Bats breaks Two-Face out of Arkham for some reason, and at the end he's still on the loose, and Gordon gives Bats a what the hell hero speech.)

Anyway, given that this one involved him acting as a mercenary for a Qadaffi-stand-in, and Death in the Family involved what it did, it's hard not to see a connection here.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

I thought it opened up with him on the loose.

. . . Yes. Having just escaped from Arkham!

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Since you've clearly read the book more recently than I, who states that he's just escaped from Arkham? If it's the Joker himself ... does the expression unreliable source mean anything to you?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Commissioner Gordon.

And it's not a matter of having read it more recently--I haven't, in fact, read it in at least 8 years. I just have a pretty good memory for pointless details.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Ah, but, see, then you have read it more recently than I, as I have not read it since it was originally published.

Would you like to play some more?

In any event, I submit that it makes very little sense for him to have just broken out of Arkham "right before" A Death in The Family when he was still on the loose at the end of this annual. (He shows up to annoy Harjavti at the end.) That would do far more to suggest Arkham as easily escapable, since he would have been recaptured and then escaped again after only a few weeks, in comic book time.

(Reply to this) (Parent)