Warning: Spoilers for Infinite Frontier #6!
The Green Lantern baddie Sinestro, wouldn’t be too happy with Joker’s performance, especially knowing how deranged he can be without a power ring.
Revealed in the fourth issue of the Infinite Frontier mini-series but solidified as a wasted opportunity in Infinite Frontier #6, by Joshua Williamson and Xermanico, Joker and his pals on the multiversal villain team dubbed Injustice Incarnate are taking on their heroic counterparts of the Justice Incarnate in a drag-out brawl set on Earth-Omega. Recruited from a different Earth than the one where the “real” Joker resides, this Yellow Lantern version of the character is a cool-looking addition to the DC Universe but isn’t exactly a memorable one.
Seen more so in the background and having exactly zero speaking lines, the initial reveal of a Joker that can command the power of fear was one that fans were understandably stoked to see. Decked out in the traditional garb of a Yellow Lantern and complete with a power ring to channel his constructs, this version of Joker — like any other warrior of the Emotional Spectrum ranging from Green Lanterns to Red Lanterns and beyond — has the ability to quite literally form anything his sick and twisted mind can come up with, settling instead for two constructs that are underwhelming, to say the least.
Seen in issue five of Infinite Frontier, Joker is fighting the first Green Lantern, Alan Scott, and instead of conjuring an army of chattering teeth, a giant Joker fish, or even some kind of fun construct steeped in his clown theatrics, Joker decides that the hulking bat-villain, Solomon Grundy, is apparently the best option to run with. To add insult to injury, Green Lantern conjures his own avatar and it’s none other than Batman himself, effectively beating Joker at his own construct game and utilizing his green power in a decidedly more interesting and unique way than expected. Furthermore, and to rub in how much potential was lost in this exchange, issue six sees Joker use his power to scare the daylights out of the Justice Incarnate with (drumroll, please) a random, nondescript dude aiming down the sights of a rifle. Hard fail.
Not even close to what fans were hoping to see given The Clown Prince of Crime’s penchant for being a terrifying, sadistic, and plain evil guy, the addition of this Yellow Lantern version of the villain comes off as a cheap gimmick that clearly wasn’t given enough thought outside of the general mash-up of the character. Unfortunately unable to capitalize on either of the two constructs seen here, Joker doesn’t even do enough as a fighter to help his team, as he’s smacked down by Captain Carrot pretty easily, failing to make an impression one way or another.
So while it’s clear the ball was dropped in the execution of this new Joker, he may pop up again somewhere down the line to give fans a better showing than what's presented here. Regardless, the idea of a Yellow Lantern Joker is still a wild one, it’s just too bad everything else surrounding him was a huge disappointment.
