Punchline: The Gotham Game #1 Review

Queen Or Joker?

Written By: Tini Howard, Blake Howard

Art By: Gleb Melnikov, Luis Guerrero, Becca Carey

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 25, 2022

Our Punchline story continues. Spinning out of the backup pages of The Joker, Alexis Kaye continues her terror of Gotham now that she's been acquitted of all crimes she was accused of during The Joker War. What does this mean for Gotham? I'd say nothing good. Let's jump into this book and see what Punchline has in store for us with her Gotham Game. Let's check it out.

For our first issue of Punchline: The Gotham Game we see that Alexis Kaye hasn't missed a step as she's putting together a crew, but not just any crew, using the knowledge and influence she gained during her time at Blackgate Penitentiary, she's assembling her own Royal Flush gang with new and old members. She plans to get her crew and start distributing a nontraceable and totally legal drug that the citizens of Gotham will eat up. Obviously, this attack on the people of Gotham will draw out some force against her and while we know that Batman is waiting in the wings for a moment to take Punchline down, it looks like this book is going to take a much broader approach to crime in Gotham and actually incorporate a lot of elements that are currently going on throughout the city and the Bat-centric books at DC Comics because it looks like our next step is to acquire a building in Alleytown that used by Eiko Hasagawa, a close friend of Selena Kyle and another Catwoman in her own right.

Some exciting things are going on in this first issue of Punchline: The Gotham Game and while I like incorporating things going on with Catwoman and how the former romance of Batman and Catwoman will lead to those heroes giving each other space, I have to say that a lot of the progression in storytelling felt like it was a bit messy and transitions felt awkward and out of nowhere and some even feel downright out of place for the way that they're conveying the story.  

All in all, if you were at least captivated a little by Punchline during her introduction and subtle continuation of her story in the backup pages of The Joker series, then you'll definitely want to pick this book up because......... Well, it was made for you. Now I don't know if this is going to be grabbing new fans for the way things move so quickly throughout this first issue because it does very little to let you know who Alexis Kaye is and why she should be considered such a big bad. That being said though, I found myself interested in what was going on and loved the art throughout so I find myself pleasantly surprised that I want to continue this journey and find out what Punchline does next.

Bits and Pieces:

While I don't think that this first issue will blow anyone away with what it's doing, I do think that it will make Punchline fans pretty happy in seeing Alexis Kaye out on her own and creating a new way to show that she's a threat to Gotham that everyone including the Bat-Family should be worried about. The art is great throughout and there are some fun characters introduced here that I look forward to seeing again.

6.9/10