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Yes, this is a post about issue 67 of The Flash. Yes, it’s about James Jesse. Yes, I’m using a Joker quote as the title. There are a bunch of pages over at @gorogues review of the issue that are definitely worth checking out.
Setting aside everything else for a moment - for just a moment, I am having so many opinions - last I checked, the technology at James Jesse’s disposal covered
ridiculously advanced guns, up for sale
para-angels, possibly hired
something that yanked a kid out from under an entire collapsing building and dropped him safely (?) in Jesse’s lair
cameras studded in a really unnerving number of places around the city
mind control of an entire city
the ability to keep Barry Allen from recognizing him (?) (but would he want this? maybe to draw out the game right now? but surely not in general)
Excuse me, but what the hell? I do not know the comics that well, even now, but this scope of effect feels like I want to forget Nekron and start asking question about “Apokolips, outsourcing of” or “failed recruits from the Renegades who decided to go back to the 20th century and are living their best lives in ignorance of the fact that they’re actually the Reverse Trickster”. Even assuming he’s still a guy who invented his own airwalkers (which I’m really happy to read it as), this feels way out of scope.
(The Barry Allen not recognizing him thing - look, James got thrown in jail, was not shy about referring to himself as the great James Jesse, and Barry Allen was both the Flash and a CSI. I kind of have to believe that Barry would know who he is. I don’t necessarily think it goes both ways - maybe James just arranged to have the Flash not remember him without knowing the Flash’s secret identity, maybe everyone doesn’t recognize or remember him - but Barry not recognizing him is really, really weird.)
And now that the above-mentioned moment’s over:
If I’m in a hurry, I usually summarize CW!James to people as “functionally the Joker”. It is a useful shorthand. It reflects his grandiosity, his threat level, his trickery, his venom, his willingness to murder people and think it’s funny, his showmanship, his TV tricks. (In the original series, he also brainwashed people and took over Central City!)
I am not happy to be able to see parallels between comics!James and CW!James. I never had a problem with how different they were - I chalked it up to “same name, different people” rather than bad adaptation - but I liked what I read of comics!Jesse and this… this…
I never got the impression he’d be gleeful about the Flash facing the greatest horror ever. The greatest challenge, the greatest trick, the greatest foe, sure… but the greatest horror?
From James Jesse?
Ehhhhhn.
If this was a James-centric story, I’d be hoping that what he wants from Commander Cold is a way to travel back in time so he can show his parents that he’s a success and they should be proud of him.
If he didn’t have this much technology at his disposal, I’d kind of wonder if he was after gadgets from the future, but Commander Cold doesn’t seem to have much new or different, and that’s not knowledge of the future, it’s more knowledge from the future.
I’m… vaguely going with the idea that he’s convinced he’s going to win in his current endeavour - whether that’s against the Flash specifically, against Wolfe specifically, against them both as he stuffs them in a jar and shakes it to make them fight - and he’s poking for knowledge of the future so he finds out how he wins and knows what to do, but that doesn’t quite feel like it’s gelled yet.
More general stuff:
James so help me if Axel is somewhere with a goofy anxious grin on his face I’mma have so many words.
Why did James let Detective Burns go? It’s not like her and Henry being in a relationship is easy to miss, and anyway they’re a cop and a quasi-cop. I’m wondering why he didn’t try threatening her to get Henry to cave, bluntly. Unless maybe he wanted the Flash to go to her as a way to pry into things and set off the Stepford Smiler splash page?
I cannot for love blood or money tell if James knows Barry is the Flash and is deliberately not inflicting happiness so as to play with him (”I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other now”), or if he’s completely missed that his new girlfriend’s coworker back from vacation is the guy upon who he wishes to inflict the greatest horror (”I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other now”, but said sincerely).
Hff. I do want next issue, but I confess I’m not exactly cheerfully looking forward to it.
Yes, this is a post about issue 67 of The Flash. Yes, it’s about James Jesse. Yes, I’m using a Joker quote as the title. There are a bunch of pages over at @gorogues review of the issue that are definitely worth checking out.
Setting aside everything else for a moment - for just a moment, I am having so many opinions - last I checked, the technology at James Jesse’s disposal covered
ridiculously advanced guns, up for sale
para-angels, possibly hired
something that yanked a kid out from under an entire collapsing building and dropped him safely (?) in Jesse’s lair
cameras studded in a really unnerving number of places around the city
mind control of an entire city
the ability to keep Barry Allen from recognizing him (?) (but would he want this? maybe to draw out the game right now? but surely not in general)
Excuse me, but what the hell? I do not know the comics that well, even now, but this scope of effect feels like I want to forget Nekron and start asking question about “Apokolips, outsourcing of” or “failed recruits from the Renegades who decided to go back to the 20th century and are living their best lives in ignorance of the fact that they’re actually the Reverse Trickster”. Even assuming he’s still a guy who invented his own airwalkers (which I’m really happy to read it as), this feels way out of scope.
(The Barry Allen not recognizing him thing - look, James got thrown in jail, was not shy about referring to himself as the great James Jesse, and Barry Allen was both the Flash and a CSI. I kind of have to believe that Barry would know who he is. I don’t necessarily think it goes both ways - maybe James just arranged to have the Flash not remember him without knowing the Flash’s secret identity, maybe everyone doesn’t recognize or remember him - but Barry not recognizing him is really, really weird.)
And now that the above-mentioned moment’s over:
If I’m in a hurry, I usually summarize CW!James to people as “functionally the Joker”. It is a useful shorthand. It reflects his grandiosity, his threat level, his trickery, his venom, his willingness to murder people and think it’s funny, his showmanship, his TV tricks. (In the original series, he also brainwashed people and took over Central City!)
I am not happy to be able to see parallels between comics!James and CW!James. I never had a problem with how different they were - I chalked it up to “same name, different people” rather than bad adaptation - but I liked what I read of comics!Jesse and this… this…
I never got the impression he’d be gleeful about the Flash facing the greatest horror ever. The greatest challenge, the greatest trick, the greatest foe, sure… but the greatest horror?
From James Jesse?
Ehhhhhn.
If this was a James-centric story, I’d be hoping that what he wants from Commander Cold is a way to travel back in time so he can show his parents that he’s a success and they should be proud of him.
If he didn’t have this much technology at his disposal, I’d kind of wonder if he was after gadgets from the future, but Commander Cold doesn’t seem to have much new or different, and that’s not knowledge of the future, it’s more knowledge from the future.
I’m… vaguely going with the idea that he’s convinced he’s going to win in his current endeavour - whether that’s against the Flash specifically, against Wolfe specifically, against them both as he stuffs them in a jar and shakes it to make them fight - and he’s poking for knowledge of the future so he finds out how he wins and knows what to do, but that doesn’t quite feel like it’s gelled yet.
More general stuff:
James so help me if Axel is somewhere with a goofy anxious grin on his face I’mma have so many words.
Why did James let Detective Burns go? It’s not like her and Henry being in a relationship is easy to miss, and anyway they’re a cop and a quasi-cop. I’m wondering why he didn’t try threatening her to get Henry to cave, bluntly. Unless maybe he wanted the Flash to go to her as a way to pry into things and set off the Stepford Smiler splash page?
I cannot for love blood or money tell if James knows Barry is the Flash and is deliberately not inflicting happiness so as to play with him (”I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other now”), or if he’s completely missed that his new girlfriend’s coworker back from vacation is the guy upon who he wishes to inflict the greatest horror (”I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other now”, but said sincerely).
Hff. I do want next issue, but I confess I’m not exactly cheerfully looking forward to it.
