Batman Europa #3

Something's not right here.

The Batman and The Joker are finally honeymooning in Paris! It's the story all of the real Batman fans have been waiting for. I hope they attach a lock to one of the chain link fences on the canal! That was my euphemism for anal sex! Here are some French euphemisms for male-on-male oral sex: climbing the Eiffel Tower on an empty stomach; buttering both baguettes; polishing the bells of Notre-Dame; awakening to the coq; speaking French like a true Parisian; and sniffing the wine while tasting the cheese (that one includes some anal play). Maybe we'll learn some more as we read this comic book because I'm sure everything The Joker says is going to now sound like he's trying to suck Batman off.

Oh! That's a good one, Romantic Batman: "spending time in a wheelchair down by the Seine."

Batman is currently falling off of Notre Dame. But we can ignore that part since it will happen again later after the story starts at the beginning. But first, Batman needs to tell us a little bit about Paris! Listen carefully because if the facts he gives us match the clues, Trojan Horse Sandiego just might be hiding here in Paris! Although that's unlikely because the comic still has one issue to go. I bet the last city will most definitely not be Lisbon.

Surprise! This time The Joker is going to do the book report on the city! Don't worry. I'm not going to repeat what he says. You all know everything you need to know about Paris anyway. The Joker just tells us everything we already knew! Like how they speak French and how they have this thing called the Metro that smells like piss and how every Parisian spends his day at a corner cafe thinking existential thoughts. It sounds fantastic!

Currently the Demented Duo are wandering around the catacombs on their search for Nina and Trojan Horse who's holding her captive. They're also still looking for the cure although if I had to guess, the Trojan Horse will tell them they've had the power to cure their own virus all along! All they have to do is kiss! I don't mean that sexually. I mean it in the figurative and forgiving sense. These two don't need a virus to be killing them. Their relationship is the virus that will eventually be the death of them! The only cure for that? Friendship! And kisses! Deep, long, sultry kisses!

Was this an anal sex joke from Batman?

Obviously this entire story was built around the relationship between The Joker and The Batman with the cities as metaphors for that relationship. So Berlin is a city once divided but later made whole. Batman and Joker must reconcile or they will die. Next was Prague, a city of intellectuals and artists crushed by war. Batman, the intellectual, and Joker, the artist, unable to accomplish anything because their resources are being consumed by their lifelong battle. Now Paris, the city of romance! The two must become much more intimate to save themselves. They must trust each other, caress each other, slowly slide each other's underwear to the soft carpet of a lonely corner apartment overlooking the Champs Elysees. I don't know what the last city would be because I'm American and don't know any European history. It'll probably be either Geneva or London. Geneva because Batman and The Joker need to make peace if they're going to live. London because it's an easy city to write a book report on.

The Joker leads Batman to his own Parisian Clown College under the streets of Paris, Le Cirque du Roi des Clowns. Apparently the people of Paris love The Joker. They love his art, the bunch of surrealist, existentialist bastards.

The Joker and Batman wind up in their corner apartment and Batman ejaculates a Batgrapple across the way to an apartment where they find the man behind the automatons dead. But then the polished bells of Notre-Dame begin to ring and they're off to investigate!

They're getting more and more intimate!

The couple finally confront the villain who infected them inside Notre-Dame. He's wearing a bat costume and Joker make-up because he's nuts. Or is he? I was just going to begin pondering who would want to see Batman and The Joker dead and I realized the answer is "Who wouldn't?!" This guy could be anybody living in Gotham who has had to live through Joker attacks year after year while coming to the realization that The Joker doesn't attack other cities because The Joker is obsessed with Batman. Without Batman, The Joker goes away. So why not kill them both since they're both fucking the citizens of Gotham?

During the battle, the story passes the moment that the comic began with Batman falling to his death. But now, The Joker uses Batman's Batgrapple to save Batman's life. How intimate is that, right? How loving! How sweet and caring and romantic! It's like a fairy tale!

The Batjoker gets away and Batman finds that Nina is dead. She choked on burning coals which is a clue to their next destination: Rome! I don't know why they need to go to Rome. Because it's the birth of Western Civilization as well as the first place where humans discovered Western Civilization isn't immortal? Birth and death? Culture and decay? Something about Christianity?!

Batman Europa #3 Rating: No change. I'm still not super keen on Batman palling around with The Joker but I guess I blame the virus and the fever and the fogginess they cause. The art is interesting and crazy and the story is interesting enough. But Azzarello's dialogue which I'm usually a huge fan of seems stilted and awkward. It's almost as if he's trying too hard to write Azzarello dialogue. Which maybe is the case if Casali is writing the dialogue in parts and he's trying to mimic Azzarello? I have no idea how the writing chores have been split between them. Still, I don't think the DC Youniverse really needs any more Batman/Joker team-ups after this. Batman really should have punched him in the throat at the end of issue one and called in some backup. Maybe bring Alfred in to dress like The Joker! I don't know why that would be needed! I just like the idea!