Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5281307-20131226070247/@comment-3343682-20131227021646

The 'dark-and-edgy' trend is an issue of comics in general, and has been for decades (see: Image Comics, most of what Liefield's touched, the aforementioned Identity Crisis). Same goes for the "jobbing" aspect, I'd imagine; I'm relatively casual when it comes to comic appreciation, but I've read my share of clunkers now and then.

The Joker wearing his face may sound implausible and nightmarish. Then again, you're talking about a villain from the Batman series, where everything leans towards scary on a regular basis, which again, has been the way of things for a while. If anything, I'm finding his current portrayal boring, though that might be disillusionment with the Joker in general. Either way, that's just me.

Regarding the media and "force feeding", that... also sounds like a pretty old/across the board/'not just DC' issue, wouldn't you agree?