Joker’s Millions & Growing Pains

This week on the BATTASS Podcast, Joker goes on a financial roller coaster, and Robin has his first doomed romance as Sean and Clay get down and dirty with Joker’s Millions and Growing Pains! In addition to a look at Joker’s money problems and asking whether a Clayface minion can ever really have a heart, we get our first look at the New Batman Adventures design for Oswald Cobblepot himself, The Penguin! Gone is the pudgy Danny DeVito-inspired design of The Animated Series, replaced by a much more “normal,” streamlined look for the Penguin that fits with his new career as manager of the Iceburg Lounge.

First up, in Joker’s Millions, financially down on his luck, The Joker inherits a fortune from a rival gangster, but soon realises he would be better off poor after he gains unwanted attention from the Internal Revenue Service, not to mention from Batman as well. We get to see a cavalcade of Harley replacements as Joker searches for a cheaper replacement, and Joker gets duped by a plan put in place by the late King Barlow, whose money scheme sends Joker on a one way trip to tax jail!

Next up in Growing Pains,  Robin is determined to assist a lost, amnesic little girl who is being pursued by a mysterious man. Unbeknownst to Robin, the girl’s father is Clayface, who created the girl out of his own body to scout the city and plans to reabsorb her. It’s a big heartbreak for the new Boy Wonder, as Robin puts himself out there for a charming girl who ends up being far more than she seems. As the man once said, “it’s better to have loved and lost than to never loved at all, even when your love turns out to be a sentient, human-sized blob of evil mud.” That’s the quote, right?

This week we also put a spotlight on a giant of the comics industry who left us all too soon: John Paul Leon. The true epitome of an artist’s artist, join Sean and Clay as they pay tribute to someone whose art was loved by many, and whose influence will be seen in comics for a very, very long time to come. So grab a huge stack of money with your arch enemy’s face on it, cuddle up to your best mud honey, pour one out for JPL, and check this one out!