The ventriloquist joke wasn't bad!

Cue up the Danny Elfman theme, and get your afternoon snacks! Although I might have the last issue floating around, I had slept on this one, and might need to rectify that: from 2023, Batman: the Adventues Continue Season Three #2, "Crack-Up! Part One" Written by Alan Burnett and Paul Dini, art by Ty Templeton.

I'm not real current on Batman continuity, although we might check a recent-ish issue later for comparison, but this of course was further adventures in the Batman: the Animated Series continuity. Today, the Joker is up to some new tricks, adding a new player to his act: Straightman. The thick blond seems to have about a foot of height and 100 pounds of muscle over his boss, which just adds to the comedy of using him as a dummy in a "ventriloquist act" in front of a literally captive audience. Although he doesn't seem to have any comedic timing, and keeps having nightmares about his military service and medical treatments thereafter, Straightman does bring super-strength and invulnerability: he no-sales several punches from Batman, before giving the Caped Crusader the bum's rush. Only the intervention of an unseen shooter with a tranq dart saves Bats, but even with the sudden arrival of Katana and new muscle...Muscle, the Joker is still able to grab Straightman and get away.

Batman notices a mysterious hooded woman watching him from a distance, and follows up at "the Institute," the local HQ for Amanda Waller and Task Force X! After a brief scuffle, Amanda tells him they were in Gotham to take care of the Joker once and for all; which Batman doesn't quite buy: they might not mind if they did kill him, but that can't be their only goal. But Amanda also lets on, whoever the hooded woman was, she wasn't Task Force X. Bats had Barbara on tech duty now, and she had most of the files for Captain Carl Finley, a former Army officer, "right up until he volunteered for one of those endless secret programs to create the ultimate soldier." Cutting away, we see another of Straightman's nightmares, which involves Dr. Hugo Strange, and possibly Clayface? The Joker was keeping him "medicated" with something, to keep him under control.

Later, tracking down the Joker's hideout, Batman runs into the hooded woman, who was seemingly trying to rescue Carl from the Joker, before Waller could get him. Bats is probably on the verge of figuring this out, but the woman shoots at him, forcing him out of a window! Which, like the rest of this comic, feels very B:TAS, like right before a commercial break. The only complaint I'd have, is that there were several variant covers for the series, and there's one the next issue in the style of the classic title cards: this issue's was close, but not quite there...!