Punchline: The Gotham Game is a six-issue limited series from DC Comics and published from 2022-2023 during the tail end of DC Infinite Frontier, but just prior to the commencement of Dawn of DC. It is written by Tini Howard and her husband Blake, with art by Gleb Melnikov.
The Gotham Game is a spinoff of James Tynion IV's The Joker (2021), picking up Alexis Kayne/Punchline's storyline in the wake of her trial and acquittal in that book's backup feature. Riding off the wave of public sympathy, Punchline is intent on resuming her plan and making herself Gotham's new Queen of Crime.
But Alexis has also made plenty of enemies since The Joker War — and they're all pissed she got off scot-free...
Punchline: The Gotham Game provides examples of:
- The Bus Came Back: Over 2 years after Joker War, Joker and Alexis finally reunite in the final issue.
- Canon Immigrant: The first issues sees the meta-teen incarnation of the Royal Flush Gang from Justice League cartoon make their comics debut.
- Continuity Overlap:
- Batman (Chip Zdarsky): Downplayed, but Bruce is finally back in town after having been traveling abroad during Batman (Joshua Williamson). As he was out of town when the verdict was handed down, Bruce is not happy Alexis got off and is determined to stop her for good.
- Catwoman (2018): The mini-series is closely intertwined with Howard's Catwoman (enough to the point that they're unofficially crossing over and it's impossible to understand one without the other).
- The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing: Joker, plus his then-current injuries, finally pops up in this mini-series.
- A Day in the Spotlight: For Alexis Kayne (and, to a lesser extent, the Royal Flush Gang).
- Immediate Sequel: The first issue opens immediately following Punchline's acquittal at the end of Joker.
- Long Game: In issue #2, Bruce theorizes to Dick Grayson this is what Joker was ultimately trying to accomplish with Alexis. She is of the generation that grew up in a post-Batman Gotham and in the middle of the Clown's reign of terror. Bruce fears this is what Joker was playing for: To saturate Gotham's up-and-coming with constant fear and terror to the point where, rather than reject it, they would accept and embrace his ideology.
- Mob War: Punchline and her faction are on the cusp of one with Black Mask as the mini-series gets going (and aligning with the Gotham Mob tensions Howard has been seeding over in Catwoman).
- Sequel Series: To the Punchline backups from Tynion's Joker.
- Spinoff: Of Tyion's Joker.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Punchline is still riding a wave of public sentiment and sympathy thanks to her acquittal in the Joker series.
- Villainous Breakdown: In issue #4, it turns out that Black Mask and his associates, including Tiger Shark and the Ventriloquist, have taken advantage of her attack on Catwoman and her turf to invade Punchline's own turf to take it over. When she tries to get him to join her, he declines and revealed what he did, causing her to flip out.
