Religion: indeterminate
Name: General Crisp
Classification:
supporting character
Publisher(s): 
First Appearance: Joker: Last Laugh #2 (Dec. 2001): "Siege Mentality"
Creators: Chuck Dixon, Scott Beatty, Marcos Martin, Mark Farmer, Alvaro Lopez
Number of Appearances: 2
Employer: U.S. military
Occupation: general
Gender: male
Note: led U.S. military response to Joker-led prison riot a Slab
General Crisp led th U.S. military response to a prison riot led by the Joker at the Slab, the maximum security prison for super-villains. The Justice League was off-planet and other heroes were apparently not around. General Crisp was glad to have them out of the way. He said, "All kinds of super-creeps and the Justice League out of the picture. That suits me just fine. Give me our boys over a gang of masked civilians any day."
General Crisp was first seen in Joker: Last Laugh #2 (Dec. 2001) on page 10 (page 44 in the Joker: Last Laugh trade paperback). This is the page on which he made the above comment. The General is seen again later in Joker: Last Laugh #4.
After first being seen, General Crisp is seen again on page 29 in Joker: Last Laugh #2 (page 63 in the trade paperback). The villain Black Mass has just created a localized black hole to suck the Slab into oblivion. (The villains led by the Joker have already escaped from the facility.) General Crisp and his troops are on a military vessel en route to the Slab island. The general's aide says, "Some kind of freak storm, Genal Crisp!"
General Crisp responds, "Freak, yes. Storm, no. This is metahuman in origin, people. Or supernatural hoodoo of some kind."
"Orders, Sir?" the aide asks.
The general answers, "We weather it out, soldier. Then look for someone to shoot."
General Crisp's voice is heard doing most of the "narration" on the 2-page spread encompassing pages 9 and 10 in Joker: Last Laugh #4 (pages 104 and 105 in the Joker: Last Laugh trade paperback). General Crisp is reporting to President Lex Luthor about how the U.S. military is faring in apprehending the numerous villains the Joker helped escape from the Slab. General Crisp is introduced by one of Luthor's aides, saying, "General Crisp on secure line two, Mister President."
President Luthor says, "Please tell me some good news."
General Crisp starts by saying, "We're kickin' but and taking names, Lex."
President Luthor responds, "No military cliches. I'm tired."
In a more formal tone, General Crisp continues: "Everything's going our way. Air National Guard took down Cerberus and some geek claiming to be the Matter Master in Midway City. Hub City was a shooting gallery, but the 10th Mountain and Army Rangers aired out a half-dozen super-thugs. Terra-Man, Hellgrammite and Barrage threw in the towel. First Marines brought down a gang led by Captain Nazi over in Dresher. Bagged a dozen there. We're still facing some resistance in Atlanta."
More of General Crisp reporting to the President is shown on page 17 (page 112 in the trade paperback). The general can be seen on a screen talking to President Luthor via videophone. The general here has a beard, although he was clean-shaven in Joker: Last Laugh #2. This can be explained because these issues were illustrated by different teams of artists working concurrently. Established characters could be drawn consistently because they were based on previous appearances. But because General Crisp was a new character introduced in this limited series, it is understandable that the artists drew him differently. Each issue's artists may have been unaware that the general appeared anywhere else other than the issue they were working on. It's either that, or the General grew a beard really fast in between issues 2 and 4.
On page 17 in Joker: Last Laugh #4, the general tells President Luthor, "The Justice League and other costumed citizens are doing their part, too."
The President says, "We'll soft-pedal that information. I think we'd both prefer this to be a military show."
The general replies, "Roger that. But we go all the way to Mars this time."
President Luthor agrees, "No stopping until we have the Joker.
The general says, "That is the mission objective, sir! The only challenge is finding him. He's using metahumans with teleport capabilities to stay ahead of us. But we'll find him. And we'll slag him"
Joker: Last Laugh
Suggested links for further research about this character:
- http://www.dcuguide.com/Joker/JokerLL_002.php
- http://www.dcuguide.com/Joker/JokerLL_004.php
- https://www.comics.org/issue/291659/
- http://comicbookdb.com/issue.php?ID=12495