“Joker? Joker is dead my friend. You can call me… Jack.”
Okay, while it remains to be seen if that’ll indeed be a piece of dialogue to be included in Batman: White Knight, you have to admit that it’ll be hard not to hear Jack Nicholson reciting that once you read the following details regarding writer/artist Sean Gordon Murphy’s upcoming opus.
Now, Murphy himself has been dropping teasers via social media in recent memory, but it was thought that this project was still a year or so away from finding its way to racks. Not so, says DC, who knocked the wind out of Batfans everywhere by formally unveiling a story that the book’s own creator once said will be his answer to The Dark Knight Returns and Year 100. Truth be told, our first impression is that it’ll ultimately be worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as those classics.
Check out this synopsis and then try telling us you don’t agree:
Set in a world where the Joker is cured of his insanity and homicidal tendencies, The Joker, now known as “Jack,” sets about trying to right his wrongs. First by reconciling with Harley Quinn and then by trying to save Gotham city from the one person who he thinks is truly Gotham’s greatest villain—the Batman.
Set to span seven issues and include a host of heroes and villains, Murphy teases us by saying, ““Joker sets out to beat Batman by becoming the White Knight that Gotham really needs.” In other words, he’s taking up a career in politics in order to beat the Caped Crusader by the book, a premise as chilling as it is exciting.
Here’s more from the mind behind the limited series:
“We know Joker’s a genius, we know he’s relentless, and we know he can play the crowd, so why not make him a politician? Why not strip away the psychosis (the thing that’s holding him back) and let him challenge Batman unimpeded? And to make it even scarier, what if he did it legally and without breaking any rules, so that Batman couldn’t stop him?”
Batman: White Knight #1 arrives in comic shops on October 4.