DC Comics’ Batvillain The Joker is getting a facelift…quite literally. In the latest comic book arc of Batman, starting with issue 13, the infamous Clown Prince of Crime makes his return to the the DC Universe with one thing on his mind; death! Last seen in the pages of Detective Comics, The Joker was in Arkham Asylum having his face removed by the Dollmaker before staging an escape. He hasn’t been seen since, until now, and has been preparing a very detailed agenda for Batman and his fellow teammates Nightwing, Robin, Red Hood, Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon, etc.
Returning back to Gotham to hatch his well-laid plans, The Joker has now reclaimed his removed face and taken on a Leatherface-esque visage, which is kind of fitting for the psychopathic villain.
Take a look:
“For this story, we really wanted this to be Joker at his most unleashed and vengeful; this Joker has an axe to grind and a point to prove. He’s gone away for a year for a very deliberate reason. During that year, he sort of set all of his traps and sharpened his knives and he’s ready to come back to Gotham and make his point to Batman and the Batman family. He has a very strong mission in mind and he’s very passionate about what he wants to prove to Batman this time around, and it’s really twisted and dark and unpleasant,” says writer Scott Snyder, who took over the regular Batman series with issue #1 of the new 52 with former Spawn artist Greg Capullo on art.
Since then, Snyder and Capullo have helped guide Batman/Bruce Wayne into new territory and have big plans for “Death of the Family.” “This really is my love letter to the Joker. That way, we can give him the biggest, baddest, craziest story we could,” says Snyder. I’ve read Batman for nearly 20 years and it’s been one of the most consistently awesome comics out there. Thus far, Snyder and Capullo have absolutely crushed it and I can’t wait to see where they go with this arc.
The Joker will next be seen in the animated second half of Warner Premiere’s THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, based on Frank Miller’s mini-series and can be seen in the monthly Bat-books for “Death of the Family” starting with Batman #13, which hit newsstands this week.