Sean Gordon Murphy’s Batman story that’s he’s been teasing for Twitter for months finally was announced today as “Batman: White Knight.” The seven-issue miniseries, beginning in October, is written and drawn by Murphy (as was his Vertigo work “Punk Rock Jesus”), and has been described as his chance at an opus. The tag line for the series is “In a world where Batman has gone too far, the Joker must save Gotham City.”
This version of Gotham is modeled after a real-world city, with all the problems that entails. With that comes the role-reversal of Batman as villain contributing to the endless cycle of violence and brutality, and a not insane, politician Joker employing his own brand of justice and rhetoric out to stop him. The “white knight” in the title refers to Joker as he reconciles with Harley Quinn and tries to save Gotham legally from Batman. If Frank Miller’s Joker was based on David Bowie, and Heath Ledger’s was a “controlled sociopath,” then Murphy’s Joker is “Don Draper,” as Murphy told Wired.
Murphy described his realistic approach to the Batman Universe,
“My main goal was to undo the comic tropes while changing Gotham from a comic book city into a real city—a city dealing with everything from Black Lives Matter to the growing wage gap,” Murphy says. “[But] rather than write a comic about the wage gap, I gave those ideas to the Joker, who leads a kind of media war against Gotham’s elite by winning people over with his potent observations and rhetoric.”
This announcement follows a series of politically charged and culturally relevant DC series announced as of late including the upcoming “Mister Miracle” from Tom King and Mitch Gerards and the Rebirth capstone, “Doomsday Clock” with Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. This seems a new creative era for DC.
“Batman: White Knight” #1 written and illustrated by Sean Murphy, arrives on October 4. Cover artwork by Murphy with color by Matt Hollingsworth. Check out some preview pages below.
