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Trick or Treat

The Joker to Return for Halloween in Batman #13

The Joker Returns! Batman #13 Teaser by Greg Capullo

The last time we saw the Clown Prince of Crime in Septembers Detective Comics #1 he had apparently had his face ripped off by the Dollmaker. So far the whereabouts of the Joker, and what happened to him, have been something of a mystery. Now at long last DC Comics have revealed that the Joker will indeed return later this year, just in time for Halloween, as part of the next thrilling story arc in Scott Snyder’s and Greg Capullo’s Batman

If that wasn’t enough to get Bat-Fans punching the air in excitement, the new story arc that begins in Batman #13 this October has been given the chilling subtitle: Death of the Family. This immediately brings to mind the classic Batman story – A Death in the Family – where the Joker embarked on his most deranged scheme yet, to sell a nuclear weapon to terrorists, while managing to do the unthinkable, and kill Robin (Jason Todd)!

Scott Snyder has touched briefly on the character of the Joker before in The Black Mirror, but after Snyder’s startling Court of Owls & Night of Owls storylines, it is perhaps the next logical step for the Joker to return, as Snyder has often maintained that the Joker is one of his all-time-favourite members of Batman’s Rogues Gallery. It has been hinted that Death of the Family will be the biggest and most shocking Joker story to date, with the stakes raised so high that it will put every member of Batman’s Family at risk! The Joker has been absent from Gotham City for almost a year, plotting his revenge, and it seems he has a serious axe to grind with the Dark Knight and his allies. One thing’s for certain, whatever the Joker has planned for them; it’s not going to be pretty.

Capullo’s art for The Court of Owls & Night of Owls story arc has been fantastic. Gotham City has never looked as sumptuously dark and menacing as this before, every panel of Capullo’s work that has charted Batman’s torturous struggle with The Court of Owls has been a visual feast of gothic imagery and psychological horror, and I eagerly await his interpretation of the Dark Knights most deranged adversary. I’m sure that in Snyder’s and Capullo’s capable hands the Joker’s return will be a flesh crawling nightmare, one that may well tear the Bat-Family apart!

Batman #13 goes on sale October 10th