Showing posts with label Clayface. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clayface. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Batman – White Knight | Comics

The maniacal Clown Prince of Crime is finally cured of his insanity and tries to right his wrongs by saving Gotham City from Batman!

On the gates of Arkham Asylum, a Batmobile stops by and a person comes out of it to meet a patient, Batman. The guards escort him inside and as they update the man named Jack Napier about The Dark Knight, he simply asks the imprisoned vigilante to help him.

Flashback to a year prior, The Joker was on the run as Batman was chasing him in his Batmobile throughout the city with Batgirl at his side. During the pursuit, the clown makes him endanger public life by making him recklessly go through construction sites and rooftops. Nightwing saves a worker on the go and even one security guard was knocked off by the Bat when he was fanatically chasing the clown.

Following a brief taunting, these two arch-enemies start a fight in an empty building of the industrial district where the clown argues about the duality of their relationship and how his sanity is kept in check by fighting crime. At one point he pushes Batman too far pointing out the tragedy of his life and the young sidekicks only to be beaten more viciously.

The Joker takes out some pills he believes will cure him and the Caped Crusader shoved the whole package down his throat in front of GCPD, Jim Gordon, Det. Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya, effectively leaving him chocked while a woman filmed the scene.

The city breaks out in two fractions; some arguing over condemning Batman after the Hail Mary chase he put throughout Gotham and some still believing in him after the video of their fight was leaked and gone viral. Even Gordon and Bullock argues on whether they are on the right side before Batgirl arrives to check on the condition of the clown.

Bruce is confronted by Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon in Wayne Manor about his recent display of near-psychotic fits of rage, because his behavior doesn't seem alright. He then opens a secret door to passage downstairs where they see a dying Alfred Pennyworth lying on a bed and Bruce has enlisted the help of Victor Fries AKA Mister Freeze.

While he is deeply upset about his father-figure lying in a dying state, he goes back to check on Joker and then leaves abruptly. Jim Gordon meets the mayor in City Hall and Doctor Leslie Thompkins gives her report on the patient, Jack Napier has recovered and fully sane now. Although Gordon suspects that he is faking it, Leslie confirms him it to be otherwise.

batman white knight dc comics
Batman – White Knight | Comics

With his newfound sanity, he is also working full-time on his legal case to file charges against Batman and GCPD. In a meeting with the cops, he gets out of his handcuffs and calmly explains how he can pin charges against them if he wants by going to trial, which he will win and claims that he is going to save Gotham from Batman as its White Knight.

In his trial, Jack Napier opens up about his recovery and how he was always a criminal who started with a bank robbery but was accused of committing murder or at least, the police never could show any evidence and been labeled as a super-criminal anyway.

He accuses the gatekeepers of Gotham to use his unstable mental condition as an excuse to scare the taxpaying Gothamites and used him as a source of revenue. With that, he walks free from trial due to lack of evidence and vows to eradicate vigilantism from the city.

He then goes back to Harley Quinn and although joyous to see him, she is almost immediately disgusted to see him not a psycho in makeup anymore. Napier apologizes to her for his years of abuse and negligence before proposing to marry her to make things right. She gut-punched him to the floor, only get kicked off by Harleen Quinzel.

It seems Harley left long ago and now came back to take him back with Bud and Lou. They catch up on their old days that are full of excitement but she was always blindsided by his obsession with The Dark Knight. Things went too far when Harley found him torturing Robin down in their basement and contacted Batman to get help without delay.

He beats down the maniac with an inch of his life before sending him to Arkham but they never found Jason Todd, ever. Even Napier couldn't remember what he really did to the Boy Wonder as The Joker. He wants to move on asks her help to rebuild Gotham together.

He calls for a meeting of his former colleagues including Baby Doll, Bane, Killer Croc, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Roxy Rocket, Scarecrow, Scarface/Ventriloquist, The Riddler and Two Face only to trick them into becoming his mind-controlled puppets with hat of Mad Hatter, by using Clayface as a signal conduit for a grand scheme to frame the Caped Crusader.

As planned, he unleashed an army of super-villains on the streets and police gave them chase before the Bat-Family arrived on scene. Wrecking havoc throughout the city, they are lured to the planned site of a library for Backport and it collapsed onto Batman. He came out badly injured and his life was saved at a great cost of a loved one.

Refusing to let go of the chance for Jack Napier to embrace The Joker persona once again, the Harley pretender suits up in an all-new avatar to get her lover back and finds out about the scheme Jack is playing and with help from Hatter, she managed to turn the tables.

Apparently, the pretender was a depressed banker named Marian Drews, who met The Joker during a bank robbery and became a part of his life. Now that he is gone, she intends to get him back and debuts as Neo Joker. She unleashes a crisis on Gotham that even Jack Napier sees no other way to save the city without the help of his archenemy.

For more information on this limited series, you can check out the link below.

Batman – White Knight (Comics) Wikipedia

Batman – White Knight (Comics) DC Wikia

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Jack Napier Leads The Show

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Batman – White Knight

Back in 2017, DC Comics hired Sean Murphy (Hellblazer – City of Demons, Year One – Batman/Scarecrow) as both writer and artist for the eight-issue limited series title "White Knight" that run until 2018, primarily focused on one of Batman's worst villains and reflects on a side no one saw before as he ascends to sanity.

The long-running debate regarding the vigilante methods of Batman has crossed a few lines and it helped The Joker/Jack Napier to portray as a villain. Harleen Quinzel also played an important role to the overall plot and a huge ensemble of villains from Gotham showed up for a major clash with the Bat-Family and members of GCPD.

batman vs joker white knight dc comics
Unexpected Peace Offering

A fine nod to the poorly received Batman and Robin movie from 1997 and "The Dark Knight Returns" graphic novel are probably there regarding the fate of the trusted Wayne family butler Alfred Pennyworth. Pivotal elements from another popular storyline, "A Death in the Family" subtly played an influence for the ongoing Batman/Joker antagonism over the undisclosed fate of Jason Todd and unveiled new twist.

It appears that, Murphy took great inspiration from the popular TV show of 90's, Batman: The Animated Series and some classic characters like Baby Doll, Roxy Rocket and Veronica Vreeland appeared in the story, reimagined with almost same appearance resembling to the series. The sleek and edgy drawing style of Murphy was an overall refresher and was very well suited match to the dark tone of the story.
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Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Red Hood and the Outlaws – Bizarro Reborn | Comics

Red Hood and Artemis' strange alien teammate receives an upgrade when he was on the brink of death and turned into something no one ever expected!

While reading a newspaper article covering news of Red Hood and his Outlaws returning to the Gotham, a mysterious individual explains to a person sitting nearby about the reason he was broke out of Arkham Asylum only to terrorize the city and the latter is revealed to be Solomon Grundy, a mindless zombie brute.

Following their latest trip in K'kyesh, Qurac, the Outlaws are declared as international war criminals and they took shelter in Ma Gunn's Home for the Criminally Impaired to treat Bizarro, who is in a critical condition.

When Artemis remarks about the fact that their injured friend should be in a hospital, Faye points out they cannot just go to S.T.A.R. Labs to get a checkup. She tells Jason to stop fetching false hope to Big-B and Ma Gunn tells them to go out with their bickering.

Despite knowing he won't live long, Jason grieves about the uncertain fate of their ally while she tries to comfort him by relating her own struggle of losing her love, Akila (Who Is Artemis). News of Grundy wrecking havoc comes to TV and the two rushes to the spot.

red hood and the outlaws dc rebirth
Red Hood and the Outlaws – Bizarro Reborn | Comics

AR hits a rampaging Grundy but thrown out, which leads Jason to take shots at him with no effects. Back home, Bizarro decides to go help his friends upon hearing them getting thrashed in spite of Faye pointing out that he may not survive if he does so.

The brute monster was effortlessly beating the living crap out of them two but as he was about to deliver the killing blow to Red Hood, help came along in form of a Superman-clone. Grundy is taken down and asks them to take care of his doll, Pup Pup before he collapsed.

Unable to cope with Big-B passing, Jason suggests using a Lazarus Pit or something to revive him while Lex Luthor came to rescue his doomed creation and surprisingly, he managed to do the impossible. The big guy only returned as a big-brained genius after Luthor hands him over to Reds.

Next up, they went undercover as employees of Haly's Circus to meet Nightwing and face off USSR terrorist KG Beast together. Artemis and Red Hood then goes fighting a gang of mindless Dollotrons sent by Professor Pyg to rob ruthless crime-lord Penguin but Jason decided to keep it for himself.

The Outlaws sets up an invisible fortress above Gotham City to monitor crime starting with an Arkham Asylum escapee and serial killer Victor Zsasz. Soon, their unusual activity is detected by Gotham Knights at The Belfry and they encounter each other where Azrael, Batwing, Batwoman, Clayface and Orphan came out victorious after some struggle.

They are handed over to Amanda Waller at Belle Reve Penitentiary and agree to go on a mission with Suicide Squad members Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn and Killer Croc to stop a ruthless villain named Harvest, leader of N.O.W.H.E.R.E.

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Fall of Bizarro

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Red Hood and the Outlaws – Bizarro Reborn

With The New 52 coming to an end and DC Rebirth kick-started, the second monthly ongoing series of Red Hood and The Outlaws is doing great after picking up from a new point in "Dark Trinity". By far this arc has apparently featured a maximum number of important characters from various teams and groups of DC Universe.

The third storyline from the series collects issues #12-18 and Annual #01, plotted by writer Scott Lobdell (Alpha Flight, Generation X) with artists Dexter Soy (Batman – Arkham Knight – Genesis, DC Universe Vs. Masters of the Universe), Joe Bennett (Rann–Thanagar War, Teen Titans) and Tyler Kirkham (Deathstroke – God Killer, Deathstroke – Suicide Run).

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Knights and Outlaws

When The Outlaws sought help from the recent self-proclaimed Man of Steel, Lex Luthor regarding their big friend, it reminded him of Subject B-0, who sacrificed his life trying to save Luthor from Crime Syndicate during the events of "Forever Evil". So, he worked his way up to save the creature's life by turning him into Bizarro 2.0.

They have a run-in with Gotham Knights and already outnumbered, the trio held themselves off quite well. Then another misadventure with the notorious Task Force X has them butt heads with maniacs like Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn and Killer Croc but came out alive.
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Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Batman – The War of Jokes and Riddles | Comics

In a war between The Joker and Riddler, The Dark Knight tries his best to save Gotham City from burning down.

Following Batman's debut as a vigilante on Gotham City, he successfully decreased the increasing crime rate of the city by putting many super criminals behind bars. During the second year of his crime-fighting, one of his archenemy named Red Hood One came back and became known as The Joker.

He went on a senseless killing spree of comedians who was unable to make him laugh and no one could figure out why. Commissioner Gordon tried to apprehend the madman but more civilian died as well as his own men during his attempts.

Stuck inside of GCPD, master strategist and evil genius Riddler had became a means to solve crimes for them. Thinking he has solved the riddle of Joker's massive killings, he decides to escape and he did so by threatening the confronting group of guards of knowing about their loved ones.

He finds Joker and suggests that they team up to beat Batman together as the clown has lost the ability to laugh because of always being halted by him. The Joker shot him in the stomach after dismissing the idea and left him for dead.

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Batman – The War of Jokes and Riddles | Comics

Batman came in slightly late to stop this and chased Joker knowing Riddler will survive the gunshot wound. It was from that moment when Edward Nygma started amassing super-villains to fight by his side against the maniacal clown.

Evil that inherited Gotham has parted into two and started ripping each other. Joker tells Carmine Falcone over phone to kill Riddler but when his men failed to do so because of the intervention of Poison Ivy, the clown took out all his men and operation as well before killing his mother Carmen.

A common criminal and former associate of The Joker named Charles Brown is approached by Batman to be a mole in his former boss's gang and set up a meeting. That plan flipped when Riddler figured it out and had him abducted by Clayface to confront about it and he also told this to Batman.

The meeting was a mess and Joker sends him to Batman wired with fake explosives while Riddler poisoned his son. With that tragedy becoming a motivation, Charlie eventually become the Kite-Man and thus, a new villain is born.

By then only Catwoman haven't joined any sides and as Gordon approached the villains for a truce, all they wanted was Batman. Deadshot and Deathstroke were sent to kill the Bat but they got busy trying to kill each other with the causality of 62 civilians in five days.

Batman finally managed to stop them and got Floyd Lawton hospitalized in a fit of rage. He then plans to do something that even the Riddler never saw coming and the endgame of his decision would made him what he is today.

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Monsters Choosing Sides

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Batman – The War of Jokes and Riddles

Coming from the best-selling creative team of Tom King (Batman – I Am Bane, Batman – I Am Gotham) and Mikel Janín (Justice League Dark, Superman – The Final Days of Superman) from DC Rebirth, "The War of Jokes and Riddles" is an eight-part epic saga from Batman's past in the Prime Earth continuity.

It all begin in issue #24 of the third ongoing volume of Batman, where The Dark Knight finally proposes Catwoman to marry him and before she can answer, he decides to let her know of an event that no one else knows about. Writer King took a unique approach in exploring Batman's early years with two of his arch-nemesis on his tail.

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Joker Vs. Riddler

The storyline collects issues #25-32 from the third Batman monthly series from DC Comics and features appearances of the villains including Clayface, Cluemaster, Deadshot, Deathstroke, Firefly, Killer Croc, Kite-Man, Mad Hatter, Man-Bat, Mister Freeze, Mister Zsasz, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Solomon Grundy, Two-Face and Ventriloquist, aside from the two main antagonists.

Even though the story is told in the DC Rebirth era, the events of the book actually took place not long after the infamous "Zero Year". Coincidentally, that is also the rising point of both The Joker and Riddler in the Prime Earth continuity.
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Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Detective Comics – The Victim Syndicate | Comics

On the entrance of Wayne Tower, Batwoman stands aside with Renee Montoya inspecting a security footage showing an unknown group of people appear and kills the approaching guards by apparently exposing them to various poisons. The man leading the group comes forward and states that they are here to file a complaint.

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Detective Comics – The Victim Syndicate | Comics

Batman goes to meet Jacob Kane in the Belfry holding cells but he refuses to give up any information about his mission. He talks to Kate about the current condition of Stephanie, who was hanging out at Thompkins Clinic with Harper Row and Jean-Paul Valley. Orphan and Clayface was training in the Mud Room, when Basil Karlo realized that he is the biggest bad-guy in Batcomputer's database before Cassandra finally shuts down the program.

Bruce and Kate walks into policemen's ball as the former is here to recruit Luke Fox in his fold as Batwing. Suddenly, an explosion goes off and the group who earlier broke into Wayne Tower arrives, introducing them as The Victim Syndicate. Soon, Bat-Family arrives in scene but are easily taken down by Victim Syndicate.

Their leader; the First Victim explains that he and his companions; Madame Crow, Mister Noxious, Mudface and Mute are all results of Batman's failure. Batwoman's investigation revealed that all members of Victim Syndicate were victim of The Joker, Poison Ivy and Scarecrow during their fight with Batman. Meanwhile, a poisoned Spoiler starts acting all rational and out of character. Plus, A.R.G.U.S. has been keeping a secret called Monstertown!

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War In Gotham

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Detective Comics – The Victim Syndicate

The "DC Rebirth" mania successfully kicks off with "Rise of the Batmen", DC Comics brings the second storyline of Detective Comics in order again in 2017. The story is comprised of issues #943-949 of the Detective Comics monthly ongoing featuring works of writers James Tynion IV (Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Red Hood and the Outlaws) and Marguerite Bennett, who are also assisted by artists Alvaro Martinez, Ben Oliver and Eddy Barrows (Superman, Teen Titans) as well.

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See The Devil

Taking place right after the crossover event "Night of the Monster Men", the plot of the book takes a flashback at "Zero Year – Secret City", when The Dark Knight debuted his crime-fighting career by start fighting against the gang Red Hood One used to run. The story will continue in the next arc "League of Shadows" and stakes will go higher.
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Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Batman – Night of the Monster Men | Comics

As Hurricane Milton is headed towards Gotham City, something weird starts happening to the corpse at Tolliver Memorial Morgue. Batman and Batwoman were atop a building observing the weather. Reminding even he cannot fight nature, Nightwing also indicates the possibility that this one may be worse than "Zero Year" but since he has lost Tim, he won't allow any more loss of life.

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Batman – Night of the Monster Men | Comics

So, he calls for Clayface, Orphan and Spoiler to lend hands. In Cauldron, Dr. Hugo Strange is working out and is reminded that it is time, to which he agrees and the corpse on the morgue starts taking grotesque form, turning into something monstrous. The entire Bat-Family is assembled and given their task of rescuing people when they all suddenly saw a giant monster approaching to them.

Sending his cavalry to help the citizens, Batman jumped in to confront the monster and after quite a hassle, he even managed to take it down. Upon analyzing its DNA, they learn that the person Bob Castro, who was turned into this monster, actually killed himself in Commissioner Jim Gordon's office and was a former patient of Hugo Strange.

Batman eventually deduced the real culprit behind this incident by connecting the dots and then another monster arrives. He sends Nightwing for investigation while trying to draw the monster's attention to him and Batwoman. Clayface, Orphan and Spoiler assists Detective Bullock with evacuation. The situation on street worsens and Gotham Girl decides to join the fight in her shaky condition in spite of Batman's warning.

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Knights and Monsters
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"Night of the Monster Men" is the very first crossover that took place right after DC Rebirth, succeeded by "I Am Gotham" and "Rise of the Batmen" storyline. A team of writers James Tynion IV (Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Red Hood and the Outlaws), Steve Orlando (Justice League of America – The Extremists, Justice League of America – Road to Rebirth), Tim Seeley (Grayson – Agent of Spyral, Grayson – We All Die At Dawn) and Tom King (The Omega Men, Robin War).

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Strange Secret Unleashed

They were also aided by artists Andy MacDonald, Riley Rossmo and Roge Antonio for DC Comics on 2017 to shape the plot. The crossover ran through the issues of regular Batman, Detective Comics and Nightwing monthly ongoing series respectively.
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