Showing posts with label Sean Murphy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sean Murphy. 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

joker and harley quinn white knight dc comics
Jack Napier Leads The Show

Here is your links to buy "Batman – White Knight" from DC Comics in issues on Amazon.

Batman - White Knight 01

Batman - White Knight 02

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Here is your link to buy "Batman – White Knight" from DC Comics on Amazon.

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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Friday, October 10, 2014

Hellblazer – City of Demons | Comics

Upon getting hit by a truck, John Constantine is ended up on hospital for a while and came out realizing streets of London has changed.

After spending a quiet night drinking at Lord Clyde pub, John Constantine went out to have a smoke. He is met by two small-time street thugs who were unaware of who he was and try to rob him, only for him to turn them into his mind-controlled puppets holding their blades into each-others' mouths. Not before he could go too far, a Van hit a passer-by out of nowhere ad John immediately calls for an ambulance. As he was explaining the situation to the medics, it slowly unfolds that he is the one got hit and he is on spectral plane.

Realizing he is in trouble, his out-of-body form also gets hyped up but when surgeons started operating on him, John goes out to hang out with other lost souls. He believes that someone was behind that SUV hitting him and he cannot make his mind about who was it out of a fat-guy, a headless woman and a little kid. As he decides to help the kid to find her mom, she confessed that it happened because of her but instead of turning out to be a Hell-spy, she turn out to be a soul of a kid who just passed away last week.

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Hellblazer – City of Demons | Comics

Into the morgue, he finds out the other two were human as well after some questioning. Meanwhile, one of those street thugs came to hospital for sustaining injuries on throat and face, while his friend died. After he draws a picture of Constantine, his mother furiously rushes to stab John and is subdued with some struggles. The operation was successful and John finally wakes up in his body but stuck into bed for three months as Nurse Marie looks after him. Elsewhere, doctors Malachy Young and Jonathan Yorke were discussing about his demon-tainted blood sample, which got them very interesting.

Turns out, they both are occultists and are planning to use John's blood to infect people to amass an army of demons. They start by infecting some pet animals and then moved to human test subjects. When John passes by one of them in corridor, he collapses feeling an intense headache. The infected person, Gavin becomes suddenly becomes too grumpy and started sticking red hot pins in his eyes in a dinner with his girlfriend's parents. Another patient Nicole Ryan develops a taste for decapitating and making art off her victims.

When Constantine is discharged and goes out, he came across a homeless girl and quickly leaves after that headache comes back. He sees the girl cuts throat of the next guy after being kicked by him and realizes lot has changed when he was away. John eventually discovers a link to Saint Bartholemew hospital, where he was kept in and calls for an inside contact. Getting into it, the demon hunter discovered the unthinkable and never could have imagined how his blood could turn the entire London into a city of demons.

john constantine city of demons vertigo comics
Going Literal Underground

Here is your links to buy "Hellblazer – City of Demons" from Vertigo Comics in issues on Amazon.

Hellblazer – City of Demons 01

Hellblazer – City of Demons 02

Hellblazer – City of Demons 03

Hellblazer – City of Demons 04

Hellblazer – City of Demons 05

Here is your link to buy "Hellblazer – City of Demons" from Vertigo Comics on Amazon.

Hellblazer – City of Demons

In 2011, "City of Demons" was released as a five-part limited series featuring the occult detective John Constantine of Hellblazer comic-book series from Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. The story is plotted by writer Si Spencer (Judge Dredd, Slash and Burn), who worked with artist Sean Murphy (Punk Rock Jesus, The Wake) to create a small adventure of England's most popular chain-smoking, trash talking antihero. As an illustrator, Murphy leaves his impression all over the arc and possibly on the mind of the spectators.

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Perched Between Planes

The story very well-depicts the fact that Constantine doesn't just fight with Hell and beyond, he is capable of looking into unlikely places and start pulling necessary strings when it is necessary. Plus, he doesn't shy away to show a small act of kindness every now and then when probably no one is watching. Despite presenting any of his regular enemies like Nergal or The First of the Fallen as threats, Spencer masterfully creates an atmosphere of tension around him that is caused by his demon blood and two ordinary nobody.
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Friday, September 26, 2003

Year One – Batman & Scarecrow | Comics

A new mysterious serial killer is terrorizing Gotham City and killing people with brand new method of frightening people to their death. Gotham's crime-fighting dynamic duo; Batman and Robin is trying to track him down for quite some time and ended up busting a dummy scarecrow that gave them only a handful of straw.

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Year One – Batman/Scarecrow | Comics

The Dark Knight desperately tries to find out the person before this criminally insane person causes any more death of the innocents and any possible link that would help him catch this new lunatic in town. Even all of his heightened detective skills seemed to be not enough to do that at the beginning. Still, an unrelenting Dark Knight ascended on the underground mob of Gotham like a wrecking ball.

Meanwhile, a skinny guy in a scarecrow outfit raids Gotham University's Professor Pigeon’s house, who happened to be his brightest student from college, Jonathan Crane. Having an extremely abusive childhood constantly in the hands of his fanatically religious great-grandmother for being a bastard and local bullies, Crane grew up realizing the importance fear and control as the two most powerful forces on earth.

He reveals to professor these dark aspects of his childhood as well as his days in Gotham College. Batman finds it that a guy dressing up in something horrific, going out into the night and terrifying his enemies is not an unusual term for himself and tries to dig up for clues again from the beginning of the investigation once more. With The Boy Wonder, he starts busting up the mobs of Gotham City to find some answer to this mystery.

For more information on Year One – Batman & Scarecrow limited series, you can check out the link below.

Year One – Batman & Scarecrow (Comics) DC Wikia

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Scarecrow on Revenge Spree

Here is your link for "Year One – Batman/Scarecrow" limited series from DC Comics in issues.

Year One – Batman & Scarecrow 01

Year One – Batman & Scarecrow 02

Year One – Batman/Scarecrow is a two part mini-series from DC Comics that depicts the origin story of the Batman’s villain Scarecrow, providing insight on how this rivalry begun at the first place and how Batman came to be as a mentor, whom The Boy Wonder was afraid of in a God-fearing way.

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The Master of Fear

Released on 2005, this two part story features the script from writer Bruce Jones (Batman – Through the Looking GlassIncredible Hulk – Return of the Monster) and indi-fan favorite artist extraordinaire Sean Murphy (Punk Rock Jesus, The Wake), who did quite an excellent job on the book. This two-part limited series was classic re-invention of The Dark Knight facing the Master of Fear for the first time that will build their bond as vigilante/criminal in the oncoming years.
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