Warning! Contains spoilers For Batman #135 and the video game Batman: Arkham Knight!For decades Batman and Joker have fought one another, with the Clown Prince of Crime constantly escaping because the Dark Knight refuses to kill him, but recently Batman was finally given permission to kill Joker by the one person he might listen to: himself.
During the events of Batman #135 by Chip Zdarsky, Mike Hawthorne, Jorge Jimenez, Mikel Janin, Adriano Di Benedetto, Tomeu Morey, and Romulo Fajardo, Batman is pulled across the multiverse by the villain Doctor Halliday. Halliday is a “sane” version of the Joker who has realized his life’s call isn’t to become the Joker but to create him. To achieve this, Halliday begins moving through universe after universe. If a universe has never had a Joker, then one will appear; if a Joker is already in a universe, he becomes much darker; and if Joker is dead in a universe, then he is revived. Because of this, Batman sees many things across the multiverse, including other Batmen, such as Michael Keaton and Batman: The Animated Series versions. But the most surprising twist of all is the fact Batman actually encounters the Batman from the famous Arkham series of games. And this Batman has a very dark bit of advice for Batman, to put Joker “in the ground” if possible.
Arkham Batman Wants Joker Dead
The Arkham franchise was a fantastic series of games set in their own universe, developed by Rocksteady Studios. They followed Batman at the peak of his career as he dealt with some of the most vicious attacks by the Joker. During the events of Batman: Arkham City, the story culminates with Joker dying. Batman tries to save him, but due to Joker’s own actions, he dies from poison in his infected blood. Unfortunately, this same infected blood was also put into Batman, in order to force him to find a cure for the both of them. This infected blood begins driving Batman insane, making him hallucinate the Joker, long after the man himself is actually dead and even slowly starts turning Batman into the Joker. This game was the first story to really take a long in-depth look at what would happen to Gotham and Batman himself if Joker was killed.
In Batman #135, Arkham Batman admits that he felt a weight off his shoulders. He finally felt relief, but even after Joker was gone, he still had to exorcise Joker from his mind due to the infection. This ended up with Arkham Batman losing absolutely everything, including his fortune and his secret identity. Despite losing all of that, at least Joker is gone, but because of Doctor Halliday, Joker has risen once again and Arkham Batman is simply out of ideas of how to deal with him. Joker has been killed and come back, twice. So seeing the main universe Batman before him, Arkham Batman can only give one piece of advice: kill the Joker by any means necessary. Arkham Batman wants Joker dead again, and he asks the main universe Batman to do it, explicitly giving him permission by asking Bruce to put the Joker “back in the ground where he belongs.”
Arkham Batman Carried Joker’s Dead Body
Luckily, the main universe Batman does not break his most sacred rule by following his Arkham Knight counterpart’s advice. Batman’s no-kill rule is one of the most famous things about him. Regardless of anything Joker or any other villain does, Batman always believes that there is a chance for redemption. But Arkham Batman fought Joker, he saw Joker die, he almost lost his own mind to Joker and had to beat him again. And yet, despite all of this, Joker is back. No matter what happens, it seems Arkham Batman can not be rid of Joker and because of this, he has finally given permission to main universe Batman to just kill the Joker once and for all.
Batman #135 is on sale now from DC Comics!
