Warning! Contains Spoilers For Batman #139 and Batman #140!
There have been few feuds in comic books as intense as Batman and the Joker’s. The two have been fighting consistently for nearly a century, but their next confrontation looks like it might be the most explosive they’ve ever had. Batman and the Joker haven’t seen each other in comics for several years, and when Joker returns to Gotham it’s going to be their most chaotic battle yet.
Details for the “Mindbomb” storyline in Batman #139 and #140 by Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jiménez promise that Batman will be battling not only the Joker, but a legion of himself — likely multiversal variants of him infected with the Zur-En-Arrh personality. Considering Zur-En-Arrh is sometimes portrayed as having no issues with lethal force, it’s likely Batman will have to juggle fighting both the Joker and protecting Joker from Batman’s own murderous variants. Check out the full solicitation for Batman #140 below, which includes tantalizing details about the “brutal” fight between Batman, the Joker, and this “legion” of Batman variants:
BATMAN #140
Written by CHIP ZDARSKY
Art and cover by JORGE JIMENEZ
Variant cover by DAVID FINCH
Variant cover by FRANK CHO
1:25 variant cover by FRANCESCO MATTINA
1:50 variant cover by TIRSO CONS
DC Holiday Card Special Edition variant cover by DAN MORA ($6.99 US)
Santa variant cover by OTTO SCHMIDT
$4.99 US | 40 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)
ON SALE 12/5/23
It’s Batman versus The Joker in their most brutal fight of all time. But wait…Batman is also battling a legion of himself! What has Zur done? And who will walk away? The brutal “Mindbomb” continues!
The Joker and Batman Finally Reunite
While Batman and the Joker have been iconic enemies for decades, Joker has been doing his own thing in DC recently. After Batman left Joker to die during the events of Joker War, Joker vanished from Gotham City. In real-world time, the two characters have not seriously interacted in continuity for three years. The Joker has mostly been traveling the world and messing with other criminal groups, as seen in the 2023 series The Joker. Now that Joker has finally decided to return to Gotham, it seems that his reunion with Batman will be even more explosive than their last fight.
The preview for Batman #140 specifically calls out that Batman will fight “a legion of himself.” This likely refers to how Batman accidentally unleashed the Zur-En-Arrh personality on the multiverse. It seems that there are finally going to be consequences for Batman’s mistake, unleashing a legion of Zur-En-Arrh Batman variants who may have no issue with using lethal force. Mix this with Joker’s chaos and his ability to goad people into using lethal force, and it could be an extremely volatile combination. The worse outcome is if Joker realizes what the Zur-En-Arrh Batmen are and where they came from. If this were to happen, it’s likely that Joker would love nothing more than to help the Zur-En-Arrh personality take over Batman, as it seemingly has for the other Batmen of the multiverse.
Batman and Joker’s Next Confrontation Will Be “Insane”
Every time Batman and Joker fight, there are extreme consequences for them and for Gotham. Now that they’ve been apart for so long — and with how much Bruce has been through lately — it seems that Batman and the Joker’s next fight will be completely unlike anything fans have ever seen.
Batman #140 will be on sale from DC Comics on December 5th!
