Warning! Preview pages ahead for Batman #145!There’s one thing that would make the Joker’s defeat of Batman even sweeter, and he’s finally revealed what it is. The Clown Prince of Crime has finally wrapped up his secret connection to Bruce Wayne’s past and shed light on what it is that the Joker really wants from the Dark Knight.
In a preview for Batman #145 by Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jiménez, the Joker has just finished telling his origin story to Batman. Bruce doesn’t want to believe it but rationalizes that because Joker knows about Daniel Captio, it’s not unlikely that Joker was also trained to create a similar backup personality.
Batman presses Joker to tell him what else he knows about Zur-En-Arrh. Joker mentions that while he’s only seen Zur-En-Arrh twice before, Joker is fascinated by him, calling Zur the ‘real’ Batman. Joker mentions beating someone as powerful as Zur-En-Arrh would be a real triumph.
Joker’s Greatest Victory Would Be Beating Batman’s Ultimate Self
Batman’s unrestrained backup personality, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, has left Bruce Wayne’s head and now inhabits Failsafe’s nearly indestructible body. Now freed of limitations, Zur-En-Arrh threw Bruce into a prison so the ‘new Batman’ could begin his crusade to eliminate crime on Earth. Bruce was joined by Joker, whose back had recently been broken by Zur-En-Arrh. With time on their hands, Joker revealed that he had been trained by Bruce’s old mentor, Dr. Daniel Captio, and developed a similar trick. Like Bruce, Joker also has backup personas in his mind, three wildly different and equally terrifying Jokers.
During Joker’s previous encounter with Zur-En-Arrh, it was assumed Joker simply liked how extreme Zur-En-Arrh was compared to Bruce. But now that Joker’s shed light on his past, fans have a better idea of what Joker sees in Zur-En-Arrh. When Joker trained, he learned that these kinds of backup personas, though just a fragment of their main counterparts, can bring out the best of an individual. While training under Captio, Joker developed an unsettling persona that was described as a ‘cold death’. It’s not a stretch to imagine that Joker wants to know if his ultimate self can beat Zur-En-Arrh.
Can Joker’s Ultimate Persona Defeat the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh?
The Joker and Batman have fought for decades, and all this time, they’ve both secretly been hiding more extreme alternate personas from one another. As much as Joker loves the idea of beating Batman, he knows that Zur-En-Arrh is far more formidable and is the true challenge compared to Bruce who has a firm line on the things he won’t do. Now that Zur-En-Arrh is freed from Bruce’s mind, Joker has a chance to earn the most satisfying victory of his life by unleashing his true potential and defeating the most dangerous Batman to ever exist.
Batman #145 is available on March 5th from DC Comics.
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