Batman Gets a New Sidekick With the Debut of Clownhunter

Batman is getting a new sidekick with the debut of Clownhunter. Batman: The Joker War Zone will introduce readers to the young vigilante. That book will have an anthology format that checks in on Batman and his allies as the clowns become more and more of a problem. James Tynion IV has been swinging for the fences in his time on the title, and these new characters like Punchline are a part of that. With the Joker getting a new supporting character, it only makes sense that someone from the younger guard would step up to fight alongside Batman. But, just because Clownhunter respects The Bat doesn’t mean that he agrees with his methods. Batman #95 is when everything comes to a head and the newest Bat-ally enters the fray. Tynion broke down why Clownhunter was necessary in his Tiny Onion newsletter recently.

He explained, “There wasn’t a POV character on the ground in Gotham City, seeing the city go to hell around them. Joker War is meant to represent a shift in how Gotham sees itself, and be a catalyst for a bold new Gotham City that’s building in its wake… I needed a character who represented that change. A character who takes things into his own hands because he sees the city needs it, but not by Batman or Joker’s terms. A supporting cast member that wasn’t part of the Arkham Rogues, or part of the Bat-Family. Something new and different.”

“CLOWNHUNTER is a quiet, weird kid who lives in the Narrows. He mumbles jokes to himself under his breath, but doesn’t speak up in class or while he’s gaming late at night. When he was a kid, he saw his parents killed by the Joker, and his life was saved by Batman,” Tynion continued. “He idolized Batman for years. But when Joker War starts, and Batman can’t stop it out the gate, he picks up a baseball bat, hammers in the Batarang Batman gave him as a kid, and goes out to start killing the Clown gang members terrorizing his neighborhood.”

“He’s a different sort of vigilante. Vigilantes in Gotham normally come with high tech costumes and gadgets. He’s more lo-fi, and more willing to cross the lines that the usual vigilantes don’t,” he continued. “There’s a dark, young city brewing underneath Batman’s feet in Gotham… On one hand we have Punchline, who represents a new kind of villain, a kind of young person radicalized into believing something deeply dangerous… On the other hand, we have Clownhunter, who sees himself as a hero, but has tossed out the entire moral playbook of Batman, and doesn’t respect his old ways of looking at the world.”

Are you excited about the debut of another new Bat-character in the pages of Joker War? Let us know down in the comments!