James Tynion IV’s run on Batman has already given readers a lot to work with, particularly when it comes to new characters. The Joker’s newest companion, Punchline, made her demented debut earlier this year and with “Joker War” descending upon Gotham, there are more new faces coming. There’s Clownhunter coming as well, but once Batman #100 hits, readers will get to meet Ghost-Maker — someone Tynion says is going to have some serious ties to Bruce Wayne and who will shake things up going forward.
Videos by ComicBook.com
In an interview with SYFY Wire, Tynion explained that Ghost-Maker isn’t exactly a villain, but he’s definitely not Batman’s ally, either.
“Ghost-Maker is a character who we’ll see a little bit of right at the end of Batman #100 but will come in in a big way in November and beyond,” Tynion explained. “This is a character who I’ve been excited about for a really long time. He’s definitely going to show up as an adversary to Bruce, but he is not necessarily a villain per se. He is someone that Bruce has known since he was a young man traveling around the world training to become Batman. And now, basically Bruce’s rival from when he was 15 years old has come back to Gotham City because he doesn’t think Bruce is doing a very good job. That’s the sort of core conceit, is creating this rival from youth that we’re going to see come in in a big way in the present.”
The idea of dipping into Batman’s past is something we’ve already seen play a significant role in Tynion’s run thus far. In Batman #94, we saw in flashback a younger Bruce pay visit to Cassander Wycliffe Baker — the World’s Greatest Detective before Batman and the man who The Designer outsmarted. The Designer himself was utilized as a story pathway from the past to “Joker War” as well, with the ultimate villain apparently back form the dead only for it to be revealed that The Joker really had killed the villain — and was using his reanimated corpse as a smokescreen for the machinations that would ultimate lead to “Joker War”.
And, new characters aside, “Joker War” itself is going to shift the dynamic in Batman, something we’ve already begun to see play out, especially with this week’s Batman #95.
“I wanted to do a story that really flipped the dynamic, and the core, high-concept conceit is I wanted Batman’s fortune to be ripped away from him and given to the Joker,” Tynion explained. “I wanted Joker to have all of the Batmobiles, Bat-planes, Bat-gadgets, and Batman to have none of them. And that’s the dynamic I wanted for a story.”
Are you excited for Ghost-Maker? Let us know in the comments below.
