Batman: Three Jokers First Preview Released

DC fans have been teased with the idea of "Three Jokers" for years now, with comic scribe Geoff Johns first planting the seed during the "Darkseid War" storyline and revealing the trio of clown villains in DC Rebirth #1, first published in May of 2016. The series will finally make its way onto store shelves later this summer though and new details about it have been revealed, along with an official look at completed art from series artist Jason Fabok. Entertainment Weekly has the first look at the series' three different covers, naturally all depicting different versions of The Joker, along with the first completed pages from the series. Check them out below!

"The world doesn't need just another Batman-Joker story," Johns said in an interview with EW. "One of the reasons I've never done one before is because there are so many amazing ones, so I was only gonna do one if it was different and surprising and looked at the Joker and the meaning of the Joker and his effect on Batman and his family in a new way. We're not introducing a multiverse of Jokers, we're not out to change these characters forever, but we are turning over some rocks about these characters and their relationships."

Among those characters that will be the focal point of the series are the people most effected by the Joker in the past including Batman himself, Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, and Jason Todd/Red Hood, all of whom have a complicated and violent history with the clown prince of crime.

"It goes back to the beginning when Batman first encountered the Joker, but it's also The Killing Joke and A Death in the Family that speak to the book and that we're building off emotionally," Johns says. "Barbara and Jason have gone through so much, as has Bruce, and it's really focused on healing, on scars and wounds and what that does to somebody. If you suffer some trauma, you don't just get over with it and move on with your life, it changes who you are. Sometimes it changes you for the better, sometimes it changes you for the worse. You can heal right, and you can heal wrong. That's really what the book's about: Healing right, healing wrong, and surviving."

Fabok also revealed to the outlet that he has kept a copy of The Killing Joke nearby while working on the series for the past two years, saying he feels the new series "could be a spiritual sequel, at least artistically."

In addition to the first look at the series we have an official publication date for the first issue, as it was confirmed issue one (of three) will be released on Wednesday, June 17. Written by Johns with pencils by Fabok, the series is colored by Brad Anderson and lettered by Rob Lee.

"I see fans on Twitter and I know they're getting impatient, they want this book to come out," Fabok says. "Geoff and I have come to realize that everything will happen within its time. Because it's taken so long, we've actually made this story better. Everything's come together so naturally, we're so pumped up and so confident in this story."