Much is still a mystery about the upcoming Batman: Three Jokers headed to DC’s Black Label imprint, but Geoff Johns revealed a few more details about the project at New York Comic Con.
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During his spotlight panel, Johns explained that while the mystery around it is probably the coolest thing right now, he and artist Jason Fabok simply want to tell the best Batman story and Joker story they can.
“The coolest thing about this story is no one knows anything about it,” Johns said. “It’s a pretty mature take. I’ve never gotten to write a Batman and Joker story, and Jay’s never gotten to draw one. We wanted to tell the best batman story, the best Joker story possible.”
Batman: Three Jokers will focus primarily on three characters, Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon, and Jason Todd. The trio are arguably the characters in DC that the Clown Prince of Crime has hurt the most — Jason’s death in “A Death in the Family”, Barbara’s paralysis in Batman: The Killing Joke, and well, those events and so much more for Bruce. In addition to the story’s central characters, Johns and Fabok also revealed the three eras of the Joker they plan to use in the story: the first appearance Joker from 1940, the classic Silver Age version, and a Joker inspired by Brian Bolland’s Killing Joke villain. When it comes to creating the art for those three takes on Joker, Fabok said he is proud to be involved and that there is “magic to this story.”
“I’m so excited to get up and work, and every time I hand in a page, I’m really proud of it,” Fabok said. “I feel there’s a magic to this story. I had chills, I really feel like Geoff has come up with the ultimate Batman/Joker story.”
Cover art for Three Jokers was unveiled during San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year with Johns explaining at the time that the story isn’t focused on other dimensions or alternate earths, but instead will touch on the villain’s origins and will have some decidedly funny touches as well.
“This story is focused on — and I don’t want to spoil it too much — but it’s not focused on other dimensions or alternate earths or whatever,” Johns said at SDCC. “It focuses on the origins of the Joker and Bruce’s realization that there’s more than one operating. It’s all about scars and healing wrong and healing right and pain. If I could tell one Joker story, this is the one I would tell… There’s this really fun scene where Joker drives this truck. He goes to the woods and there’s a cabin with a light on, and he knocks on the door and there’s a Joker standing there wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and The Joker says, ‘that’s my shirt.’”
Batman: Three Jokers does not yet have a release date but is anticipated for some time in 2019.
