A new era for the Dark Knight is about to begin when writer Joshua Williamson and artist Jorge Molina take the creative reins on Batman. The duo will take over from writer James Tynion IV — who is leaving to focus on his creator-owned comics — and artist Jorge Jimenez, who together introduced a slew of new fan-favorite characters during their Batman run, including Punchline, Ghost-Maker and Clownhunter. Williamson and Molina will also debut a new villain called Abyss, and a preview of their first issue takes a look back at recent events in DC’s Batman titles, as well as teases a party attended by some of Batman’s greatest villains.
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Williamson shared uncolored black-and-white art from Molina on Twitter, stating, “BATMAN #118! The Final Order Cut-Off is this Sunday! I’ve wanted to avoid spoilers, BUT I also want to show off some of@jorge_molinam’s awesome pages from the start of the issue, so check these out! Be sure to pre-order/subscribe with your comic shop before Sunday!”
The panels display Batman swinging through the skies, with Barbara Gordon, aka Oracle, busy at work on her laptop. One page in particular shows various moments from this year’s DC titles, including Batman under the influence of the villain Vile from Detective Comics, and a battle against Brutus — a villain from Naomi’s homeworld — in Justice League. We also see Nightwing and another figure consoling a distraught Batman, possibly after the death of Alfred. Ghost-Maker also makes an appearance as he heads off to his plane.
CBR spoke with Williamson and also obtained exclusive preview images from Batman #118. They show some of Gotham’s greatest villains partying together. Suddenly, Firefly crashes the festivities, leading to an all-out brawl that’s interrupted by the Dark Knight.
“One thing about Batman is that it’s connected to what I’m doing on Deathstroke, Robin, Infinite Frontier, Justice League Incarnate and some other things we’re doing next year,” Williamson teased. “It’s really about this thing I want to say about DC Comics as a whole, which I can’t get into right now, but we have some really big plans for the summer. Once we get close to that, we can talk about what I’m trying to say about DC at this point.”
Batman #118 takes Bruce Wayne out of Gotham City following the events of “Fear State,” the Scarecrow-focused story currently playing out in the Batman titles. The issue goes on sale December 7th.
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Image Credit: DC Comics
