Batman's Villains Are Forming a New Super Group

DC's Gotham City has been through about as many crazy events and calamities as we have in the real world. In fact, at this point, Gotham has seen so much upheaval that a collection of supervillains who call it home have found their own (under)world has been totally knocked out of whack. 

If you're just catching up, the last few years of Batman comic storylines have seen Gotham conquered by both Bane and The Joker for periods of time, while Batman's world has been hit by his unstoppable anti-Batman contingency robot, Failsafe; Bruce was lost in the Batman multiverse and had to battle his way back, at the cost of losing one of his hands and having it cybernetically rebuilt. If all that wasn't enough, Gotham (and the DC Universe) was put to sleep by the villain Insomnia, and Batman's body being hijacked by Deadman left the Dark Knight comatose and recovering for months after the event. 

Batman woke up to find himself in the middle of a "Gotham War" with Catwoman – and it's a conflict that has split various factions of Gotham down the middle. Selina Kyle has pulled all the petty thieves and henchmen of Gotham together into something akin to Robin Hood and the Merry Men: top-tier burglary from the wealthy elite, with donations given to the poor citizens of Gotham. 

Catwoman's crime syndicate has completely up-ended the old order of Gotham City – especially for criminals, who suddenly find themselves lacking the gangs of henchmen that help pull off their grand schemes. In Batman #137 we get a little side-scene of The Gotham War, which reveals how the Gotham City rogues view this feud between Batman and Catwoman. Mad Hatter is seen making his way to the meeting, before being greeted by Professor Pyg and led to the table, where the following villains are waiting and plotting to "fill our days and nights once again with power and terror":

• Two-Face
• Victor Zsasz 
• Scarecrow
• Black Mask
• Firefly
• Mr. Scarface & The Ventriloquist

It's unclear what big grand scheme this Batman rogues are going to cook up – or even what kind of official name this group has. It is an interesting mix of characters that we haven't seen work together before – mind-manipulators like Mad Hatter and Scarecrow working with ruthless crime boss types (Black Mask, Two-Face, Scarface) with some of the most fiendishly lethal killers (Firefly, Zsasz, Pyg) sounds like a mix truly made in hell. 

Batman #137 is on sale over at DC Comics.