DC Will Infect a Surprising Villain With Joker Toxin

February 18, 2022, 10:57pm

Batman and Deathstroke will find themselves embroiled in a crossover event that features someone being infected with Joker toxin. “Shadow War” is the name of the storyline helmed by writer Joshua Williamson and crosses over with his works on Batman, Robin, and Deathstroke Inc. The three-month event promises to rock the DC Universe when Talia al Ghul puts a hit out on Slade Wilson for the murder of her father, Ra’s al Ghul. Batman and Robin will reunite to work together to track Deathstroke down, but they soon learn there’s more to the case behind the death of “The Demon’s Head.”

As for the DC villain that gets infected with Joker toxin, it’s none other than Deathstroke. The solicitation for May’s Batman #123 contains a backup story from Williamson and artist Trevor Hairsine. The toxin is one of the trademark weapons of The Joker, physically transforming its victims into duplicates of the Clown Prince of Crime. Slade Wilson is a part of the Secret Society of supervillains, who were revealed to be pulling the strings behind Deathstroke Inc. The war between the Secret Society and League of Shadows is heating up for an explosive finale this summer.

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Williamson is the architect behind DC’s next big event, Dark Crisis, which kicks off with the death of the Justice League. “Dark Crisis is an epic DCU event about legacy,” said writer Joshua Williamson. “It will have all the giant, fun cosmic battles and Multiversal set pieces, but it’s not about reboots, retcons, or rewriting time and space. At its core, it’s about the characters and the relationships that we’ve seen built over DC’s great history. Dark Crisis spins out of Justice League #75 ‘DEATH OF THE JUSTICE LEAGUE’ and connects all the story threads across the DCU since Infinite Frontier #0 in a major way. Unifying the new legacy of the DCU as we honor the classic. You can’t miss it!”

Covers and solicitation for Batman #123 can be found below. The issue goes on sale May 3rd.

BATMAN #123

“SHADOW WAR” PART 5

Written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON

Art and cover by HOWARD PORTER

Backup written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON

Backup art by TREVOR HAIRSINE

Variant cover by GABRIELE DELL’OTTO

1:25 variant cover by JAY ANACLETO

1:50 variant cover by JOCK

$4.99 US | 40 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)

ON SALE 5/3/22

Batman and Robin are finally reunited! Together they will hunt for the truth behind the death of Ra’s al Ghul! But then who is left to defend the Secret Society against the League of Shadows? Deathstroke’s fight against the Demon’s Shadow ends with a shocking cliffhanger!

Plus, what happens when you get Deathstroke infected with Joker toxin? Find out in the epic backup story!