It’s a universe where the good becomes bad and the evil becomes the protector of a city. This is "Batman: White Knight" and the latest news is that nothing really has changed.
Apart from a reversal of roles—Batman becomes the bad guy, a true terror in Gotham City and Joker has become the good guy—there are no changes on the roster of the Bat family.
What this means is that in the latest—and the first—issue of the comic book, writer Sean Gordon Murphy will be unveiling Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson aka Batgirl and Nightwing.
At least, that’s what it looks like on the comic book’s tweeted cover, which shows the members of the Bat family swinging right into the action.
But What About the Joker?
In any version of reality, it appears that the Joker and the Batman are destined to do their dance until the trumpets finally sound. In "Batman: White Knight" that also doesn’t change. While this is a reality where the roles of Bruce Wayne’s Dark Knight and the Joker are reversed, there isn’t much change about their relationship—DC Comics presents the Joker as the savior of the innocents, while Batman is a symbol of terror.
In this reality, the Joker also goes by a name—Jack Napier, as Sean Gordon Murphy has tweeted. The writer added that Warner has also approved of the naming.
The last time that the Napier name has been heard of was in the very first movie that featured Michael Keaton as the Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker, a gangster turned insane because of falling into a vat of toxic waste.
Interestingly, in a comic book that’s more related to current issues, the Batman comes off as a sort of terrorist, while the Joker—for all his genius and his mind—becomes a politician.
What to Expect from the White Knight
Aside from a politician Joker, what readers could expect from the series is more of the same, although in reversed roles.
In the cover, Batgirl and Dick Grayson appears to be in pursuit of someone—whether the bad guy or the good guy to mug, that’s still unclear.
What is clear, though, is that in this universe, the costumes remain more or less the same. Nightwing still uses his symbol. Batgirl sports the most of the same costume, although her cape and the symbol on her chest have been made to look different from her ‘Rebirth’ costume.
The first issue of "Batman: White Knight" hits shelves on October 4, a Wednesday, this year, with the reversed roles featuring Batman as the bad guy and Joker, along with his lady love Harley Quinn, on the other side of the fence.
