Batman: Endgame, Part Two packed a sucker punch and revealed the long game played by the Dark Knight’s greatest enemy.
The Joker is back.
That’s not a spoiler.
The Justice League were out for Bruce’s blood in part one. In the final panel we learned Superman and the League were under the Joker’s influence.
The incredible battle between Batman and a Jokerized Superman was a brutal fanboy and girl dream but then writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo delivered a truly creepy stunner.
Before I continue here’s a…
Spoiler Warning!
If you have not read Batman #36 stop reading now.
Here it comes:
In Batman #36 Scott Snyder reveals a supporting character we thought was the Dark Knight’s ally has been the Joker all along: Eric Border of Arkham Asylum. Border was in the Batman Annual last year and turned up in Arkham Manor#1, in which the inmates are housed at Wayne Manor after disaster at the infamous institution.
Just how far back has the Joker been scheming and Team Batman been plotting this.
“No, he was designed to be Joker — that was his whole purpose from the moment go. Marguerite [Bennett] knew that when we did the Annual together, and James Tynion knew that. I told Gerry Duggan as I went further, and in the Bat office, we told the other writers as we got closer. So everyone on “Eternal” knew he was Joker as far as a few months ago, but for [me and Greg], he’s always been Joker. That’s why we chose his name the way we did. I was worried that people would figure it out — I don’t know why I was so paranoid, but I was so worried people would figure it out all the way back in “Batman Annual” #2! At one point, Marguerite had him talking more about the Joker and I actually had her cut it, which I feel badly about — it would have been a nice throwback. Where I compromised is, when someone’s talking about the Joker and he interrupts; it always gets interrupted when the Joker comes up. In “Joker’s Daughter,” he’s in that issue, and I think you can start to see it. There’s little things like that, I think, where you can see by design he’s been lying there the whole time, if you look at his appearances.” Snyder told Comic Book Resources.
“My only regret, the only thing I do wish is that I had been a little less scared about teasing it more. I really was scared, honestly. I don’t know why. I was scared that people would hear the word “Endgame” and know that it was Joker! I really was sure the story was going to get blown; from “Batman Annual” #2, I started to worry that people would know that Joker was back, and then I started to worry that they’d know about “Endgame” when I said “Endgame.” The fact that we made it all the way here and nobody guessed any of it has really been something of a relief!”
Snyder is calling Endgame his final Joker story and says it’s set after the events of Batman Eternal weekly.
By Editor