WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Curse of the White Knight #1, by Sean Gordon Murphy, AndWorld Design and Matt Hollingsworth, on sale now.
In Sean Gordon Murphy's Batman: White Knight, the feud between the Batman and Joker was flipped on its head. Joker cured himself and became Jack Napier, who then proceeded to expose corruption in Gotham's police force and vigilante network alike. He then proceeded to wage a social justice campaign that painted the Dark Knight as the story's villain, along with Gotham's elites, who profited from his war on crime.
Napier, who even ran for councilman, proved to be Gotham's White Knight along with Harley Quinn, reminding fans that sometimes the biggest monsters are the ones the city holds in a heroic light. Ultimately, this intelligent and very cerebral Napier would triumph over the Neo Joker who rose up to take his place, but seeing as he broke laws to take her and the Bat down, he returned to Arkham in exchange for Harley's freedom. It was left unclear how much of the Joker returned at that point, but as the sequel Batman: Curse of the White Knight shows, the Clown Prince of Crime is back, but with a unique twist.
When White Knight ended, Napier was on good terms with Batman, who even acted as a witness when he tried to marry Harley. Napier experienced victory over the Bat, and while Bruce Wayne was humbled by Napier's overall vision for justice, the main thing that mattered to both was that Gotham was safe again and on a path towards rebuilding.
But it was just a matter of time before Joker would return and, as we find out here, he doesn't want any credit for beating the Bat. He thinks that's all Napier, the personality he hates inside for cleaning up Gotham, and he wants to win a new duel on his own terms. But when we do see Joker back in control of his body -- as he was no longer able to take the pills Harley secretly made -- he isn't back with the same maniacal mentality as last time.
The Joker Murphy usually crafts sticks to the core essence of the character: he's ballistic and is all about criminal rampages, explosions, buildings collapsing and, of course, monumental loss of life. Basically, he's chaos personified and is always high-energy, ready to make Gotham crumble and Batman bleed. The new Joker that emerged after he returned to prison doesn't exhibit these madman qualities anymore.
Sure, he stabs a warden to remind us he can still be a tad violent and has some fun in escaping, but otherwise Joker is cool, calm and collected in how he goes about things. You'd expect him to exhibit more craziness, but he's now the perfect middle ground between Napier and the lunatic within, giving us a brand-new take on the villain.
His new strength is knowledge mysteriously garnered when he was doing research on the city as the sane Napier, revealing shocking secrets about the Wayne family in the 1600's and what they did to help build Gotham. And to him, knowledge is power, so armed with this ultimate weapon -- an invisible and silent one -- there's no need for theatrics.
The way he sets up pieces on the chessboard with Azrael, lurking in the shadows, and how he seeks out an ally by the name of Ruth for a partnership, you can tell Joker's playing a long game similar to the likes of Riddler or Hush from the main DCU. He's seeding out clues, manipulating figures in the dark and using Bruce as a pawn, especially as the previous volume showed he knows the Dark Knight's civilian identity from when he tortured Jason Todd.
The Joker might not have been exorcised, but he has definitely been reborn. It remains to be seen how all this intel gave birth to his own identity (as Murphy indicated in White Knight), but what's apparent is Batman's detective game will have to be on point because Joker holds all the cards.
This time, he's not leaving his big plan vulnerable through rash, egotistical behavior as a result of his rivalry with the Bat -- he's simply playing puppet master and leading the Bat-Family, as well as those he views as Gotham's hypocrites, to their doom. He knows the mistakes he made as the Joker of old, and he knows the successful strategy Napier used, so this Joker's simply mixing the best of both worlds.
Batman: Curse of the White Knight goes on sale Aug. 28.