WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Batman #93 by James Tynion IV, Guillem March, Javier Fernandez, Tomeu Morey, David Baron, and Clayton Cowles, available now.
After being menaced by the criminal mastermind, Batman finally had his long-awaited face-to-face confrontation with the Designer in Batman #93. However, it didn't take long for the Joker to reveal that he was pulling the Designer's strings, literally. While the Designer was alive at one point and tried to lure Gotham City's most notorious villains into his plans to take over Gotham, the Joker wasn't keen on just being a pawn in someone else's scheme. And after he killed the original Designer years ago, the Joker decided to take his plans and use the Designer's persona.
In Batman #93, the Joker made the surprising revelation about the Designer's identity in a moment several similarities to a plot point from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the upcoming "Joker War" even will see those plans come to fruition, the reveal of the Designer felt reminiscent of a plot point from Iron Man 3 that still stands as one of the most controversial moments in the MCU
After a quick sword fight in Bruce Wayne's office, Batman expertly breaks down the Designer's plans. Using the background knowledge he received from Catwoman about the Designer's meeting with Penguin, Riddler, Joker and herself, Batman puts the pieces together, knowing that the Joker would never agree to work with anyone else. While Batman doesn't seem to be that surprised by the reveal, it reframes the Designer -- as he appears here -- as an avatar for the Joker. Instead of hiding any deep meaning, the Designer's ostentatious paramilitary gear was recast as a distraction that muddied the waters around his true identity.
In this context, the Designer is incredibly similar to Iron Man 3's faux Mandarin, who was really an actor named Trevor Slatterly that had been hired by Aldrich Killian to throw Tony Stark off his trail.
In the relatively early days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the debut of the Mandarin was a big deal. Since the villain first appeared in Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Don Heck's Tales of Suspense #50, the Mandarin has long been considered Iron Man's most dangerous rival. While he shares Stark's genius, the Mandarin's powers come from ten alien rings he found in a crashed alien spaceship instead of from suits of armor that he forged.
The Mandarin's MCU debut cast him as a fairly different character than his comic book counterpart. The film leads fans to believe Mandarin is an evil terrorist in control of a paramilitary group called the Ten Rings that was hellbent on destroying Iron Man and taking over the world. Although that was a key part of its marketing, Iron Man 3 reveals that this Mandarin is just an actor hired by Killian, who has been behind this fake Mandarin caricature the entire time. Upon the film's release, the startling revelation earned praise and scorn in equal measure, in part because it transformed the Mandarin into such an incredibly different character.
On top of having similar reveals, the Designer and Mandarin also share a similar paramilitary aesthetic and have a penchant for grand schemes with many moving parts. They each sport camo fatigues supported with grandiose accessories like the Mandarin's robes and rings and the Designer's fur-laden cloak and beaded gold necklace.
One thing these two characters don't share in common is how each character's respective plot twist was received.
Iron Man 3's Mandarin reveal was divisive, especially among comic book purists, because it was so far removed from who the Mandarin is in comics. This Mandarin was revealed to be nothing more than a sniveling actor instead of one of the fiercest villains in the Marvel Universe. By that same token, the character's distance from his comics counterpart was praised by some circles for being such a refreshing take on the character. Although a later short film revealed that the real Mandarin does exist in the MCU, the villain already has a complex legacy in the MCU, even if he hasn't technically appeared on-screen yet.
While Joker's Designer reveal in Batman#93 was similar to Mandarin's in Iron Man 3, it hasn't been anywhere near as divisive as that MCU reveal. That's because the Joker is already known for being incredibly clever and staying steps ahead of Batman and his allies, even elsewhere in that very same story. And when it was revealed that he was behind the Designer's designs, it seemed like a natural -- yet unexpected -- extension of the scheme that was already underway.
Ultimately both plot twists worked well at effectively tricking their respective audiences, but Joker's reveal just worked better than Mandarin's in Iron Man 3 because it stayed within the character's motives and added to an established villain's legacy instead of tearing it down.