WARNING: The following contains spoilers for "A Serious House," a story from Batman: The Joker War Zone #1 by James Tynion IV, Guillem March, Tomeu Morey and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
The Joker War has come to an end, and DC is already setting up Gotham's next huge conflict. The recent Batman: The Joker Warzone anthology one-shot offered a glimpse of what's to come for Gotham City, with several side-stories that set up the future of Batman's world.
That special's lead feature, "A Serious House," sets up a new feud between the Clown Prince of Crime and Bane. Arguably two of Batman's most deadly rivals, they have driven him closest to defeat. If these two go to war over Gotham, it's almost certain Batman nor Gotham City will make it out of the crossfire unscathed.
Bane is imprisoned in Arkham having the venom pumped from his veins and Joker comes to taunt and scold him while recapping the "City of Bane: story that transpired during Tom King, Mikel Janín, Tony S. Daniel, Norm Rapmund, Jordie Bellaire, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles' seminal Batman run. Joker is upset about what happened during "City of Bane." He believes Bane's execution of Alfred in front of Damian wasn't enough.
In this special, Joker tells Bane he had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break Batman in spectacular ways. Joker felt it was a complete missed opportunity on Bane's part and vows to make him pay for it. Bane doesn't flinch at the threat and bides his time until he's free to snap Joker's neck like he did to Alfred.
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The short story ends with a tease that these developments will be followed up on next year, and this conflict's lead-up bares a striking resemblance to "The War of Jokes and Riddles," which acted as an emotional centerpiece for King's entire Batman run by focusing on Batman's relationship with Selina Kyle and almost forcing Batman to break his absolute no-killing rule. After the Riddler approaches Joker with a plan to kill Batman, Joker is outraged at such a simple idea. Joker wants to torture and break Batman, not kill him. Joker doesn't see the joke in something that shallow, so he starts a war with Riddler to prove his point.
At the war's conclusion, Batman almost beats the Riddler to death for poisoning one of his ally's children. It was none other than Joker than stopped Batman from killing Riddler. This ultimate irony not snapped Joker out of a funk and made him start laughing again, it was a weight Batman almost couldn't bear. We'll have to wait to see what happens between Joker and Bane next year, but Joker is always upping the ante in some big ways lately. And in the wake of "The War of Jokes and Riddles" and "Joker War," there's no telling what he'll do next.