The Clown Prince of Crime replaces the Boy Wonder in a variant cover for Batman/Joker: The Deadly Duo #6 by John McCrea (Hitman, The Boys: Herogasm) that homages a timeless Carmine Infantino piece from the '60s.Revealed on McCrea's Twitter, the cover features Batman alongside his greatest enemy on a rooftop. Joker wears Robin's outfit -- an ironic choice, considering that Joker also killed Jason Todd, the second Boy Wonder -- and switches out traditional gadgets for a bloody hammer and a laughing fish, another homage to the story "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" from Batman #251. "Obv an homage to one of the most iconic Bats covers ever!" McCrea tweeted. "An honour to work on this, Marc Silvestri 's art on the book is astonishing."RELATED: The Joker's Solo Series Inspires an Epic McFarlane Toys Statue

Carmine Infantino's Iconic Art

McCrea's cover is a nod to a pin-up that Infantino and Murphy Anderson drew of Batman and Robin in 1966. Now considered one of the most iconic pieces of Dynamic Duo art, the original illustration showed both characters hunched over a rooftop, with Batman pulling his cape close to his face and Robin leaning forward. Notably, Batman's costume features his yellow chest oval -- the so-called "new look" that debuted in 1964 and was popularized by Infantino and writer John Broome under the guidance of editor Julius Schwartz.

Created for DC licensing purposes, Infantino's artwork appeared on a wide variety of merchandise ranging from posters to puzzles. It donned the cover of Batman: From the Thirties to the Seventies, a hardcover collection of Batman tales published in 1971, and more recently appeared on the cover of Tales of the Batman: Carmine Infantino, a 2014 collection of Infantino's stories.

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Batman/Joker: The Deadly Duo, penned and illustrated by Image Comics and Top Cow Productions CEO Marc Silvestri, sees Gotham's most iconic hero and its worst villain teaming up to defeat strange doppelgangers bearing the face of the Joker. Each of the doppelgangers possesses supernatural powers, including the ability to mutate, and all signs thus far point to their creation by Donald Simms, a Gotham businessman with a grudge against both Batman and the Joker.

Batman/Joker: The Deadly Duo #6 is written and illustrated by Silvestri and colored by John McCrea. The issue features other variants by Bill Sienkiewicz and Guillem March, and goes on sale April 4 from DC.

Source: Twitter