James Tynion IV's run on Batman continues with the epic "Joker War" crossover event this summer across the Bat Family titles, as the Clown Prince of Crime steps up his game against the Dark Knight.
Ever since the start of Tynion IV's run, Bruce Wayne has steadily added to his arsenal of vehicles and gadgets and, in an exclusive interview with CBR, Tynion IV revealed this will come back to backfire on the Caped Crusader.
"I think now is the time I'm going to start talking more openly about this: Joker is going to get his hands on all these new toys that Batman has been building, and he is going to use them against Gotham City; that is 'Joker War,'" the writer explained. "All of the tools of Batman used as weapons against the city by the Joker, that's the core concept."
For Tynion IV, the decision to launch a big, bombastic Joker story so relatively early into his Batman run, which had begun this past January, was the chance to give the entire Bat Family of titles a direction to rally behind and move forward.
"Part of it was why not go bold out the gate; I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't encouraged," Tynion IV laughed. "But I wanted to tell a big story. I've been writing Batman on-and-off for the entirety of my eight-year comic book career right now and coming back on to the character, I didn't want to do something small, I didn't want to go quietly into this title. I think that we wanted to do something that could unite the entire Gotham line and help reinvigorate all these connections and open up lots of potential for new story, and this is the story meant to open all those stories up."
Written by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Guillem March, Batman #92 goes on sale June 9 from DC Comics.