WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for I Am Batman #7, available now from DC Comics.

During the Fear State crossover event, Timothy "Jace" Fox stepped up and assumed the role of Batman after Bruce Wayne faked his death. During his time under the cowl, Jace proved to be a very different but still effective Caped Crusader, protecting the people of Gotham from both criminals and the oppressive agents of the Magistrate. Following Jace's brief but successful tenure, Bruce allowed the son of his longtime friend Lucius to continue operating as Batman as he and his family moved to New York City, where Jace has been working to establish himself as the Dark Knight of New York.

Despite Jace's hopes that New York would offer him and his family a break from the chaos of Gotham City, I Am Batman #7 (by John Ridley, Christian Duce, and Troy Peteri) has shattered that hope by introducing Jace to his first costumed villain. Not only does this new villain make a terrifying first impression through a brutal act of violence, but their actions also bear an unsettling similarity to that of Jack Nicholson's interpretation of the Joker seen in 1989's Batman.

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From the moment he first began fighting crime in New York, Jace noted the massive difference between it and Gotham, as he's only had to deal with small-time thugs and local crime syndicates. However, this comes to an end when Adriana Chubb, the head of the NYPD's newly-established special crimes task force, discovers the mutilated corpse of Devlin Rubel, a beloved philanthropist. Soon afterward, a series of documents are leaked online that reveals that Rubel was involved with a juvenile sex trafficking ring and many other unsavory enterprises. With the help of his tech-savvy ally Vol, Jace traces the origin of the upload to an abandoned apartment complex that's been re-purposed into a gruesome art gallery filled with paintings and cultures of mutilated bodies,  where he's confronted by the mysterious masked villain responsible for Rubel's murder.

While this new villain's bulky mask and insistence that they wish to "help" Batman has several similarities with Paul Dano's portrayal of the Riddler in The Batman, their gruesome tastes in art evokes an interesting connection with Jack Nicholson's Joker from 1989's Batman.  Like this mysterious new villain, Nicholson's Joker, originally a mob enforcer named Jack Napier, styles himself as something of an artist who sees his brutal crimes as acts of artistic expression. Throughout the film, Joker commits crimes that are deliberately themed around art or live performances, even developing a predatory infatuation with Vicki Vale after making an unwarranted connection between his "work" and her photographs of war crime victims.

Whether or not this mysterious new villain is drawing any inspiration from Nicholson's Joker, it's clear that art is the central gimmick of their villainous persona, and their willingness to torture and murder people to transform them into macabre art pieces establishes them as a sinister presence in New York. However, despite their brutal methods, the Batman of New York's first villain does appear to adhere to some loose form of morality, as they seem to be motivated by a desire to take down people who use their money and influence to commit crimes against the less fortunate. If their murder of Rubel is anything to go off of, it appears that this new villain's crimes will revolve around killing and exposing corrupt public figures, and putting their desecrated bodies and evidence of their crimes on display for all to see.

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Although Jace was openly disgusted with Rubel after learning his true nature, the brutality of the murder leaves him speechless, and it's clear that he has no interest in working with this twisted new villain. Having faced off against many of Batman's rogues in the past, Jace certainly has the experience to take down this newcomer despite any tricks they may have up their sleeve. However, their love of art could also provide Jace with an edge, as their psychotic obsession with their work could provide him a psychological weapon that could be used against the villain.

With a memorable outfit, haunting gimmick, and an inclination towards violence, Jace's new villain fits all the hallmarks of a classic Batman rogue. Although Jace has gone out of his way to assure Mayor Villanueva that he hadn't brought the chaos of Gotham with him when he came to his city, it seems that some form of Gotham's underlying insanity has found its way to New York. At the moment, Jace only has to deal with one supervillain, but if Gotham's history is any indication, then he and the people of New York will soon have plenty more to worry about.

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