The following contains spoilers for The Flash #791, on sale now from DC Comics.

The Flash Family is up against a Speed Force-powered alien race, the Fraction, which has enlisted a villain similar to The Batman Who Laughs to hunt down Earth's speedsters.

Written by Jeremy Adams and illustrated by Roger Cruz, The Flash #791 is the second part of "One-Minute War," an arc that sees the Fraction try to conquer Earth within seconds thanks to Speed Force technology. In the issue, the Fraction's leadership learns that the planet houses "a lot of organic conduits," referring to the Flash Family's speedster members, and decides to capture them as a present for their empress. To do so, they send out Miss Murder at the end of the issue, a new villain that wears a spiked visor and appears to be from the Dark Multiverse, much like The Batman Who Laughs.

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The Flash Introduces a Batman Who Laughs-Like Hunter

Before Miss Murder appears, one of the Fraction's soldiers says, "Release this...thing that we captured on the dark world," indicating that she is from the Dark Multiverse. She does have her differences from The Batman Who Laughs, however, such as her leashing monstrous creatures on chains as opposed to the evil Batman's twisted Robins. Because she has green skin and is seen floating on artist Taurin Clarke's main cover for The Flash #791, it is possible that Miss Murder is a version of Miss Martian, a Martian hero that possesses flight and similar attributes.

Explaining DC's Batman Who Laughs and Characters Inspired by Him

To explain the Dark Multiverse, it is a version of the DC Multiverse that is made up of unstable worlds born from peoples' worst fears. Originating from the Dark Multiverse's Earth -22, The Batman Who Laughs is a variant of the Dark Knight transformed into a villain like the Joker after murdering the Clown Prince of Crime himself. The Batman Who Laughs was created by writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo during DC's Dark Nights: Metal event, and though he appears to be gone from the DC Multiverse following the sequel event Dark Nights: Death Metal, other villains inspired by him, like Miss Murder, have been introduced in recent time.

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For instance, a corrupted Earth 11's Batwoman turned into The Batwoman Who Laughs, a character who was introduced in 2021's Justice League Incarnate #2 (by Joshua Williamson, Dennis Culver, Paul Pelletier, Andrei Bressan and Kyle Hotz). Then in late 2022, Harley Quinn's "Who Killed Harley Quinn?" arc introduced the Harley Who Laughs, a variant of Harley that wants to kill all the rest. It remains to be seen who may be the next DC character to have an evil variant adopt The Batman Who Laughs' fashion sense and stir up some trouble in the Multiverse.

Along with Adams, Cruz and Clarke, The Flash #791 is inked by Wellington Dias, colored by Luis Guerrero and lettered by Rob Leigh. Variant cover artwork for the issue is contributed to by Clarke, Daniel Bayliss, Marco D'Alfonso and Kim Jacinto. The issue is now on sale from DC Comics.

Source: DC Comics