Batman is now the most wanted individual in Gotham. But will the GCPD and the new GTO be able to stop him? Or will Neo Joker get in the way?
BATMAN: WHITE KNIGHT #6
Author: Sean Murphy
Artist: Sean Murphy
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth
Letters: Todd Klein
Publisher: DC Comics
!!!Spoiler Warning!!!
What You Need to Know:
Gotham has been going through a difficult time lately. Batman has gone completely AWOL since the newly reformed Jack Napier, A.K.A. The Joker has turned the entire city against the bat symbol. Commissioner Gordon has tried to stay on Batman’s side until Batman finally wrecked one of the main bridges to Gotham. Nightwing and Batgirl have almost turned their backs on their life-long friend, and are only a mistake or two away from turning him in. Meanwhile, Jack has recruited his love, Harleen Quinzel, and Backgate citizen, Duke Thomas, in his campaign to end The Batman.
Somewhere else lurking in Gotham, Neo Joker and Madhatter have teamed up. Neo Joker, a woman that became the new Harley Quinn until the original one gave her the boot when Jack reformed and since his transformation, Neo Joker has done everything she can to bring back the white-faced abuser she knew and loved. Neo Joker has learned a lot since she became her own supervillain, including how Jack took control of Gotham’s most notorious criminals using particles of a brainwashed Clayface. She has also found evidence of the Waynes being associated with Nazi’s including Victor Fries father. While looking for evidence to bring back the real Joker, Neo Joker and Madhatter stumble upon a World War II ice canon that can spell trouble for everyone in Gotham.
What You’ll Find Out:
The sixth issue in the Batman: White Knight series opens up with the GTO team arguing about what should be done about the problems Batman has created. Gordon tries to force Nightwing and Batgirl to give up his secret identity. That is until Jack agrees that he must be arrested as Batman in order for the City to understand and no one can question what they see when the mask finally comes off. Nightwing demands that if he helps bring Batman in, they must arrest and book him without revealing his secret identity. After the rest of the team agrees Batgirl argues that everyone has forgotten what Batman has done for this city for the last few decades. She attempts to remind them that they are following orders from a barely reformed clown prince of crime and is in disbelief that Nightwing will so easily sell Batman out. After Batgirl bursts out of the room, Nightwing clocks Jack in the face (man I loved seeing this) before Gordon begins planning how to take down the heavily armored Batmobile.
After the plan is coordinated everyone takes their positions for a brutal car chase always amazingly drawn by Sean Murphy that sends Batman right into the light, literally. The team chases Batman into a warehouse with blinder lights at the end. After blinding Batman, Gordon flips his and Batman’s cars in a last attempt to bring him down. When Batman walks away from the crash he tells Gordon that “he will always be The Joker.” and Gordon tells him “He’s not my problem right now, you are.” before Batman, bruised, and almost broken, jumps down to the alley below, just to find his number one nemesis waiting for him. Jack gives some amazing dialogue during a bloody brawl between Gotham’s most notorious duo until the unthinkable happens. Batman loses a fight with Joker. After being blinded and wrecked by the people who used to be his allies, Batman is beaten by the hands of his worst enemy, The Joker.
After Jack realizes he won, he feels unsatisfied. Everything he has done, just to see the person that has driven him his entire known life be beaten and broken. Joker, for the first time in his life, actually feels bad about something.
Jack carries Batman, still masked, to Arkham where he will be held and psychologically analyzed until the GTO has brought down Neo Joker. About the same time Gordon mentions her name, the team hears something across the bay. Neo Joker and Madhatter have setup the freeze cannon found beneath Gotham, and begin to freeze Gotham under a solid layer of ice.
Gordon, Harleen, and jack look around at the damage from the cannon when they see a message written on a building reading “send Joker”. Batgirl immediately knows who to talk to as she heads to the same place Bruce was keeping Alfred before he died. She starts to ask Victor about the Cannon as he goes on to tell her what he knows, about it, her, Batman, and the Waynes.
He explains that Thomas was working with his father, who was a Nazi criminal arrested by the allies. Thomas Wayne convinced the Government to grant Fries access to his technology as long as it never touches US soil. Fries saw the weapon this tech could become, while Thomas saw the healing abilities found in the technology, but the Government agreed to weaponize it and took Thomas off the project. Victor verifies that the Waynes were indeed good people and were willing to risk anything for what they thought was important.
Meanwhile, Jack and Harleen are getting ready for the meeting between the GCPD and the GTO as Jack keeps taking his meds in higher doses, and Harleen warns him not to. The couple begins to argue before they head into the meeting, and behind them walks Batgirl with her new found information from Victor. The entire crew tries to decide on the right way to dissolve the problem. As the crew continues to argue about rather wait for the military or not, Jack finally loses his sanity as the pills wear off and Joker is reborn, ready to give Neo Joker exactly what she asked for.
What Just Happened?
This fast driving issue by the car-loving Sean Murphy brings so much to the table that it’s almost difficult not to read it while sitting in your own vehicle. Everything about this issue worked so well that I don’t feel as though I really have to talk about what went right. Everything went right in this issue, from Victor revealing the Waynes connection to the Nazi’s to Joker being reborn, Sean and Matt hit a home run with the most dramatic and surprising issue of White Knight yet. I was worried this series would either end like any other Batman vs. Joker story, or that the popularity and confirmation of a second volume would hurt the ending of this 8-issue series, but I see now that Sean knows exactly what he is writing and pays such close attention to detail it makes me wonder if he doesn’t have this entire two-volume story already mapped out.
The character development from each obscure character has been remarkable. Victor fries refuses to reveal Batman’s identity to anyone because if his relationship with Thomas makes one wonder if fries was even a criminal in this timeline, once again this also shows Sean’s love for the Batman animated series. The slow burn revolution of Jack Napier has been one of the best-written characters I’ve seen in comics since I started reading. Sean has given Jack so much depth you’d have to peel back the layers like an onion. Which only makes his relationship with Harleen and Neo Joker that much more entertaining. Now seeing his transformation back to Joker it will be interesting to see how he treats Harleen, and what he has planned for Neo Joker. Let’s not forget the highlight of this issue either. Sean Murphy’s car chases are always stunning to look at, but this last one was just spectacular. The plan was to dilute Gordon’s eyes and blindfold him, then put him in an old model of the Batmobile with autopilot then chase Batman into a dark warehouse with blinder lights. After blinding Batman, Gordon took off his blindfold, able to see in the low light due to the eye dilution, he bumps the blinded Batman who is still flying all over the place, until Bats finally can’t go on. Anytime I see Sean draw a Batmobile or any other nice car in this series, I know it’s gonna be a good time.
As always, Matt Hollingsworth does an incredible job on the colors. The B-cover is the highlight of his work on this issue. Such a beautiful cover deserves any recognition possible. The blend of dark and light colors used for everyone’s costumes, specifically Batgirl’s, works so well for this story no one else could fill in Sean’s artwork so well in my opinion.
Rating: 10/10
Final Thoughts: Batman: White Knight #6 is a headstrong issue that takes most what we have learned in the past issues and finally sheds some light on what’s actually going to go down in the final confrontation. After six issues we may finally see why Jack, who seems to have everything going for him at this point, needs a chained up Batman’s help. The only real question now that I have is how easy is it for Jack to change from Jack to Joker and back to Jack? Hopefully, we will get this information in the next issue so definitely keep up with this incredible story by Sean Murphy!
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