Joker and Riddler Are Going to War

Batman is about to flash back to the big war.

By Jesse Schedeen

The Joker and Riddler are going to war this summer, as Batman writer Tom King dropped new hints about his next major story arc, entitled "The War of Jokes and Riddles."

King revealed more about this upcoming story at his Fan Expo Dallas panel this past weekend (which Batman News covered here). "The War of Jokes and Riddles" will be presented as a flashback story taking place after the events of Zero Year and roughly a year into Bruce Wayne's costumed career. According to King, the two villains clashed during that period because neither wanted the other to rob them of the opportunity to defeat Batman. Now that unseen story will finally be told.

King revealed that Batman #24 will serve as a prelude to the story, featuring a huge cliffhanger that leads directly into the event. From there, King and artist Mikel Janin will chronicle the war in three acts, spanning Batman #25-26, #28-29 and #31-32 (with issues #27 and 30 serving as interlude stories focused on minor villain characters like Kite-Man). He also confirmed that villains like Solomon Grundy, Killer Croc, Deadshot and Deathstroke will play a role in the story as the Joker/Riddler gang war spills out across Gotham.

"The War of Jokes and Riddles" has actually been alluded to several times during the course of King's Batman run so far, with Riddler recently telling Bane that the Dark Knight deserves to be punished for his role in the conflict. King confirmed on Twitter today that the story will have a significant impact on his present-day Batman saga, possibly even tying into the ongoing "Three Jokers" mystery that's been running since the start of DC Rebirth.

"The War of Jokes and Riddles" wasn't the only major Batman story to be revealed at Fan Expo Dallas this weekend. DC also revealed first details about Batman: Metal, a new comic featuring the reunion of writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

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