Batman: White Knight: Issues 1-8

Sean Murphy

Oct 2018 · DC Comics

About this ebook

The impossible has happened: The Joker has become...sane. Batman: White Knight follows the man now known as Jack Napier as he embarks on a quest to heal the city he once terrorized. After reconciling with his long-suffering partner, Harley Quinn, he sets in motion a carefully plotted campaign to discredit the one person whom he views as Gotham City's true enemy: Batman. His crusade exposes a decades-long history of corruption within the Gotham City Police Department and transforms Napier into a city councilman and civic hero. But when the sins of his past return to threaten everything that he has accomplished, the distinctions between savior and destroyer begin to break down for both The Joker and Batman alike-and with them any hope for Gotham's future. Writer and artist Sean Murphy delivers an extraordinary examination of comics' greatest antagonists in Batman: White Knight, exploring justice, corruption, activism and the darkest depths of mental illness. Collecting the acclaimed eight-issue miniseries, this stunning graphic novel also marks the debut of the DC Black Label imprint, which features classic DC characters in all-new, standalone stories written and illustrated by world-class authors and artists.

Ratings and reviews

I liked it. I thought the whole thing was interesting to read. I don't know if everyone would like it, because it's not really a story that ties into any other Batman comic. I think this would make for a good animated movie or as a multiverse on another Earth (maybe Earth 152?). A "Meanwhile, in an alternate universe..." kind of thing. It does have some resemblance to parallel Earth 0, so it could work. I think it would be an interesting idea to have this book narrated, while you also read (kind of like reading captions with the sound on), and look at the story panels. Sort of a audiobook/ebook combination.

The writer really wanted to do something different, but this is the Joker. A character people would not simply forgive, forget or ever trust again. So the suspension of disbelief is far to great with White Knight. I really don't get the race politics angle ethier? Simple binary collectivist themes lacking any nuance. Elites and the poor can be anyone. A frustrating preachy read for sure that didn't work.

Thought the premise was interesting and the more I read the more I found it harder to stop. This has been one of the most original takes in the battle between the dark knight and the joker. Hoping this gets an animated motion picture.