Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: jorge jimenez, matt fraction, The Joker

Batman #7 To Include Gatefold Foldout Page For The Origin Of The Joker

Batman #7 to include a gatefold foldout page with the definitive origin of The Joker after DC's K.O. and new storyline Blood & Money

Published Fri, 30 Jan 2026 05:57:09 -0600

by Rich Johnston

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Article Summary

Batman #7 will feature a special gatefold foldout page revealing the definitive origin of The Joker.
The new issue follows up after DC's K.O., showing a battered Joker recovering in a mysterious tube.
Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez start their next Batman arc, launching the Blood & Money storyline.
Forget previous Joker tales—this story tells his origin from the Joker's own perspective for the first time.

The upcoming Batman #7 by Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez looks to feature The Joker after the events of DC's K.O., and he doesn't look in the best way, injured, being held in some kind of recovery tube. And it seems that this issue features a special gatefold page that folds out of the comic that will detail the definitive history of Joker. Forget Three Jokers, forget The Killing Joke, this is a chance for Fraction and Jiménez to lay it out for good, and from his perspective as well. Or, at least, until the next time they change it… and beginning the new Batman storyline Blood & Money.

Batman #7 To Include Gatefold Foldout Page For The Origin Of The Joker — BATMAN #7

BATMAN #7
(W) Matt Fraction (A/CA) Jorge Jimenez
FRACTION & JIMENEZ KICK OFF THEIR SECOND ART WITH A SHOCKING REINTRODUCTION OF THE JOKER AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN HIM BEFORE! As Batman is beckoned to Arkham Towers by the mysterious man in Room Ten, nothing will prepare him for who he finds there. Some might call him the Caped Crusader's archnemesis. Others might call him Batman's best friend. Everyone calls him the Joker. $4.99 3/4/2026

: BATMAN #7

: BATMAN #7

: BATMAN #7

The Joker debuted in Batman #1 in 1940, created by Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson and Bob Kane. His look was partly inspired by the 1928 film The Man Who Laughs (featuring actor Conrad Veidt as a man with a permanent grin) and a Joker playing card. In his first appearance, he was already a calculating killer who announced crimes in advance via macabre jokes. Over the decades, his origin has deliberately remained ambiguous and contradictory — the character himself often claims "multiple choice" backstories to emphasise unpredictability. The most famous (though not definitive) version comes from Alan Moore's 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke: a failed stand-up comedian (or failed criminal, depending on the telling) falls into a vat of chemicals during a robbery gone wrong, bleaching his skin white, turning his hair green, and driving him irreversibly insane. He summarises his transformation with the line: "All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy."

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