Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: joker, jorge jimenez, KO, matt fraction

Spoilers! That Joker Foldout From Batman #7… In Bits…

Spoilers! That Joker Foldout from this week's Batman #7 chopped up into bits for your delectation...

This week's Batman #7 by Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez, published by DC Comics, will feature The Joker after the events of DC's K.O. and his death at the hands of Batman, held captive by Dr Zeller in Arkham Tower, as she attempts to study him, and potentially cure him with her Crown Of Thorns bio-psycho-technology. He doesn't look in the best way, injured, being held in some kind of recovery tube. And as Batman visits the Joker barefoot, this issue will feature a special gatefold page that unfolds from the comic, detailing the Joker's history. From his mental perspective, at least, and for everyone to dissect its meaning. Well, Bleeding Cool is giving you a head start… beginning the new Batman storyline Blood & Money. So yes, spoilers. Big spoilers. In fact…

That's better. If you share what you see here, make sure to include similar spoiler warnings or chances for people to turn away…

Batman #7 by Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez, published by DC Comics on Wednesday.

As we see the Joker again, in this double spread of his imprisoned face, behind the Hannibal Lecterish mask, in which a grimace of a smile seems to be part of the overall design. And then as we open up the foldout…

… we open up his mind. With Joker fish, playing cards and Frank Miller batglares…

A Jokermobile and other Jokers, of Joker personalities, being puppeted by the real deal.

In Legends of the Dark Knight #6 (1989), a group of crime bosses projects the signal upside down to summon Batman to help them fight a killer they cannot defeat. And in Batman #39 (2015), during the Joker's attack on Gotham, Batman notes that his enemies have a pact that they will shine the Bat-Signal upside-down on the day he dies, the Joker's idea and uses that to summon them to fight with him against The Joker. While his crowbar hooks gun-wielding Jason Todd? And the Joker Jack-In-The-Boxes have escaped their own prison.

The Joker's shirt is the face of the man who was once the Joker, nose forming the tie-knot. He is trapped somewhere inside the Joker, his screams form the Joker's grin.

The photos of Barbara Gordon from the Killing Joke, a dead Robin, is that Punchline behind?

As well as Punchline, Harley Quinn still seems to be hanging around a skeletal Batfigure with a batskull…

While Batman is behind all… and the Joker's face on one dollar bills is straight from the Tim Burton Batman movie from 1989, though held by a very sketchy Joker's hand, as it it wasn't real…. Batman #7 by Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez is published by DC Comics on Wednesday.

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

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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