Warning: contains spoilers for Batman #135!By killing Joker, the Arkham game series did what few pieces of Batman media dare. Now, however, the Clown Prince of Crime is returning to canon after his Arkham City death and Batman purging his personality in Arkham Knight.

Recently, Batman has been fighting against the villainous Darwin Halliday - a sane version of Joker who goes by the super-villain name Red Mask. Darwin is obsessed with the multiverse and the idea of the Joker, feeling that he was meant to become the Joker. To fix this, he builds a machine that'll allow him to peer across the multiverse to view the exact moment Joker went insane. Darwin is hoping that this will break his mind in the exact same way, but the revelation is instead that it isn't his destiny to become the Joker: it's his destiny to create them. Darwin takes off across the Multiverse, creating, empowering, or reviving Joker in each universe he goes through, including that of the Arkham game series. Batman #135 comes from Chip Zdarsky, Mike Hawthorne, Jorge Jimenez, Mikel Janin, Adriano Di Benedetto, Tomeu Morey, and Romulo Fajardo.

Joker Is Resurrected By Darwin Halliday

arkhamverse joker returns batman

The game Batman: Arkham Knight opens with the Joker's body being cremated after his death in Arkham City. Fans of the game who played more than once know that there's a secret scene where, when the player begins New Game +, the opening scene of Joker's cremation changes. Instead of remaining dead, he will actually leap alive and start laughing hysterically as the fire takes him. While this initially seemed like a fun jump scare, the new context from Batman #135 shows that Batman isn't the only one who survived Arkham Knight. Darwin Halliday has resurrected the series' Joker, just as this moment predicted.

Joker's Arkham Easter Egg Comes True

The Joker cremation jump scare in Batman: Arkham Knight's New Game + mode

The Arkham series is known for its surprising Easter Eggs, from Calendar Man correctly claiming he'll be present for Bruce Wayne's 'death' to a secret room in Batman: Arkham Asylum showing plans for the sequel game. However, Joker's resurrection has to be the supreme 'prediction' of a future event. The moment was likely just a treat for fans at the time - Joker does return in the game, albeit only as a hallucination - but intentional or not, it told fans Joker would be back, and now he is.

Joker Could Return for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Batman in his armored suit from Arkham Knight, with the Suicide Squad from Kill the Justice League in the background

It will be fascinating to see how this twist is used in future. The upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is set in the same universe as the Arkham games, and so fans may see Joker there. Alternatively, it's suggested that Batman's alternate-universe variants will soon return in the comics, which could include bringing their Jokers with them. Whatever happens, DC has just canonically resurrected Joker in the Arkham series' canon, making good on a promise few people even realized had been made.

Batman #135 is on sale now from DC Comics!