Comic artist Nikola Čižmešija released some fan art on Twitter of "Gotham RED," a team consisting of several Batman villains. This group will be part of a fan story by Čižmešija. The artist also released character design sheets for each member of the team and also opened voting to Twitter users on what team should join Gotham RED next. There has been plenty of amazing Batman fan art over the years, but this team represents members of Batman's Rogues Gallery that aren't your typical iconic villains like Joker or Ra's al Ghul.
Nikola Čižmešija is a comic book artist interested in working with Marvel and DC. He also created the "Way of the Spider'' #bushinverse fan project, which reimagines Spider-Man characters into everything from martial artists to ninjas to samurai to members of the yakuza.
On Twitter, Nikola Čižmešija posted his artwork for the "Gotham RED" team, which includes Blight, Deathstroke, Azrael, Hush, Lady Shiva, and Red X. The choice of villains is what really makes this piece of fan art unique. Rather than the more classic Batman villains, who have been remade in fan art numerous times teaming up, this grouping of Batman villains pulls in a wide variety of lesser-known but no less dangerous baddies. Blight, in particular, isn't even a Bruce Wayne era Batman villain, but a major player in the life of Terry McGinnis in the Batman Beyond series. Red X is also better known for his appearances in the Teen Titans television series, though he has slowly been making his mark on the DC Universe with Future State. Check out the full roster and the original tweets below:
On the same day as these tweets, the artist asked fans to vote on what team should join Gotham RED next, revealing Team Orange and Team Black. Team Orange consisted of more lesser-known villains, including Deadshot, Talon, Black Mask, Bane, the Dee Dee Twins, and Prometheus. Team Black was filled with members of the Bat-Family, including Nightwing, Red Hood, Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, Damien Wayne and Tim Drake in their Robin suits, and Cassandra Cain. There is no Stephanie Brown as either Spoiler or Batgirl, sadly. Team Black won out, scoring a vote of 65.9%. Though it might be more fun to see the teams fight each other, it would be interesting to see how they could ever handle working together.
Seeing Gotham RED, or more likely a variation of the team, in an actual comic book could make for a fun series, even though it would be treading toward Suicide Squad territory. Especially if the Bat-Family can be brought into it, considering some people have been asking for a better Bat-Family book. Either way, it's an interesting line-up and the extended roster seems to promise a complicated but enticing fan story. The various "villains" on the list also have morally gray pasts, ranging from villains turned anti-heroes (Deathstroke) to villains turned into straight-up heroes depending on the version (Azrael).
Source: Nikola Čižmešija/Twitter