Warning: contains a preview of The Joker #14!
The long-awaited death of the Joker is almost here, and a preview for The Joker's penultimate issue is hinting that it'll take a major Gotham hero to the dark side. Ever since it was announced that James Tynion IV's take on Joker was originally intended to end with the Clown Prince of Crime's death, there has been wild speculation. Now, the penultimate issue of Joker's own miniseries is implying the villain's life is finally over, but at the cost of a major hero doing the unthinkable.
The last issue of Joker ended with the Clown Prince coming toe-to-toe with Bane and his clone-daughter, Vengeance, in Hooper County Texas. Joker had just been rescued from a family of cannibals by Vengeance, but not because she wants him alive. She actually wants to kill him herself, and Joker relentlessly mocked her as she beat him up. Just before she punched Joker hard enough to kill him, Bane stopped her, ending the comic there on a pretty big cliffhanger, especially with Gotham's former police commissioner James Gordon caught in the fray.
The preview for The Joker #14 by James Tynion IV and Giuseppe Camuncoli opens in an interrogation room, skipping the confrontation between Joker, Bane, Vengeance, and Jim Gordon. While fans learn the consequences of what unfolded from news coverage (which details the arrest of the Sampsons, Joker's recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre-style antagonists), the fate of the Clown Prince of Crime is unclear, and Gordon is confronted by a shocking question: "Did you kill the Joker?" Enjoy a preview of the issue from DC Comics, below:
If the direction this preview hints at is the direction the comic will go, this is a shocking blow to readers who always viewed Gordon as a close ally of Batman. He's a man that has endured a lot, especially from the Joker. He infamously was captured by the villain in the critically acclaimed Killing Joke to be an example of how anyone can be driven to madness, which Joker attempted to do by brutalizing Barbara Gordon. However, with the promise of a huge reward for Joker's death - one which would assure his family's future - Gordon has admitted to contemplating taking lethal action, even lying to Barbara in his mission to track down his enemy.
Now, this turn of events could show a darker side of the Commissioner than readers know. Of course, this could all be a misdirection. Gordon could have been framed or may even be taking the fall, but it's hard not to arrive at this conclusion. Commissioner Gordon has a dark side, and there seem to be few situations where he'd sit there smiling if Joker was still out in the world, ready to inflict misery and chaos. Joker has been sharing a theory of a shadowy cabal working behind the scenes, but if Gordon is hiding the scourge of Gotham's survival to unite in going after a bigger target, even that outcome is likely to drag him into the dark.
If Gordon does end up being the force behind Joker's ultimate demise, this will bring up questions about how he did it. Did he really put the final knife in himself, or was he more the brains behind the plan, orchestrating Bane and his daughter to do it for him? Turning a key Gotham hero to the dark side is no small feat, and to have someone like Commissioner Gordon be the cause of Joker's death could shake the comics world forever.
The Joker #14 is available from DC Comics now!