Warning: spoilers ahead for The Joker #4!
Vengeance, the daughter of Bane, just massacred her way through an army of soldiers to get to the Joker. In previous issues, it was shown that some of DC's villains are out for Joker's head following the A-Day Joker Gas attack. Blaming him for the death of family members or associates in Arkham Asylum, Gotham citizens have sent mercenaries - and even former Commissioner James Gordon - to hunt down Joker, with the deadliest so far being the woman known as Vengeance. Now, aware of these incoming deadly forces, Joker has asked Gordon to work with him to save both their lives, revealing that he didn't commit the heinous attack on Arkham.
Vengeance, who debuted in The Joker #2, is a deadly new villain who possesses the strength and anger of her supposed father, Bane. During A-Day, Bane was one of the many Arkham Asylum inmates to be killed. Now, enacting her revenge, Vengeance is making her way through the jungles of Belize with Joker in her sights. Vengeance was introduced as she gained consciousness after a series of laboratory experiments, presumably to make her just like Bane. Hailing from Santa Prisca, this new, juiced-up version of the super-strong villain is a killing machine with one goal: to put an end to Joker.
In a DC Comics preview for The Joker #4 by James Tynion IV, Guillem March, and Arif Prianto, Vengeance massacres her way through the soldiers Joker is forcing to fight on his behalf. All this is happening as Jim Gordon delivers a monologue about his life and the mistakes he made in Gotham. His struggles originate from the night of Joker's attack on his daughter, Barbara Gordon. Now, Jim faces what could be the greatest dilemma of his life. Will he or won't he work with the Joker? Check out the preview pages below:
Punching a tree trunk in half with her bare hands, then kicking it over, the daughter of Bane proves to be a smart and ruthless killer. As Vengeance approaches the safe house at the edge of the jungle, she picks up one of her victims and charges toward the other soldiers. Using him as a shield, she takes down the rest of them, tearing them limb from limb. If this preview proves anything, it's that Vengeance is a very different kind of threat to Joker himself - ruthlessly efficient, and with no interest in playing games. But Joker is DC's most iconic villain for a reason, and his chaotic plans may be more than Vengeance can handle; after all, the men currently fighting to protect him were just moments ago trying to evict him from his hidden villa, provided by the shadowy Network.
Jim Gordon has been unsure if he'd be able to resist killing Joker when he found him, but now it turns out he may need the Clown Prince of Crime to survive. While Vengeance believes she has good reason to kill Joker, Gordon now suspects he's innocent of the A-Day atrocity, creating the type of moral dilemma that separates heroes like Gotham's stalwart police commissioner from maniacs like Joker and Bane. Vegeance will continue her assault in The Joker #4, releasing June 8, as Gordon makes a choice about whether to follow his principles and protect Joker or allow Batman's nemesis to perish and collect the reward he's been promised for ending the man who shot his daughter.