Warning! Spoilers for Arkham City: The Order of the World #1 by DC Comics below
The original Ratcatcher just made a surprise reappearance in the pages of DC Comics, and The Suicide Squad villain isn't in great shape. In the debut issue of Arkham City: The Order of the World #1, Dr. Jacosta Joy is helping the Gotham Police Department round up escaped patients. Unfortunately, when she encounters Ratcatcher, she finds out that he's almost completely lost his mind.
Gotham City's A-Day was one of the single most destructive moments in the city's history. Arkham Asylum and its patients were hit with an explosive blast that killed hundreds of people, including the villain's Bane, Shrike, and Film Freak. In its wake, Gotham Mayor Christopher Nakano would be pressured to work with Simon Saint to implement the Magistrate and the Peacekeeper force to protect the city from masked vigilantes and criminals. In a new comic, Arkham Asylum's last remaining doctor Jacosta Joy is tasked with helping bring in her former patients.
In Arkham City: The Order of the World #1 by Dan Watters, Dani, Dave Stewart, and Aditya Bidikar, the comic opens with Joy visiting a young girl in her bedroom as she tries to calm her down. Joy recounts how the girl's cat had gone missing, a key detail that Ratcatcher was after her. Joy finds the knife-wielding villain hiding under the girl's bed, and when he emerges, he tells her he needs to eat the child. Unfortunately, Otis Flannegan has lost his mind, as he believes himself to be a rat - even making squeaking noises - as he says Amadeus Arkham isn't looking for the creatures.
Ultimately, the Gotham PD shoots Ratcatcher believing he's about to harm Joy and the young girl. However, Joy sympathizes with Flannegan, who's clearly lost his mind after escaping Arkham Asylum. She suggests that Ratcatcher needs to stay in a dark and quiet room that will help him stay calm. But, with Arkham Asylum not being rebuilt yet, Ratcatcher is destined for Blackgate Prison, where those accommodations aren't likely to be met.
Joy believes Ratcatcher is sick and doesn't belong in prison. It's apparent the former Batman villain has struggled with his mental state after escaping Arkham Asylum and that the structure and the treatment he received inside the psychiatric hospital were helping him fight his own demons. Without it, his mind is telling him he's a rat who has to eat children. Considering Ratcatcher was last seen in The Suicide Squad sharing his knowledge and inspiring with Ratcatcher 2 before his drug overdose, his fate in the comics is much more twisted. Trying to eat children is a sharp turn, even for a bad guy. Arkham City: The Order of the World #1 is in comic book stores now.