This October, the greatest and most notorious villain in comic books is making his grand return in the New 52! The new storyline is called “Death of the Family.”  The official description states that Joker will come out of the dark in a horrifying, unnerving, and huge way. And the grave consequences of his re-emergence will be felt by not only the Bat-family, but by all of Gotham City.

The Joker has made a name for himself in comic books not only for being one of the greatest characters of the whole medium, but also for his terrible acts against Batman.  The most notable of which are killing Jason Todd and crippling Barbara Gordon.

The Joker has been missing in the New 52, ever since his apparent death in DETECTIVE COMICS where his entire face was ripped off.  His face showed up occasionally in other titles like Harley Quinn’s Suicide Squad, but this marks the true return of the Clown Prince of Crime.

This new story line begins in BATMAN #13, by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion. Snyder expressed his love for the character and what to expect in this story line in the following statement:

Snyder expressed his love for the character and what to expect in this story line in the following statement:

“Joker is my favorite villain of all time,” Snyder told THE SOURCE. “Not just in comics. In everything – film, books, TV. He’s the greatest, hands down. So this story is something extremely important and personal to me – something I’ve been building in my head ever since I started working in Gotham. Basically, this is my big exploration of the Joker, my ARKHAM ASYLUM or THE KILLING JOKE, only bigger in scope. Bottom line: it’s the biggest, baddest, most shocking Joker story I could tell. This is Joker completely unleashed. He has been away for a full year planning this revenge, watching, plotting, setting things up. And now he’s back. He has his traps set, his knives sharpened… And wait ’til you see him. Greg’s sketches literally gave me chills. Point blank: This is Joker like you’ve never seen him before. He has a mission. He has a secret. And he has a serious axe to grind with Batman. It isn’t going to be pretty, but it’s going to be a wild ride. Thanks for taking it with us.”

Artist Greg Capullo also gave us his thoughts on the upcoming story:

“When Scott told me that he’d written a Joker story for our next arc, I couldn’t contain my excitement,” added Capullo. “Talk about a dream come true! For me, the Joker is the ultimate rogue and the villain I most wanted to draw. I gotta tell you, after hearing what the story is about, this isn’t a dream come true. It’s a nightmare! A macabre and bloody, flesh crawling nightmare. We hope you’ll have the nerve to face what’s coming. Warning: It ain’t for the faint of heart!”

BATMAN #13 hits stores on October 10th. Also Capullo released some very cool and creepy promotional art for “Death of the Family”.

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