New DC Book: ‘Batman: The Smile Killer’ Teases the Joker’s Greatest Prank

Article by Carl Bryan

This May, writer Jeff Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino will return to the world of their DC Black Label series Joker: Killer Smile for a one-shot epilogue featuring the young Bruce Wayne in Batman: The Smile Killer. According to Syfy Wire this 32-page story will bookend the original three-issue miniseries for mature readers.

The story will “focus on little Bruce’s love of The Mr. Smiles Show” and the solicit information teases that “the show might have been watching him back!… and not only was young Bruce watching, he was listening… listening as Mr. Smiles spoke across the airwaves only to him.”

DC Black Label promise that this one-shot will “turn the mythos of the Batman on its head, with the most devastating trick The Joker has ever devised!”

Sorrentino will provide the main cover for The Smile Killer, while Kaare Andrews produces a variant. The main cover by Sorrentino appears below.

The Smile Killer will conclude Lemire and Sorrentino’s Joker: Killer Smile limited series, which “follows the Clown Prince of Crime as he has a fateful encounter with a mental health professional [Dr. Ben Arnell] that radically alters the course of a number of lives, and while that premise sounds familiar, the story isn’t about Harley Quinn.”

Joker: Killer Smile has proven to be a critical success and is being reviewed on this very site. Created by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino with colors by Jordie Bellaire, issue #3 of the series goes on sale Feb. 19 from DC Comics Black Label imprint, and Batman: The Smile Killer #1 will follow on May 13. Both books will retail at $5.99.

Images Courtesy Of DC Entertainment