Writer James Tynion lV recently revealed in an interview that he wanted The Joker War to have a very different end than it did.
Let’s be honest, the story doesn’t have the prettiest of endings anyway, as wars don’t, but Tynion admitted that he originally wanted the war to end with a dead Joker and a severely scared Batman.
Although his Batman: Death of The Joker arc was never approved by DC Comics, the writer had this to say:
I had no idea whether they would actually let me DO it, of course. Beyond that, let me just be clear that DC at no point in this process approved me killing the Joker (though I tried a few more times, as you’ll see in the next few newsletters).
Earlier this month, Tynion announced that he will be stepping away from the DC Universe to work with Substack, and is now revealing details and ideas that we never got to see on his Substack page. In his newsletter, he said that duringThe Joker War, Batman’s own money and gadgets would have been used against him and issue #100 would have ended with Joker’s death. Although he doesn’t reveal just how he wanted the villain to die, he does say that he planned for Batman to walk away with a permanent scar from a knife wound “ideally on his face”, which would have made wearing his cowl impossible and potentially ended The Dark Knight’s career.
The sales of the series kept Tynion working on the comics longer than he thought, so some of his plans had to change a little so that the plot could stretch a little longer. One of these ideas would’ve led up to Joker’s death and the 5G initiative, at the time being unsure if they would be connected.
Ending the story with a dead villain and a scarred Batman would have been an amazing way to go, especially if 5G would have reset the timeline with a new Caped Crusader. Since those plans were shelved, the idea probably wouldn’t have worked well in the long run, but it’s still crazy to know just how differently The Joker War almost ended.
You can read our review of The Joker War Saga here.
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