Name: Batman: White Knight
ISBN: 9781401289867

Sean Murphy

The impossible has happened: The Joker has become...sane. Batman: White Knight follows the man now known as Jack Napier as he embarks on a quest to heal the city he once terrorized. After reconciling with his long-suffering partner, Harley Quinn, he sets in motion a carefully plotted campaign to discredit the one person whom he views as Gotham City's true enemy: Batman. His crusade exposes a decades-long history of corruption within the Gotham City Police Department and transforms Napier into a city councilman and civic hero. But when the sins of his past return to threaten everything that he has accomplished, the distinctions between savior and destroyer begin to break down for both The Joker and Batman alike-and with them any hope for Gotham's future. Writer and artist Sean Murphy delivers an extraordinary examination of comics' greatest antagonists in Batman: White Knight, exploring justice, corruption, activism and the darkest depths of mental illness. Collecting the acclaimed eight-issue miniseries, this stunning graphic novel also marks the debut of the DC Black Label imprint, which features classic DC characters in all-new, standalone stories written and illustrated by world-class authors and artists.

Batman: White Knight

Morgan Thomas

I found the premise of this intriguing. Gotham, continuously plagued by terror and violence in the form of "super criminals" now has to reckon with the horrors done by the vigilante Batman. It asks important questions about the role of the police state, how much accountability they should have, and do the means justify the ends. It discusses the people who suffer at the hands of Batman and how they continue to be exploited (non spoilery, but it is mentioned that there is something called "The Batman Fund" in which grants are given to developers to fix destroyed neighborhoods, generally low income, which are them flipped a higher price) and those who suffer. Who the story seems to ask, who is the real villain?
And it's the Joker who makes the people of Gotham ask all of these questions. The Batman villain we know to be the most destructive and worst of the lot. I found this made for a striking juxtaposition. But oh how I was wrong. At about mid way point, is where the story really lost it's footing in regards to any complexity. Still compelling, but I found it lacked the more interesting sociological exploration of Batman and his role in the city. Instead the story turned into a more straightforward, less complex hero-villain story (complete with a new Joker!). 
The story had great intentions, but was ultimately lost in a more conventional superhero narrative.

Vin 

The reason for 5 stars? 

• Joker in a Batman crop top. 

Okay, that’s not the whole reason, but damn, this was such a good comic. 

Joker is such a unique character and I genuinely think this is my favourite version of him. Although he wasn’t “joker” for most of the graphic novel, the parts where he was the clown we know him as, he shone. 

This was a very fun and emotional graphic novel and I’m honestly surprised at how well it was done.