The saga “Joker War,” which sees the rise of new villains, is ramping up in the pages of Batman. It draws to a close with issue 100 this October so DC thought it the perfect time to give the Dark Knight’s costume an upgrade (or downgrade depending on how you look at it).
Designed by artist Jorge Jimenez, the new suit has an icy/sky blue color scheme with a big white Bat symbol and deeper aqua blues across the body armor. It also boasts knee-high boots and narrow yellow lenses over the eyes.
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DC unveiled the new costume with a variant cover for Batman’s 100th issue drawn by Jimenez. Check it out.
They also issued this synopsis:
“In Batman #100, ‘The Joker War’ comes to a city-shattering conclusion as Batman battles The Joker in a brutal, no-holds-barred final duel! This is a fight 80 years in the making, and its outcome won’t just change Batman’s life – it will change Gotham City for years to come!”
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Like so many redesigns for Batman (and others such as Spider-Man), the suit’s purpose is written into the story. It’s at the heart of a mystery that will explain where it came from. That’s the plan anyway, says editor Ben Abernathy who spoke with ComicBook.com.
Abernathy swears there will be a payoff and they won’t leave things on a cliffhanger:
“That suit will be revisited at some point. It’s not meant strictly to be a cliffhanger mystery, but that suit, there’ll be further discussion on that at some point down the line. But it is a pretty cool suit. I’ll admit that.”
He talked a little too about the direction given to Jimenez when coming up with the design. “And talking to the design, that was like, ‘Jorge, design this futuristic, cool suit,’” Abernathy said. “And he worked up the design on that.”
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What Jimenez came up with is drawing comparisons to the silvery black and white suit George Clooney wore in Batman & Robin in the final battle with Mr. Freeze.
Abernathy, nonetheless, praised Jimenez for his “aesthetic” and “sense” the editor hopes puts a fresh spin on the comic. He said to CB.com:
“His design aesthetic of these characters and that suit you mentioned that really stands out, Jorge is bringing to Gotham this design sense that I’m hoping will, I don’t want to say freshen things up, but these new characters and these new look and a new style that is in a lot of ways, uniquely his own.”
To be honest, it looks like it was designed by Freeze. With that in mind, maybe Bats is going up against the wrong bad guy here.
Batman #100, written by James Tynion IV, goes on sale Oct. 6th.