Stand back! The team that brought us Ghost Maker, Clownhunter, and Punchline in 2020 is ringing in 2021 with yet another new villain striking Gotham in the pages of Batman, and “her name is Miracle Molly.”
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Writer James Tynion co-created Molly with artist Jorge Jimenez and introduced her along with some artwork in a recent blog post previewing her first appearance.
The art is a page by Jimenez with a fully colorized Miracle Molly as, in Tynions words, a guide.
Tynion gave a little background to the character and the group she runs with, transhumanists The Unsanity Collective. “She is a member of a new gang in Gotham that calls itself the Unsanity Collective, and they are going to be huge players in 2020 and 2021,” he wrote. “And she’s going to be right at the heart of all of it.”
The Unsanity Collective is described as a “high tech gang of thieves who use technology to erase and reset their memories, so they can let go of all the fear and trauma holding themselves back.” Molly’s role in the group is building their hardware, like Forge does for the X-Men and associated teams.
Tynion added she has a parallel with The Scarecrow. “I wrote up a whole thing for the internal Gotham team earlier this year, in which I broke down the emotional heart of ‘The Cowardly Lot,’ and the whole story is pinned on two arguments about the nature of fear and memory… One argument comes from Scarecrow, and the other comes from HER,” he said.
He continued, “She’s on the cover of Batman #108, which will be her first full appearance, and the issue that I think will make you all fall as madly in love with her as Jorge and I are. Jorge did the above as a color guide.”
Miracle Molly’s first appearance, technically, will be a cameo in Batman #106 and Tynion promises more of her in the future starting with extra covers. “This is just your first glimpse of her… There’s going to be a lot more to come. That Batman #108 cover is going to be coming your way with the next round of solicits, along with some craaazy variant covers featuring her.”
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One of those variants is by Singaporean cover artist Stanley “Artgerm” Lau who tweeted his work on Wednesday.
“Fresh from the oven is a spanking new cover of the new Batman villain, Miracle Molly, designed by the awesome @JorgeJimenezArt,” Lau posted. “When I first saw her colorful design, I couldn’t help thinking about #jojosbizarreadventure therefore deeply inspired by it. #MiracleMolly #batman #108”
Fresh from the oven is a spanking new cover of the new Batman villain, Miracle Molly, designed by the awesome @JorgeJimenezArt. When I first saw her colorful design, I couldn’t help thinking about #jojosbizarreadventure therefore deeply inspired by it. #MiracleMolly #batman #108 pic.twitter.com/8RMnoR6a4C
— Stanley Artgerm Lau (@Artgerm) February 10, 2021
Here’s a better look.
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Closing his blog entry’s section on Batman and Miracle Molly, Tynion professed “She’s unlike any of the other characters I’ve written in and around Gotham, and I f-ing LOVE her. So I hope you love reading about her, too…”
Miracle Molly and The Unsanity Collective of cyberpunks is Tynion’s addition to DC’s Infinite Frontier initiative – the same one that’s resulting in Black Adam’s new name and leadership of the Justice League.
Batman #106, written by Tynion and illustrated by Jimenez, goes on sale on March 2nd. The issue contains a backup story by Joshua Williamson with art by Gleb Melnikov.