First Laugh

Chip Zdarsky reveals the secret origin of Batman's arch-enemy in The Joker: Year One 

- STEPHEN JEWELL

IN THE WORKS since Chip Zdarsky started writing Batman in July 2022, The Joker: Year One shines new light on the origins of the Clown Prince of Crime.

“In a lot of ways, it’s been in my head since my first page of Batman,” Zdarsky tells Red Alert. “I always knew we were going to explore this period of Batman and Joker’s history, right after his fateful acid bath. I just wasn’t sure what form it was going to take.”

Rather than a separate publication, the three-parter is serialised in the pages of Batman itself, beginning with issue 142. “The main reason is that this story is building on what we’ve been doing in the Batman title as there are ties to my previous book, Batman: The Knight and to the current Batman of Zur-En-Arrh storyline,” explains Zdarsky, referring respectively to his 2022 maxi-series and the recent return of the Dark Knight’s alternate personality.