The Dark Knight is about to find himself stuck in a living, cosmic horror-fueled nightmare in a new Black Label prestige series from DC, Batman: City of Madness.
Revealed in DC’s solicitations for Oct. 2023, per ComicBook, Batman: City of Madness is a new three-issue Black Label series from writer and artist Christian Ward.
“Buried deep beneath Gotham City there exists another Gotham,” the official solicitation for Batman: City of Madness #1 reads. “This Gotham Below is a living nightmare, populated by twisted mirrors of our Gotham’s denizens, fueled by the fear and hatred flowing down from above. For decades, the doorway between the cities has been sealed and heavily guarded by the Court of Owls. But now the door swings wide, and the twisted version of the Dark Knight has escaped…to trap and train a Robin of his own. Batman must form an uneasy alliance with the Court and its deadly allies to stop him—and to hold back the wave of twisted super-villains, nightmarish versions of his own nemeses, each one worse than the last, that’s spilling into his streets!”
Batman: City of Madness is a pseudo sequel to a popular Dark Knight story
Ward first shared artwork for Batman: City of Madness on Twitter in 2022. Following the announcement of the series, Ward tweeted, “My new book from [DC] – a dream come true my cosmic horror Batman story – Batman: City of Madness a 3 prestige 48 issue mini series written and drawn by me — out October.”
Ward went on to call Batman: City of Madness a “pseudo sequel” to Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, which released in 1989 from writer Grant Morrison and artist Dave McKean.
“Thrilled also to [be] featuring batmans best modern villains – the Court of Owls – [Scott Snyder] & [Greg Capullo] court of owls is one of my favourite bat stories and without them this book wouldn’t exist,” Ward continued. “Excited to be playing in their sandbox.”
Batman: City of Madness #1 features cover and variant cover art by Ward and additional variants by Bill Sienkiewicz and Martin Simmonds. The issue releases on Oct. 10, 2023, from DC.
