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In the Joker #12, Commissioner Gordon gains the help of one of Batman’s most powerful villains in his hunt for the Clown Prince of Crime.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for The Joker #12, on sale now from DC Comics.
Throughout his globe-trotting mission to eliminate the Joker, Commissioner Gordon has found himself allied with an unlikely group of people ranging from Interpol agents in France to the Court of Owls. However, The Joker #12 (by James Tynion IV, Guillem March, Arif Prianto, Tom Napolitano) reveals that the man really behind Gordon’s mission and the real culprit of the Joker bomb attack on Arkham Asylum is one of Batman’s most dangerous enemies, Bane.
With the reveal that the notorious villain has orchestrated these events in an effort to take down the Clown Prince of Crime, this leads to Gordon once again making an alliance with a villain, perhaps his most questionable one to date. Although Bane’s intentions and plan are still not yet clear, the unlikely dynamic duo of Bane and Gordon reveals a lot about the nature of the former Commissioner’s current mission.
The Joker #12 opened with Jim Gordon on the trail of Cressida Clarke, the woman who hired him to kill the Joker and also a member of the Court of Owls, who had Jim’s daughter Barbara and Julia Pennyworth apprehended on a private jet. Cressida’s mysterious bodyguard then knocked out Barbara just as Cressida received a phone call from Gordon requesting the release of his daughter and Julia. Cressida, her Talon, and her bodyguard then meet with Gordon as Barbara and Julia are released to safety. Gordon then starts talking to Cressida’s bodyguard and when the former commissioner explains that he has figured out what is going on, the bodyguard reveals himself to be Bane, who is also the mastermind behind the scheme.
The reveal that Bane is alive may be confusing for some fans, considering the fact that the villain’s zombified corpse is a member of Red Hood’s undead Suicide Squad, Task Force Z. However, if Bane is in fact the villain behind A-Day, then it most likely means that he created a dead clone of himself to fool Batman and the Gotham City Police Department. Additionally, Bane is a master strategist and one of Batman’s smartest foes, meaning that he is quite capable of effectively pulling off such an outlandish plan successfully.
What is interesting about the reveal and the possible “alliance” between Bane and Gordon going forward is that it continues to explore many of the morally grey themes that The Joker series has been examining since the first issue. Throughout the series, Gordon has wrestled with his mission to kill the Joker and has been walking a tightrope between what is required to get the mission done and his moral code. Bane, a ruthless dictator of Santa Prisca and the man responsible for the death of Alfred Pennyworth, is perhaps an even worse enemy to Batman than the Joker.
Gordon’s morality may stop him from crossing certain lines, but his new alliance with Bane showcases the moral grey area he currently struggles against. While the issue ends ambiguously, it hints at Gordon and Bane at least temporarily working together to kill the Joker, highlighting just how far the former lawman is willing to go to successfully achieve his mission.
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