DC Comics writer Tom King is about to take Batman down a dangerous path in the mag's upcoming "I Am Suicide" arc that will have him face his most diabolical foe and team-up with the imprint's most unpredictable cast of characters.
Readers are still reeling from the recent “I Am Gotham” storyline which played out in the first six-issues of the DC Comics Batman relaunch which introduced a pair of super-powered vigilantes set on waging a war to defend the city they’ve named themselves after. Writer Tom King with illustrators David Finch and Ivan Reis explored the legacy of the Dark Knight, the current theme of the publishing imprint’s current reboot, from a alternate perspective as Batman himself examined how his own war on crime may have influenced the denizens of Gotham City.
At the conclusion of that arc, the new hero Gotham fell apart, succumbing to the influence of the dangerously calculating Dr. Hugo Strange who used the mind-altering powers of the Psycho Pirate to infect Gotham and his side-kick Gotham Girl. In order to now save her life, the Batman will begin a manhunt for the Pirate that will take him into one of the world’s most impenetrable prisons to challenge one of his greatest foes in the “I Am Suicide” arc beginning with Batman #9.
“Gotham Girl’s been infected by the Psycho Pirate’s fear,” says King. "She needs to get that out of her head and the only one who can do that is the Psycho Pirate himself. So to save Claire — to save this one last remnant of this hope he has — Batman has to find Psycho Pirate, and that mission leads him directly to Bane.” The strong armed, gang leader and all-around around has terrorized the Caped Crusader ever since he was introduced in the early 1990s. Bane is most remembered for having “broken” the Batman in the now classic “Knightfall” story arc.
With Bane holding the Psycho Pirate prisoner, the Batman has no other choice but to team-up with perhaps the diciest bureaucrat in the DC Universe, Amanda Waller and enlist her Suicide Squad to help him take down Bane. "It’s Batman forming his own Suicide Squad,” says King about the new story arc. "It’s Batman working with Amanda Waller, going into Arkham Asylum and picking out a special team to accomplish a mission that he can’t do on his own or with the Justice League — he needs a team who can do something illegal and impossible.”
Fans of the Batman will be most excited to see him team-up with the Suicide Squad, especially since the group of rogue malcontents are often than not made up of some of his own worst adversaries, and add to that the suspense of extracting the Psycho Pirate, a character that was at the center of the Crisis on Infinite Earths and the expectation that Batman will take on Bane, “I Am Suicide” will no doubt be one of the season’s most highly anticipated storylines yet.
The gallery below previews Batman #9 the first part of the "I Am Suicide" arc:
Batman #9 arrives October 19th, 2016, written by Tom King with art and cover by Mikel Janin, colors by June Chung, letters by Clayton Cowles