While temporarily cured of his insanity, the Joker (acting as Jack Napier) exposed a system of exploitation and introduced systematic solutions to Gotham City. Not only did he eliminate the need for Batman, but he implicated Batman and his alter-ego Bruce Wayne in the corruption. So what happens next?

His last gambit upon returning to the Joker persona is to expose the secret history of the Wayne family and to put Bruce in the crosshairs of a mysterious character's revenge.

Batman: Curse of the White Knight by Sean Murphy is a beautiful book, published under the new DC Black Label imprint. Murphy's art has always been excellent, with a ton of design skill that really shines in clothing, equipment and vehicles. Fight sequences are broken down in ways that make sense and are easy to follow, and are frequently thrilling. It's a shame that those strengths don't show up in this volume until fifty pages in, as a casual reader may be bored beforehand.

Murphy also writes this story, and it shares some sensibilities with his other works like Punk Rock Jesus. The book is extremely critical of authority figures, especially Batman himself. The overarching idea here is that there is a "secret elite society" running Gotham, and in some ways that is connected to family history, colonization, and religion spanning back hundreds of years. Those are big subjects for a superhero book, and at times that scope seems beyond what the book is capable of. We are not shown the "secret society" in any real detail, and major revelations or plot points are sometimes handled with quick bits of dialog.

The book is full of fan service. Since it's an alternate universe take on Batman it could have been a good standalone tale, but so many characters and asides are not explained and rely instead on the reader's outside knowledge. Characters like Jason Blood (Etrigan) and Duke Thomas (Batman and the Signal) appear with very little development of explanation. There are also nice moments referencing past works like the Tim Burton films or the television series from the 1960's.

DC Black Label is a publishing imprint intended for adult audiences. Here that manifests as some mild swearing and occasional bursts of bloody violence shown on panel. If the swearing was modified this would be on par with mainstream Batman books from the modern era, and that's who it will appeal to the most. Long-time superhero fans looking for an anti-authoritarian take will enjoy this, but there are better books for a general audience. Additionally, this volume does not stand on its own. It is a sequel to Batman: White Knight, which is a superior book. If you're considering purchasing this one, the other should definitely be in your collection.

I would like to make special mention of the standalone Mr. Freeze story collected at the end of this volume. It takes place at some earlier point in the story, and is mostly separate from the main plot. It delves into how the modern Wayne family gets their money along with their medical laboratories. It involves giving refuge to a Nazi scientist, and depicts violence against Jewish people. It is easily the most affecting work collected here and is an excellent story, but readers should be aware of the content ahead of time.

This review was written from an advanced reader copy obtained from NetGalley.

Sean Murphy continues his revisionist take on the Batman mythos, this time bringing Azrael into the story. Murphy's art throughout is great. He talks in a note near the end of the book about how he was influenced by Klaus Janson and there's a one-shot about Mr. Freeze that is illustrated by Janson himself, and I didn't even realize that it wasn't Murphy's work until after. I'm really not sure why this is part of the Black Label line, since other than a couple of swear words and just a touch more violence, this isn't all that more extreme than the stories Scott Snyder was writing during his run. Also interesting is the presence of Harley Quinn, who seems to almost be taking on the role of Catwoman (love interest) in this. I liked the interplay between the ancient history of Gotham City and how it tied to events in the current day, as Bruce Wayne discovers a massive secret that throws everything he though he knew about himself and his family for a loop. I'm still not entirely sure that the story lives up to the artwork, but this was certainly worth a read and it will be interesting to see where things go next.