Batman: White Knight by Sean Gordon Murphy has been a smash hit. I'm sure DC Comics expected this tale of a reformed Joker dealing with Gotham and a mad Batman to have strong sales but the comic often outsells the regular Batman twice-monthly comic book in some stores that report into Bleeding Cool's Bestseller List. And with a higher price point on the shelf, it's probably bringing more money into comic stores right now than anything else.

But it's not everything that its creator, Sean Murphy, wants it to be. It looks like it went through a little Bat-bowlderisation to get to this stage. Murphy posts on Twitter,

I would LOVE if I could get DC to publish the trade of White Knight with an R rating. So I can put the swears and nudity back in. But would you readers be OK with that? — Sean Gordon Murphy (@Sean_G_Murphy) January 10, 2018

My worry is that ppl who were good enough to buy the floppies might get mad. And make them feel like they should have trade waited. https://t.co/cuFl0xAkVm — Sean Gordon Murphy (@Sean_G_Murphy) January 10, 2018

But the response was overwhelmingly positive.

Jesus–250 positive responses to my last tweet about an R rated White Knight? I heard you all, and I'm on it. 💪 — Sean Gordon Murphy (@Sean_G_Murphy) January 11, 2018

And Kurt Busiek had some specific advice.

Haha–I feel like you've done this before?? :) — Sean Gordon Murphy (@Sean_G_Murphy) January 11, 2018

Something that did happen before was Frank Cho's Shanna, The She-Devil. Commissioned as a mature readers series by Frank Cho, on publication, it dropped to a PG rating, leading to plenty of coverup for the pulpish nudity. A mature readers Marvel MAX hardcover version was meant to be released at a later date – but never was…

Here's the kind of page from Batman White Knight that got covered up in the telling. From Batman: White Knight #4, a scene that was drawn like this…

Jack and Harley on a date, part 2. This will get edited to fit DC's "teen +" rating on the book. (panel 5 will be fixed to have the ring on the correct hand) pic.twitter.com/9jUUz39fu6 — Sean Gordon Murphy (@Sean_G_Murphy) November 28, 2017

… to this.

Batman: White Knight #5 is published on February 7th and there are a tonne of additional prints of already-published issues on their way as well.

BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT #5

(W) Sean Murphy (A/CA) Sean Murphy

Jack's mind and body begin to betray him as he prepares for an inevitable showdown with Batman, and Bruce himself struggles to keep his team united. As the game gets tougher, Batman seeks counsel from a shocking source-and after Wayne Manor is infiltrated, a car chase for the ages aims to curb Napier's supercriminal crew once and for all.In Shops: Feb 07, 2018

SRP: $3.99