Change is coming to Gotham in BATMAN: THE WHITE KNIGHT #5. Jack Napier AKA the former Joker’s revolution is taking full effect as the new councilman pushes his agenda upon the city. Batman has to decide whether he wants to embrace this revolution or resist it.

Meanwhile, Neo-Joker, the fake Harley Quinn, terrorizes Gotham. Now in control of almost all the brainwashed villains of the city, she is proving a greater foe than both Jack and Batman could have anticipated. She has only one demand: that Jack stop taking his pills and become the Joker again.

Jack wants to prove that he can stop Neo-Joker without the help of Batman. To do this, he enlists the help of his Harley who begins to train him in martial arts. This is Jack’s way of proving he has a grip on his own sanity. How long will this stay the case however? Jack’s body has begun to reject his medication and he throws up blood when trying to ingest it. Will we see a return to the Joker? Will that justify Batman’s mistrust of Jack throughout this series?

Meanwhile, a growing rift between Batman and Nightwing threatens to split the Bat-family apart. Nightwing and Batgirl both try to recruit Batman to Jack’s Gotham Terrorist Oppression (GTO) unit that works alongside the GCPD. Batman, ever stubborn, refuses to change with the city. Nightwing believes that Batman is unwilling to accept that Jack is right since it means that Batman hasn’t done anything to improve Gotham. I totally understand Batman’s viewpoint. How can you accept that everything you have done to avenge your parent’s deaths was in vain? How can you accept that the man who you thought was your archnemesis was right all along?

Batman refuses to see Jack’s line of reason. This stubbornness threatens to push Batman down a dark path. Will he try to outright attack or implicate Jack? Or perhaps he will try to drive the Joker insane so that he can continue as Batman? It is becoming abundantly clear in Sean Murphy’s BATMAN: THE WHITE KNIGHT #5 that Batman may have no reason to exist without the Joker.

BATMAN: THE WHITE KNIGHT #5 Comes out February 7th!