BATMAN: WHITE KNIGHT #2 by Sean Murphy - Book Review

From the publisher: Public support for Batman dwindles and Gotham City’s 99 percent rally around ex-Joker Jack Napier’s crusade to expose decades of corruption within the GCPD. A proposition inspires new revelations about Harley and The Joker’s past; and as Jack transforms into a hero of the middle class and takes extreme measures to mobilize a revolutionary army of super-villains, Bruce struggles to stay focused on engineering a technological breakthrough to save Alfred.

Sean Murphy's Batman: White Knight #2 continues the unique story he began with issue #1. In the world of his White Knight, Jack Napier aka Joker has been cured and the city has turned against Batman. It is an unusual situation to say the least.

Issue #2 focuses on Jack and provides some background on how the new status quo came about. Highlights include an impassioned speech delivered by Jack Napier expounding on how Gotham fostered his development as Joker; TWO Harley Quinns; Batman working with Victor Fries; and Jack's meeting with his former supervillain competitors.

I really enjoyed this story. Murphy did a nice job with the first issue, setting up the idea of Jack as victim, but there wasn't a lot of depth. However, this changed with this current issue. Murphy adds depth to Jack Napier, making him a sympathetic figure that you want to believe, but Murphy leaves just enough room for doubt. His handling of multiple versions of Harley Quinn was borderline genius; I don't want to spoil it, but Murphy just came up with a fantastic explanation for why there seems to be such a disparity in looks and actions between the different iterations of Harley.

I highly recommend Batman: White Knight #2 by Sean Murphy. While you should start with the first issue, this book functions as a fine introduction to the series as well. I can't wait to see where Murphy and Jack Napier go from here and look forward to reading the next installment in White Knight.

I received a preview copy of this book from DC Comics in exchange for an honest review.