Eight of Batman’s greatest rogues are starring in a new series of one-shots under the collective title Batman – One Bad Day.
Announced on the DC blog, the one-shots all run for 64 pages, feature a star-studded team of creators and release each month from August 2022 to March 2023. The first to release in August is Batman – One Bad Day: The Riddler by Tom King and Mitch Gerads. The story features Edward Nygma apparently killing at random and violating his tight system of rules. It’s up to Batman to discern the Riddler’s intent and figure out why his puzzle-obsessed foe would go down a seemingly haphazard path.
The second one-shot is One Bad Day: Two-Face by Mariko Tamaki, Javier Fernandez and Jordie Bellaire. The story, teased as a “tragic noir” epic, focuses on Two-Face’s shady morality, which may have him either saving Gotham City or working overtime to destroy it. One Bad Day: The Penguin by John Ridley, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Cam Smith and Arif Prianto arrives in October. Oswald Cobblepot loses control of his criminal empire over the course of the story, and Batman is forced to confront both his longtime enemy and a new villain named the Umbrella Man.
In November, Gotham freezes over with One Bad Day: Mr. Freeze by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Scalera and Dave Stewart. The one-shot features a tale of Batman and Robin’s past when winter turned Gotham into a snowy metropolis “so icy that Mr. Freeze could live without his containment suit.” Selina Kyle is next on the list of villains with December’s One Bad Day: Catwoman, by G. Willow Wilson and Jamie McKelvie. The one-shot centers on a brooch pawned by Selina’s mother. Now a centerpiece in a high-bid auction, Selina will stop at nothing to steal the brooch and reclaim her family property.
In January, Bane takes center stage in One Bad Day: Bane, the first of the series to release in 2023. By Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter, the one-shot promises to investigate the psyche of the man who broke Batman’s back in a manner reminiscent of the original Vengeance of Bane limited series that introduced the character to the DC universe in 1993. One Bad Day: Clayface is the next special, by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Xermanico and Romulo Fajardo Jr. The one-shot sees Batman chasing Basil Karlo to Los Angeles where the shape-shifting criminal tries his luck at his true ambition — acting.
Finally, the Demon’s Head rounds up the series with One Bad Day: Ra’s al Ghul, by Tom Taylor and Ivan Reis. Presumably, the story will take place before the current “Shadow War” arc embroiling Batman, Deathstroke Inc. and Robin, which features the assassination of Ra’s by a Deathstroke impersonator.
The One Bad Day series takes its name from a line in The Killing Joke, where Joker laments that all it took to transform him from a comedian into a killer was “one bad day.” This nod to the Clown Prince of Crime’s famous origin tale by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland might also serve as an explanation for why Joker is absent from the one-shot series since his “one bad day” has already been printed.
Source: DC
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