Allied with both the police department and the district attorney’s office, the vigilante known as Batman continues to bring justice and hope to Gotham City. But one man dares to mock Batman’s mission. A man with a twisted sense of humor. A man whose grotesque smile is reflected on the calling card he leaves at the scene of his crimes: The Joker.

Bruce Wayne is dead. The young heir to the Wayne Empire disappeared seven years ago. His vast fortune has been given away and the crime wave that began with the brutal murder of his parents has turned Gotham City into a living hell. The last holdouts against corruption- the cops who can’t be bought, the D.A.’s who can’t be intimidated- are outnumbered and outgunned. They need help...fast. A world away, in a dank Himalayan prison, a nameless, hardened man fights every day to survive. He has spent seven years scouring the globe, studying the criminal mind, looking for an answer to the ugly riddle of his childhood. But something has been looking for him, too. Here, in the darkest places of his own anger, Bruce Wayne will discover his destiny- and an ordinary man will become a legend.