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Batman: Three Jokers has just released its first issue, finally beginning to answer the mystery created by writer Geoff Johns years ago, surrounding the existence of not one, but three Jokers as discovered by Batman when he sat on the Mobius Chair during Darkseid War back in 2016. Thus far, Batman has been joined by Batgirl and Red Hood in his investigation into the truth, but some fans may be wondering: Where’s Nightwing?
The idea being introduced in Three Jokers from Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok is the exploration into the very nature of the Joker himself, akin to Alan Moore’s work over thirty years ago with his iconic story, The Killing Joke. This time around, Johns and Fabok are looking into the concept that there have been three Jokers that carry different personalities and have committed different atrocities across Gotham City and the Bat Family’s history.
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The Clown was the Joker who killed Jason Todd, and set him on his path from Robin to Red Hood. The Comedian was the next and more modern Joker, who shot Batgirl in the spine and tried to drive Commissioner Gordon insane. The third Joker is the Criminal from the Golden Age, who has scarred Batman the most. As a result, each Joker is directly tied to each of the heroes, leaving little room to focus on any of the other members of the Bat Family.
Co-creator Jason Fabok confirmed as much on Twitter when asked about any potential appearances from Nightwing as Three Jokers continues:
No nightwing. We discussed it at one point but once you start bringing in more characters, its harder to tell the story we wanted, which is really a Bruce/Barbara/Jason story.
— Jason Fabok (@JasonFabok) August 26, 2020
It looks as though Three Jokers will maintain its focus on just the three heroes that have already been introduced, which is just as well. The story is about Joker after all, and it makes sense to keep the spotlight on the heroes Joker’s arguably traumatized the most. However, that’s not to say that the Clown Prince of Crime isn’t currently tormenting Nightwing, as he’s actively doing in the pages of James Tynion IV’s Joker War.
Lately in Joker War, Nightwing has been hypnotized to believe that he has always been the Son of The Joker. Joker’s taken advantage of Grayson’s already fragile and damaged psyche to play a master stroke against Batman and his allies, taking Batman’s first and arguably most loyal former-Robin and corrupting him for his own twisted ends.
While Batman: Three Jokers may not have Nightwing involved, Joker War certainly does. Hopefully, Nightwing will be able to break free of Joker’s manipulations, either on his own of with help from his family. Previews for future issues seem to suggest that Dick Grayson will at some point put on his Nightwing costume once more, which is something he hasn’t done for quite some time, due to his head injury and subsequent amnesia (he had just started to regain his memories when Joker got his hands on him). So, if fans are disappointed that they’re coming up short with no Nightwing in Batman: Three Jokers, they should definitely check out Joker War.