Earlier this month, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Dark Nights: Metal #1 set up DC’s newest event and briefly teased the evil incarnations of Batman who are invading the DC Universe. Six of the evil Batmans were apparently mashups of Bruce Wayne’s alter ego with other well known heroes like the Flash, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman. However, DC held back on revealing the Batman Who Laughs until now, and we can see why!

Via DC’s official site, the first look at the Batman Who Laughs seems to confirm that this villain is a nightmarish mix of the Joker and Batman. It’s not clear if this escapee from the Dark Multiverse is truly Bruce Wayne or the Joker, but he is definitely creeping us out in this Dark Nights: Metal #3 cover by Capullo.

Riccardo Federici’s illustration offers a better glimpse of the Batman Who Laughs, and he reminds us of Judge Death with that helmet and all of those exposed teeth.

Much like the real Batman, the Batman Who Laughs has a few Robins of his own. However, he keeps all of his sidekicks on chains, and they appear to be vampire children in this page by Mirka Andolfo from Teen Titans #12, which is a tie-in issue for the Dark Nights: Metal event.

In November, writer James T Tynion IV and artist Jason Fabok are giving this new villain and his Robins the spotlight in The Batman Who Laughs one-shot. That seems like the most logical place for readers to discover the backstory of this otherworldly threat, and possibly a confrontation with the real Batman. Fabok’s cover hasn’t been colored yet, but it depict the pack of Robins as truly unsettling creatures.

Are you intrigued by the Batman Who Laughs? Light up the Bat-signal and share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Images: DC Comics