History ComicBook / BatmanWhiteKnight

* AnachronismStew: The timeline of the story can be rather confusing. Thomas Wayne was active as a businessman during World War II. Batman has been operating long enough that he has decommissioned "analog" Batmobiles (such as the one from the 1989 film}. However, things like smartphones, social media, and the phrase "SJW" also exist, making the ages of certain characters very hard to pinpoint.

* BigBad: [[spoiler:While the story starts with the conflict between the reformed Jack Napier against Batman and the GCPD, Marian Drews gradually ends up in this role after becoming the Neo Joker.]]

** [[spoiler:Napier reveals that on the night the Joker tortured Jason Todd, Jason tearfully confessed that he wished he never met Batman or Bruce Wayne. Napier further explained that Jason has become so hateful of Batman at that point that he faked his death]]

* CreateYourOwnVillain: [[spoiler: Neo Joker, aka Marian Drews, who met the Joker after the first Harley had already left him. He robbed a bank where she worked as a teller, but when the Joker put a gun to her head and threatened her life, he had no idea that he was actually ''saving'' her. Earlier, Marian [[DriventoSuicide had slit her wrists, waiting to bleed out as she served client after client.]] But the threat of the Joker made Marian realize that, more than anything, she wanted to live. In order to stay alive, she helped the criminal rob the bank, [[PetTheDog at which point he thanked her, called her "Harley", and bandaged up her wounds.]] He gave her a reason to live and a reason to be happy; for those reasons, she simply didn't ''want'' to leave him. Instead, she became the new Harley Quinn, albeit a different version -- ''her'' own version. She's fully aware that this is likely a case of StockholmSyndrome, but she simply doesn't care because the Joker gave her happiness. With the Joker gone and Napier in his stead, Marian has lost the source of her happiness, forcing her to adopt a new villainous identity in the hopes of drawing the Joker back out -- and with him, her reason to smile once more.]]

** DarkerAndEdgier is taken to town by this series, with multiple characters noting that even though things have gotten darker and more serious over Batman's career, they certainly haven't gotten ''better'' for anyone in Gotham. The escalating crime in Gotham means that Batman is being pushed to take more and more drastic measures, to the point where he beats his enemies half to death and they still come back for more. As well, the series attacks the idea that something being darker necessarily means it's more mature, as Batman's {{manchild}} tendencies and psychological profile are given thorough examination. Ultimately the slide from goofy crimefighting antics to taking out deranged supercriminals has done nothing to help Gotham or Bruce's psyche, and it takes Jack regaining his sanity and promising to use the legal system against GCPD for things to get any better. The point of this seems to be that the Batman mythos shouldn't abandon it's sillier side for darker stories, less they become too gritty and self-serious. After all, this is a series about a man dressed like a bat fighting super criminals. Adding to this is [[spoiler: the Seven Batmobile Squad, which hints that this universe originally had more elements from Batman's earlier, goofier Golden Age comic stories]].

* ''Batman: Beyond the White Knight'' (2022-2023)

** [[spoiler:However, in [[ComicBook/BatmanCurseOfTheWhiteKnight the sequel]], Jack, now having reverted back into Joker, takes the role again, establishing a BigBadDrummvirate with an aged [[ComicBook/{{Azrael}} Jean-Paul Valley]], inspiring him to become [[AdaptationalVillainy Azrael]] and later a murderous doppelganger for Batman]].