Summary

• Batman is determined to make his next encounter with the Joker his last, signaling a potentially final confrontation between the two iconic characters.
• Batman's mental stability is compromised, with his alter ego Zur-En-Arrh becoming more dominant. This heightened state may push Batman to go to extreme measures to incapacitate the Joker.
• Batman's previous attempts to rehabilitate, contain, or kill the Joker have failed. Now, with his mental state on the edge, Batman may resort to permanently changing the Joker's mind as a solution.

Warning! Contains spoilers For Batman #139!

Reunited with the Joker after several years apart, Batman promises that their next encounter will be the Clown Prince of Crime's last. There are few characters in comics who have had as brutal or long-lasting a rivalry as Batman and the Joker. The two characters have been fighting one another for almost 100 years at this point. Now, with Batman's mental state more unstable than ever, it seems that the Dark Knight is finally ready to put the Joker down for good, one way or another.

Batman vows to make this meeting with Joker his last in Batman #139 by Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles. This issue sees Batman, now completely alone from his Bat-Family, as he decides to finally track down the Joker now that he's back in Gotham City. Most ominously, Batman warns that Batman is coming for Joker "for the last time."

Even more strangely, Batman claims to be coming for all three Jokers, despite the fact that, currently in comics, there are only two Jokers running around Gotham. While it's unclear exactly what Bruce means about this, the fact he threatens that this will be the last time he'll confront Joker does not bode well for the Clown Prince.

Batman Plans To Defeat Joker Once And For All

Batman and Joker have not seen one another since the devastating events of The Joker War that ended with Batman potentially leaving Joker to die so that he could save Harley Quinn. After this event, Joker disappeared from Gotham City, and the fact that Batman left Joker to die makes Bruce's new mental state so much more dangerous. Over the last year, Batman's mind has slowly been infected by the Zur-En-Arrh personality. This Zur-En-Arrh personality is a "pure" form of Batman who doesn't care for the Bat-Family and is much more liberal with Batman's iconic no-kill rule. While Zur-En-Arrh won't kill someone, he will take away their free will or otherwise incapacitate them.

Batman has already shown how far he's willing to go to disable someone he views as a threat. Recently in comics, Batman used a machine to alter Jason Todd's brain, making him feel intense fear anytime he experiences an adrenaline rush. This has all but removed Jason's ability to act as a vigilante, and it's likely Batman is planning something similar for Joker. Zur-En-Arrh knows that Batman doesn't kill, that's the entire reason he created the android Failsafe, but changing someone's brain chemistry isn't killing them. It's very likely that Zur-En-Arrh has some plan for disabling the Joker in a permanent but non-lethal way.

Batman and Joker's Rivalry Reaches Its End

Batman has tried everything he can to deal with the Joker, he's tried to rehabilitate him, tried to contain him, and he's even tried to kill him. Now it seems that with Batman's mental state on the edge, Bruce might finally allow Zur-En-Arrh to deal with the Joker in a far more permanent way. While there's no doubt that the Joker's mind is clearly a complex thing, it's possible Batman will do the same thing he did to Jason, and change Joker forever.

Batman #139 is now on sale from DC Comics!