On Sale 9/9/2026 – This item will ship two days before the on-sale date.
Batman #251 Facsimile Edition Cover A reprints Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' Bronze Age classic "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge!" — the story that redefined the Joker for the modern era — releasing September 9, 2026.
The Joker escapes from a mental hospital to take revenge on five former gang members who betrayed him. Batman races against time trying to protect them, in Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' seminal reinvention of the Joker for the Bronze Age.
O'Neil and Adams' Batman #251 is widely considered one of the most important Batman comics ever published — the story that transformed the Joker from a campy trickster back into a genuinely dangerous, homicidal threat, setting the template every subsequent take on the character has built from. This facsimile edition reproduces the original 1973 issue cover-to-cover, including period ads and letters pages, at an accessible price point for readers who don't own [or can't afford] an original copy.
Is this a reprint of the original comic or a new story? It's a facsimile reprint — a faithful reproduction of the original September 1973 issue, not a new story.
Do I need to read anything before this? No — it's a self-contained classic Batman/Joker story.