Horror legend John Carpenter is writing a Joker comic

This fall, legendary director John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) will take on one of the greatest horror-tinged villains in the action movie canon: The Joker.

Carpenter’s The Joker: Year of the Villain #1 will be a part of DC Comics’ Year of the Villain event, in which Lex Luthor makes every villain — and some heroes! — in the DC Universe an offer they can’t refuse.

But nobody likes to be upstaged, especially not the Clown Prince of Crime. According to DC Comics’ announcement, the Joker isn’t waiting around for one of Lex’s handouts. He’s “on a mission to get his swagger back in a world gone bad by out-badding everyone else, proving that the greatest evil is always the one that leaves them laughing.”

Carpenter will co-write the 40-page issue with Borderlands 2 writer Anthony Burch — the two previously collaborated on Big Trouble in Little China Old Man Jack, a six-issue miniseries about “Jack Burton’s final ride in the Pork-Chop Express.”

“The Joker is the greatest villain in comics,” said Carpenter in DC’s press release. “I’m proud to be reunited with Anthony on this project.”

Philip Tan (Curse of Brimstone, The Black Order) and Marc Deering (Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, The Black Order) will provide art for The Joker: Year of the Villain #1, which will be released on Oct. 2, 2019.

Philip Tan/DC Comics