Batman just beat the Joker by using a vintage Bat-meme

Batman and the Joker’s first meeting has been a highlight of The Brave and The Bold, but Batman just pulled off a surprise victory with an old Bat-meme.

It’s a pretty big time for Batman and Joker stories. The conclusion to the recent Mindbomb arc in the ongoing Batman series is leading to the anticipated Joker: Year One arc, which may provide some answers on the character’s origin.

We know quite a bit about The Joker today, thanks to stories like The Killing Joke, Three Jokers, and more. The earliest Joker tales are often revisited, with a new twist or updated story beat added to them.

The Winning Card has done the latter, with the creative masterminds behind The Vision retelling the tale. The ending features a hell of an unexpected surprise, though.

The Joker is no match for the Bat-tery meme

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #9 features the conclusion to Tom King and Mitch Gerads’ stellar Batman: The Winning Card.

The story is an updated retelling of the first meeting of Batman and The Joker, depicting a Dark Knight who is out of his depth and wholly unprepared for the Clown Prince of Crime.

To beat him, Batman had to pull out all the stops. In this instance, it meant confusing The Joker with an ancient meme.

DC Comics

DC Comics

The “bat-tery” meme is a meme that may as well be old as time itself, by Internet standards. According to Know Your Meme, the first known instance of its use was a 2018 tweet by user @fro_vo.

Since then, it’s become a common meme, with image sets either using the original joke or some variation of that “Bat-” joke. While Batman has occasionally had a quip or off-beat comment, it’s still unusual to see the stoic vigilante cracking such a blatant joke.

Of course, the tone is closer to that of another classic Batman moment, the finale of The Killing Joke. There, The Joker finally tells Batman a joke and, in a moment writer Alan Moore referred to as “a brief moment of lucidity,” the two rivals share a laugh.

As for The Winning Card, the moment definitely is a surprise, and many readers likely weren’t expecting to see a 7-year-old meme referenced by Batman. Still, it doesn’t detract from the overall story, which we recently hailed as one of the best stories for new Batman fans.

Batman: The Brave and The Bold #9 is available now from DC Comics.