Cover: Mikel Janín

Batman #27

Sep 2017 · DC · 2.99 USD

📊 ~115,492 copies sold its debut month

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“The War of Jokes & Riddles Interlude. The Ballad of Kite Man Part 1.”

About this Issue

Batman #27 is the defining chapter of Tom King's rehabilitation of Kite Man — a character dismissed as a throwaway joke since 1960 — into one of DC Rebirth's most unexpectedly affecting figures. By stepping entirely outside the main Joker-versus-Riddler conflict to deliver an intimate, street-level origin story, King demonstrated that the 'War of Jokes and Riddles' arc was fundamentally about collateral damage to ordinary Gothamites rather than super-villain spectacle. The issue gave the catchphrase 'Kite Man, hell yeah' a tragic emotional weight that transformed it from running gag to genuine pathos, and critics at the time drew direct comparisons to Alan Moore's The Killing Joke as a villain-origin benchmark. Its structural surprise — arriving as an unannounced interlude in place of the solicited continuation — also sparked a notable retail conversation about DC's communication with shops during the Rebirth era.

writer Tom King · artist, inker Clay Mann · inker Danny Miki · inker John Livesay · colorist Gabe Eltaeb · letterer Clayton Cowles · cover Mikel Janín

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

CGC 9.8 · 25 in census $9,029*

CGC 9.6 · 19 in census $4,714*

CGC 9.4 · 7 in census $3,861*

CGC 9.2 · 3 in census $3,831

CGC 9.0 · 1 in census $3,079

CGC 8.5 none in existence

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CGC 8.0 none in existence

CGC 7.5 $1,658

CGC 7.0 none in existence

CGC 6.5 $1,219

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

More listings for this title

Variant $2.22 FN $2.9 VF $2.99 VF/NM $4.98 VF/NM $5.99 NM+ $18 NM · Variant $18.99 Signed · Foil $33.33

Related listings we couldn't confirm as this exact issue · 18 total · seen 49 days ago

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History

The issue was written by Tom King and drawn primarily by Clay Mann (with inks by Danny Miki and John Livesay), colored by Gabe Eltaeb, and lettered by Clayton Cowles, under editors Mark Doyle and Jamie S. Rich. Its publication was editorially unusual: DC had solicited the issue as 'The War of Jokes and Riddles Part Three' with Davide Gianfelice listed as artist, but retailers and readers received an unannounced interlude with Clay Mann as the principal interior artist instead, prompting Bleeding Cool to report that DC would likely make the issue returnable. The cover A was painted by series regular Mikel Janín, with a variant by Tim Sale — neither of whom drew the interior — which compounded the disconnect between promotional materials and the finished product.

Trivia · 8 facts

Published July 19, 2017 (cover-dated September 2017) as part of DC Rebirth's Batman (Volume 3), written by Tom King.
Interior art by Clay Mann (primary) and Davide Gianfelice, with inks by Danny Miki and John Livesay, colors by Gabe Eltaeb, and letters by Clayton Cowles; cover A by Mikel Janín, variant cover by Tim Sale.
The issue is titled 'The War of Jokes & Riddles Interlude: The Ballad of Kite Man (Part 1)' — a companion chapter to the eight-part 'War of Jokes and Riddles' arc running through Batman #25–32.
Delivers the definitive Rebirth-era origin of Kite Man (Charles 'Chuck' Brown): an aerodynamics specialist coerced by Batman into infiltrating the Joker's faction, whose son is poisoned by the Riddler via a kite string, driving Chuck to create the Kite Man costume and persona for revenge.
Establishes the in-story origin of Kite Man's signature catchphrase 'Kite Man, hell yeah' — revealed to derive from his young son's enthusiastic exclamation, giving the phrase a heartbreaking emotional context.
Kite Man was originally created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, first appearing in Batman #133 (August 1960); this issue represents Tom King's full-origin reconstruction of the character within DC's Rebirth continuity.
The issue was solicited as a direct continuation of the main arc with Davide Gianfelice as artist; DC offered no advance notice of the format change to retailers, which Bleeding Cool reported was likely to result in the issue being made returnable.
Collected in Batman: The War of Jokes and Riddles (trade paperback), the fourth collected volume of Tom King's Batman run.