Batman #9
Batman #9 (2016) kicks off Tom King's 'I Am Suicide' arc — the second major movement in his landmark DC Rebirth run — and marks the first time Batman has formally assembled his own villain task force in deliberate structural parallel to the Suicide Squad, recasting the Dark Knight as a morally cornered operator willing to break rules to save Gotham Girl. The issue deepens King's Bane reinvention, presenting him as a psychologically complex figure whose dependency on the Psycho-Pirate mirrors his former addiction to Venom, a character reframing that would echo through the rest of King's run all the way to 'City of Bane.' It also contains a background cameo — a 'Jane Doe' patient in Arkham Asylum drawing the Legion of Super-Heroes flight ring — that seeded DC Rebirth's slow-burn mystery around Saturn Girl's presence in the present day. As the opener of an arc that reunited King with his Grayson collaborator Mikel Janín, it cemented their partnership as one of the defining creative relationships of DC's Rebirth era.
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Batman #9 was written by Tom King — a former CIA operative whose intelligence-operation experience visibly shaped the heist-team structure of 'I Am Suicide' — and illustrated by Mikel Janín, with colors by June Chung and letters by Clayton Cowles; the creative team had previously collaborated on DC's Grayson series. The issue followed the 'Night of the Monster Men' crossover (Batman #7–8), which King did not write, and represented his full return to the main Batman title after that detour. Editor Mark Doyle oversaw the Rebirth Batman line at the time. In published interviews, King explicitly cited John Ostrander's original Suicide Squad as a deliberate touchstone for the roster he constructed in this issue.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First chapter of the five-part 'I Am Suicide' arc (Batman #9–13), the second major storyline of Tom King's DC Rebirth Batman run, published October 19, 2016.
- Written by Tom King, with art and cover by Mikel Janín, colors by June Chung, and letters by Clayton Cowles; variant cover by Tim Sale.
- Batman assembles a personal Suicide Squad from Arkham Asylum at Amanda Waller's suggestion, recruiting The Ventriloquist (Arnold Wesker), Bronze Tiger (Benjamin Turner), Jewelee, and Punch — classic John Ostrander-era Suicide Squad members — to break into Bane's Santa Prisca stronghold.
- Catwoman (Selina Kyle), held on death row for the alleged murder of 237 people, is recruited as the final member of Batman's team; this issue marks a pivotal step in re-establishing the Bruce Wayne–Selina Kyle romance that would drive King's run through 'The Wedding.'
- The issue contains a background cameo of a 'Jane Doe' Arkham patient who draws the Legion of Super-Heroes flight ring symbol on her cell wall — confirmed by DC publisher Dan DiDio and subsequent comics to be Saturn Girl, continuing a DC Universe Rebirth #1 thread.
- Bane's opening monologue reframes his Venom addiction as a psychological crutch born from his childhood imprisonment in Santa Prisca, with Psycho-Pirate now serving as a surrogate for that dependency — a major character recontextualization for the Rebirth era.
- Batman's approach to Selina's cell deliberately echoes the opening line from Batman: The Killing Joke ('I've been thinking lately. About you and me'), an in-text allusion noted by the DC Database.
- Collected in Batman Vol. 2: I Am Suicide (original 2017 paperback, ISBN 978-1401268541; 2024 updated edition, ISBN 978-1779527899), both collecting Batman #9–15.
Cast · 13 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Batman: Renacimiento #5 (2017), Batman #2 (2017), Batman #4 (2017), Batman #6 (2017), Batman Rebirth #4 (2017), Batman: Rebirth Deluxe Edition #1 (2017), Batman por Tom King #3 (2021), Batman by Tom King #1 (2025)
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