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DC plans a return to the universe of Sean Murphy's Batman: White Knight in a new Harley Quinn spin-off series launching this October. Murphy will co-write the series with his wife, Katana Collins, with artist Matteo Scalera and colorist Dave Stewart rounding out the core creative team.
Apparently the book inadvertently appeared in a Diamond print catalog (but not in the solicitations sent to press), with DC informing retailers this week of the error and their plans.
"Batman: White Knight Presents Harley Quinn #1 incorrectly appeared in the July Diamond Previews," read a statement emailed to retailers on June 25. "It will be solicited in August's DC Connect #3 for October on sale."
Readers in a DC Universe forum picked up that a website apparently accidentally received the art and solicitation for Batman: White Knight Presents Harley Quinn #1 earlier this week and listed it in their public database without any announcement.
Here is that purported solicitation text:
"Introducing the first spinoff series in Sean Murphy's White Knight universe! Two years have passed since Azrael wiped out Gotham's most formidable villains in Batman: Curse of the White Knight," reads the solicit. "The Joker is dead, Bruce Wayne is behind bars, and Gotham is still only beginning to redefine itself in a world without Batman."
That's pretty much a recap of Batman: White Knight and Batman: Curse of the White Knight, the two previous limited series written and drawn by Murphy which established this alternate DC universe.
"In the wake of it all, Harley Quinn is officially off-duty, struggling to cope with the loss of her closest confidants as she improvises her lonely and hectic new life as a single mother to the late Jack Napier's twins," the text continues. "Against this unstable new 'normal,' the stage is set for Gotham's next criminal uprising. From the shadows, a visionary and elusive mastermind called the Producer is seizing this opportunity to assemble a colorful crew of villains and make his mark on the city."
The Producer would apparently be a new, original character for DC as there's no known character going by that name.
"His first recruit is known as Starlet, a striking and resourceful serial killer who targets Gotham's Golden Age film stars and meticulously paints her victims black and white in chilling homage to their vintage blockbusters," continues the text. "The GTO has stepped in to investigate alongside eager young FBI agent and criminal profiler Hector Quimby-but when the latest gruesome crime scene reveals shocking clues that suggest an impossible link to the Joker, the team turns to Harley as the one person whose intimate knowledge of Gotham's underbelly could finally crack the case."
The GTO is the Gotham Terrorism Oppression unit - a spin-off of the Gotham City Police Department created by councilman Jack Napier - then an apparently-reformed Joker - as a replacement for Batman.
"In Batman White Knight Presents Harley Quinn, Harley will seek guidance from Bruce and take Agent Quimby under her wing as she balances work and motherhood and inches closer to Starlet-but things get personal and trust will crumble when all of the players in the Producer's twisted script come into full focus," the text wraps up. "To protect her children and Gotham from a fatal third act, Harley must once again flirt with madness and confront the weight of her own past with the Joker and Batman."
Batman: White Knight Presents Harley Quinn #1 is listed as a 48-page comic going for $5.99. It isn't specified if it is a one-shot or the beginning of a limited series or ongoing.
