The punky DC bat-man Clownhunter gets solo spotlight this fall

(Image credit: DC)

The bat-man of Gotham City's Narrows, Clownhunter, is getting his own solo spotlight this August.

Writer Ed Brisson and artist Rosi Kämpe are working together on Batman Secret Files: Clownhunter, the third in this new ongoing series of Batman Secret Files one-shots from DC.

"The untrained but focused vigilante stalks a boss-level clown, but his luck might be running out as he walks into an ambush set by Punchline!" reads DC's description of Batman Secret Files: Clownhunter. "In a horrific parallel to his days at Gotham Academy, Clownhunter finds himself overwhelmed and outgunned...just the type of odds he likes!"

Clownhunter debuted in Batman #95, with a backstory not dissimilar from that of his former childhood hero, Batman. At the age of 12, Bao Pham's parents were murdered by the Joker. As he grew up and watched Batman being unable (or unwilling) to stop Joker permanently, his adoration of Batman turned into disillusionment.

After the particularly epic Joker crime spree in 'The Joker War' (specifically the destruction of Pham's favorite comic store), the now 17-year-old young man became a vigilante under the name Clownhunter - tasking himself to track down and kill Joker and all of the 'clowns' who work for him.

Clownhunter's trademark weapon in his war against the Joker is his Bat-Bat - a baseball bat with a sharpened batarang attached to the end.

The 40-page Batman Secret Files: Clownhunter goes on sale on August 17.

Clownhunter is one of several new characters that writer James Tynion IV has introduced to the Batman title in the past year. Check out our full list of all the recent new Gothamites at DC.

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)