WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Reptilian #1, by Garth Ennis, Liam Sharp and Rob Steen, on sale now.
Garth Ennis and Liam Sharp's new DC Black Label miniseries Batman: Reptilian takes place in a decidedly harsher vision of Gotham City that houses notably dark versions of the Dark Knight and his extensive rogues gallery. As Ennis and Sharp introduce readers to their story's stakes, complete with a central mystery that directly targets Batman's various costumed supervillains, it becomes clear that a voracious new antagonist is on the prowl throughout Gotham and has already torn through several of the Caped Crusader's familiar foes.
After publicly menacing Gotham's criminal element, Batman returns to the Batcave where he learns that several victims have been discovered horrifically maimed, with some speculation that the bodies may have been bestially torn apart.
As Batman applies pressure to the seedier figures in Gotham to learn more about the monstrous new antagonist literally preying on the criminal underworld, he learns about various groupings of supervillains that have each run afoul of the voracious villain, often resulting in them each being gruesomely eviscerated. No villain that has encountered this hunter has emerged unscathed, with several recognizable figures like Riddler and Penguin being described as receiving horrific injuries.
Interestingly enough, one of the villains who seems to be on the mysterious new antagonist's hit list is Killer Croc, as Waylon Jones familiar hulking frame spotted in a lineup of the enemy's high-profile victims. Given the premise and the savage nature of the attacks on the supervillain community, Killer Croc would normally be at the top of Batman's list of suspects however, Croc appears to be in the clear, though he still may be related to the true culprit given their shared modus operandi. And with the mystery only just beginning, the Dark Knight must venture deep into Gotham City's festering underbelly if he hopes to locate the evil striking out at his rogues, with a ferocity that has shocked even Gotham's most hardened criminals.
This mysterious villain preying on Gotham's criminal underworld has not yet been fully revealed and nor has their origin. Killer Croc's reptilian condition was the product of a rare genetic disorder that was accelerated by a virus infecting as part of Hush's wider plot to seize his revenge on Bruce Wayne. Lurking in the sewers underneath Gotham, this new villain is steadily building quite the blood-soaked reputation, surfacing only to strike. And with some of Gotham's bigger enemies already taken off the board with extreme prejudice by this reptilian creature, that leaves on the city's innocents and the Caped Crusader himself as potential targets in the vicious rampage.
Ennis and Sharp's depiction of the Dark Knight in Batman: Reptilian paints the flagship DC superhero as a sadistic, borderline sociopathic figure that shirks his civilian responsibilities to focus on his violent obsession. With his usual rogue gallery starting to get butchered by this new, reptilian menace lurking in Gotham City's sewers, this cruel iteration of the Caped Crusader is going to face a voracious challenge in Reptilian's bloodthirsty principal antagonist. Ennis and Sharp have come out the gate swinging, already laying waste to Batman's rogues' gallery, tightening the focus and setting the stakes as Batman goes into the unexplored parts of Gotham to face his most feral opponent ever.
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