Kingdom of the Mad: Gerard Way’s Lost Batman Project

Image source: Gerard Way’s Twitter account

In a series of tweets, former My Chemical Romance singer and comic book writer Gerard Way, shared his forgotten Batman project for DC Comics.

After winning the Eisner for Best Limited Series with The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite, Way pitched his alternative Batman story called Batman: Kingdom of the Mad to DC Comics.

DC Comics approved of Way’s story and agreed to publish the six-issue Batman series under their Vertigo imprint. However, Way’s busy schedule kept him from writing the miniseries and the project was ultimately forgotten.

“They wanna put it out I just never have time to write it,” Way tweeted to lead Mindless Self Indulgence singer Jimmy Urine.

Prior to recording Conventional Weapons and Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, Way drew numerous sketches of Batman, Robin, and his rogues for Batman: Kingdom of the Mad. Each image shows a dramatic redesign of Batman and his supporting cast, with Way sharing some of his interpretations of them over Twitter.

In the proposed book, Batman:

• Only ate rats.
• Had a massive drawing of an imaginary magical kingdom inside his cape, which served as his version of Heaven.
• Had powers only he knew about like ESP, seeing into the future, and turning into a bat.

The Joker was the youngest character in the book at age 19; Mr. Freeze dressed as his dead wife in armor made of scrap-metal from her car accident; and Robin was “only person in the book that isn’t nuts.” Harley Quinn wouldn’t appear in Batman: Kingdom of the Mad, but Catwoman would and was actually “very strange,” according to Way.

While time has passed considerably since Way proposed Batman: Kingdom of the Mad to DC, there’s always the possibility this project could see the light of day. Perhaps as a Digital First series, which hosts alternative versions of DC heroes such as the Batman 1966 comics. Assuming Way has free time after his collaboration with comic artist Becky Cloonan for The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, of course.