John Jackson Miller writing novel set between Batman and Batman Returns and we’re stoked! UPDATED with full synopsis

More great news for fans of Batman ’89 as another exciting chapter in that universe has just been announced.

Author John Jackson Miller, currently a lot of praise for his Star Wars novel The Living Force, has announced that he’s bringing us a direct sequel to Tim Burton’s timeless Batman called Batman Ressurection and taking place before Batman Returns and the DC comics set after the second movie, saying on social media: “While DC’s Batman ’89 comics are set after the Tim Burton films, I made Batman Ressurection a direct sequel novel to Batman (1989) — meaning characters from Vicki Vale and Alexander Knox to Max Shreck and Selina Kyle from Batman Returns can appear.” 

I love that, after Micheal Keaton’s wonderful return as Batman/Bruce Wayne last year in The Flash, we’re getting more and moreof his story filled in for us… it no longer ends with Catwoman looking up at the Bat-signal as Bruce heads off to suit up ala the closing scene of 1992’s Batman Returns but there’s more stories out there and, while The Flash was a disappointment, fans are here for more of Keaton’s Batman and stories in his world.

“There are dream projects, and then there are projects you never dreamt were possible. This is the latter,” Miller said on Twitter/X, “People always ask what world I wanted to get the chance to write in; I never named Burton’s take on Batman because I never imagined it could happen. But [PRH] editor Tom Hoeler found a way.”

Resurrection will directly follow the events after the 1989 movie, in a similar manner to DC Comics’ own Batman ‘89 miniseries, as Batman’s fight to protect Gotham in the wake of the Joker’s death continues. Ever vigilant, Batman battles the remnants of the Joker’s gang, but between criminal turmoil, the lingering damage the Joker’s gas attacks had on the city, and trying to imagine a future for himself beyond crime fighting, he realizes that it will take both of his masks to try and pull Gotham back into the light: the cowl of the caped crusader and the wealthy pocket book of Bruce Wayne. But as he finds his desire to save Gotham becoming an obsession, and the forces of the criminal underworld growing more powerful by the day, Batman begins to wonder… could his greatest foe have survived their fateful encounter?

FIRST LOOK: Keaton and Reeve return as Batman ’89 and Superman ’78 in new comic sequels

Wait… could Joker have survived?! As a kid watching Batman and playing with the Toy Biz figures, he often did in the Gotham City that was my back garden but could he have in that world officially?! Consider me stoked!

“Batman shaped the writer I am. I saw it in the theater 12 times. I reviewed it for my college paper and wrote about it often in comics magazines, including an essay on Prince’s Warner Bros. Records soundtrack,” Miller went on, “Writing Batman: Resurrection has been like reuniting with old friends.”

Batman Resurrections hits book shelves on October 12th in hardback, audio and digital and you know as soon as I hit publish on this article, I’m away to preorder it!

Thoughts?

BATMAN: RESURRECTION, my new novel coming your way this October! pic.twitter.com/nkzBAeOLXj

— John Jackson Miller (@jjmfaraway) April 11, 2024

UPDATED: Full synopsis is up at Random House:

After The Joker’s death, Batman and Gotham City face a mysterious new threat in this direct sequel to Tim Burton’s iconic Batman.
 
The Joker is dead, but not forgotten. Gotham City is saved, but it is still not safe. By night, its new symbol of hope, Batman, continues his fight to protect the innocent and the powerless. By day, his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, wonders whether there may someday be a future beyond skulking the city’s rooftops or the cavernous halls of his stately manor alongside the ever-dutiful Alfred Pennyworth.
 
But even after death, the Clown Prince of Crime’s imprint can be seen in more than just the pavement. Remnants from The Joker’s gang are leading wannabes fascinated by his bizarre mystique on a campaign of arson that threatens the city—even as it serves greedy opportunists, including millionaire Max Shreck. And survivors of exposure to The Joker’s chemical weapon Smylex continue to crowd Gotham City’s main hospital.
 
To quell the chaos, Batman needs more than his cape and his well-stocked Utility Belt. Bruce Wayne is forced into action, prompting a partnership with a charismatic scientist to help solve the health crisis. But as he works in both the shadows and the light, Bruce finds himself drawn deeper into Gotham City’s turmoil than ever before, fueling his obsession to save the city—an obsession that has already driven a wedge between him and Vicki Vale. The loyal Alfred, who had hoped Bruce’s efforts as Batman could help him find closure, finds the opposite happening. Nightmares begin to prompt Bruce to ask new questions about the climactic events in the cathedral, and investigations by Commissioner Gordon and reporter Alexander Knox into the arsons only amplify his concerns.
 
Having told the people of Gotham City that they’d earned a rest from crime, Batman finds the forces of evil growing ever more organized—and orchestrated—by a sinister hand behind the scenes. The World’s Greatest Detective must solve the greatest mystery of all: Could The Joker have somehow survived? And could he still have the last laugh against the people of Gotham City?

Kevin Smith: If The Flash succeeded, a Keaton-led Batman Beyond movie was coming