DC's Fan-Made Villain Rhetoric Makes His Batman Debut This Week

DC is putting a fan-created villain into continuity this week. Rhetoric — the winning entry from the publisher's "Building Bad Sweepstakes" contest — debuts in a backup story in Detective Comics #1113, out September 16, written by Dan Watters with art by Scott Hepburn and a main cover from Jim Lee.

The character comes from Sharif Robbins-Brinson, a political science graduate and activist from Macon, Georgia, who won the open contest with a pitch built around limited telekinesis tied to his weapons and a pointed political angle: Rhetoric targets records tied to Wayne Enterprises and its charitable arms, framing Batman as a protector of the status quo rather than a systemic fixer. It's a sharper origin than most one-off Bat-villains get, and DC is backing it with real reach — Rhetoric is also set to appear in Batman #14, as downloadable content in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, and in a LEGO Batman webcomic launching on Batman Day, September 19.

Worth stocking with next week's Batman Day haul — Detective Comics #1113 ships just three days ahead of the September 19 event, giving retailers a natural excuse to bundle the two. Original reporting: Bleeding Cool.