Malicious Intent, Uncancelled At DC Black Label

Posted in: Batman, Comics, Conventions, DC Comics, Events, NYCC, Pop Culture | Tagged: Black Label, Cat Staggs, harley quinn, jason badower, joker, kami garcia, mico suayan, new york comic con

Joker/Harley: Malicious Intent by Kami Garcia, Mico Suayan and Jason Badower Uncancelled at DC Black Label, with additional Cat Staggs

In 2025, DC Comics informed comic book retailers that all their orders for the mini-series Joker/Harley: Malicious Intent #1 and #2 by Kami Garcia, Mico Suayan and Jason Badower had been cancelled and that the series would be resolicited for later ordering. Well, that date is 2027.

Joker/Harley: Malicious Intent was intended to be a sequel to the original Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity by Kami Garcia, Mico Suayan and Jason Badower from 2019 by the same creative team. A four-issue mature readers DC Black Label title that was meant to launch on the 8th of October 2024, Kami Garcia said of Joker/Harley: Malicious Intent, “At its core, our new series explores the relationship between heroes and villains and how thin the line is between the two — it’s an intense true-crime thriller for fans of shows like True Detective, Mindhunter, and Criminal Minds. Mico Suayan and Jason Badower are back with the dark, gritty aesthetic they established in Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity, and they’ve reimagined some iconic DC characters in ways I think fans will love. They brought their A games!”

Now adding Cat Staggs to the creative team, DC Comics has now re-announced Joker/Harley: Malicious Intent as “A very realistic serial killer thriller” at New York Comic Con. Here are the original solicitations.

Joker/Harley: Malicious Intent #1
Written by KAMI GARCIA
Art by MICO SUAYAN and JASON BADOWER
Cover by MARTIN SIMMONDS
Variant covers by JAY ANACLETO, PHAN TUAN DAT, RILEY ROSSMO
$6.99 US | 44 pages | 8 1/2″ x 10 7/8″ | 17+
One year after defeating The Joker, Harley is still hunting serial killers—just not in the city she used to protect. She burned her association with the GCPD and Lt. Jim Gordon and now works with vigilantes to seek a very different kind of justice. But when Gotham headlines about a new series of grisly crime scenes lead to speculation that her nemesis is somehow escaping Arkham to continue his murder spree, she feels compelled to return. Jonathan Crane, former classmate and current head of Arkham Asylum, assures her that The Joker is securely locked in his cell…yet the women of Gotham are still being stalked by a killer who is using their corpses to make art. Unwilling to return to the police precinct and its regulations, Harley forms an alliance with some unlikely conspirators, and these women work to save the people of Gotham City. New York Times #1 bestseller Kami Garcia (writer of the Teen Titans series), Mico Suayan (Knight Terrors: Action Comics), and Jason Badower (Wonder Woman ’77) return to the gritty, terrifying version of Gotham they explored in the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity to delve into the twisted mind of a killer, his disciple, and the women who will take them down! THE SEQUEL TO JOKER/HARLEY: CRIMINAL SANITY IS HERE!

JOKER / HARLEY: MALICIOUS INTENT #2
Writer: KAMI GARCIA
Artist: MICO SUAYAN and JASON BADOWER
Cover Artist: MARTIN SIMMONDS
Variant covers by TK and TK
$6.99 US | 44 pages | 2 of 4 | Prestige Plus | 8 1/2 x 10 7/8
Harley Quinn has returned to Gotham to hunt a serial killer, but without the support of Lt. Jim Gordon, she is forced to work in the shadows. Is The Joker committing these murders himself or pulling the strings from Arkham and causing terror by proxy? Harley’s not the only woman trying to figure it out…but is she willing to ally with a rock star and a cat burglar to get justice?

DC Black Label is a mature-readers imprint of DC Comics, launched in 2018, that focuses on standalone, prestige-format stories featuring DC Universe characters, without being bound by mainline continuity or standard age ratings. It was created to showcase “definitive” or highly personal takes on iconic characters and can include mature themes, often published as limited series or original graphic novels. As of 2026, Vertigo has been revived primarily for original, non-DC-Universe creator-owned stories, while Black Label continues as the home for mature takes on DC characters.

New York Comic Con 2026 is underway right now at the Javits Center in New York City. It marks the event’s 20th anniversary, with a Coney Island theme that includes related collaborations, merch, and performances. Organised by ReedPop, NYCC is the East Coast’s largest pop culture convention, covering comics, movies, TV, anime, gaming, cosplay, books, and more. It features a show floor with exhibitors, Artist Alley, panels/screenings, celebrity guests, signings/photo ops, gaming areas, Family HQ, and cosplay events. And it happens just as Marvel Comics announces it is leaving the city… Special thanks to Chris Anton.

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