Just in time for New York Comic Con, the Joker will make his explosive return to Gotham City next Wednesday when BATMAN #13 hits stores.

USA TODAY spoke with BATMAN series writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo about “Death of the Family,” the Joker-centric crossover that will be hitting the Bat titles beginning this month.

“He believes he often brings the worst news of Batman's own heart to him in the form of these terrible nightmares he has to fight,” Snyder told USA TODAY of the villain. “If that's his purpose, then he sees this family in a lot of ways as interlopers and people who make his idol, his Bat-king, weak.”

Head on over to USA TODAY to read their full coverage and to check out a slideshow of some classic Joker imagery over the years.