2009’s acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum game won awards and generally gets regarded as on the best superhero video games ever made. But it was curiously missing a link back to the medium that spawned it. There was an Arkham-centric miniseries that came out during the same year as Rocksteady’s hit game, but it had nothing to do with it.
(More on TIME.com: Do Your Comics-Reading Homework Now for “Batman: Arkham City”)
DC Comics isn’t letting such an opportunity slip through their gloved fingers again. Word has come that a new series will start in May. From the press release:
Written by Batman: The Animated Series writer Paul Dini (who also penned both Arkham games) and drawn by Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City concept artist Carlos D’anda, BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY picks up one year after the original game, where former Arkham Warden turned newly elected Mayor of Gotham City Quincy Sharp has decided to close down the infamous institution. In its stead, he establishes “Arkham City,” the new maximum security “home” for all of Gotham City’s thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds. Set inside the heavily fortified walls of a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City, inmates can roam free and do whatever they want as long as they don’t try to escape. To run this urban prison, Sharp has appointed Dr. Hugo Strange, a man who knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman.
Each issue of the miniseries will be available day-and-date digitally worldwide for $2.99 each. These releases will alternate with 8-page digital-first interludes that will expand on the story included in the miniseries. Written by Dini and drawn by a variety of artists, these digital stories will focus on The Dark Knight’s many enemies as they vie for power in this new city within a city. Each eight-page digital-first interlude will be available for .99 cents, releasing in between issues of the miniseries, and will later be included in print in the BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY collected edition.
The Arkham City comics will reveal what happens between the last Arkham game and the new one coming out this fall. There might even be some clues at what happens in the game, so it should be worth picking up for those alone.
(More on TIME.com: The Dark Knight Strikes Back! Speaking With the Minds Behind Arkham Asylum)