DC Comics have announced that the new Batman will be Black.

The next caped crusader will be called Tim Fox and will be the estranged son of Bruce Wayne’s business manager Lucius Fox. Fox first appeared as a character in Batman in 1979.

The new Batman series will be set in a futuristic Gotham city and will be controlled by a villainous Magistrate. In the city, all based vigilantes are outlawed and Batman has been killed. Fox, as a new Batman, will save the day.

DC said: “In this future, Gotham City is controlled by the Magistrate. This villainous regime has taken control of the city, now under constant surveillance. All masked vigilantes have been outlawed and Batman has been killed. But led by an all-new Batman, a new assembly of Gotham’s guardians rise to give hope to all of those who lost it!”

Gotham's future is in his hands ? Tim Fox is the Next Batman — meet him before #DCFutureState here ⏩ https://t.co/GbbqM1esgE pic.twitter.com/yXA5fFoUis

— Batman (@DCBatman) December 10, 2020

The new comic book series will be written by 12 Years a Slave screenwriter John Ridley with art by Nick Derington and Laura Braga.

Screenwriter Ridley had previously revealed to the New York Times that the next Batman would be a person of colour. Speaking about his son’s excitement at the new project, Ridley said: “They appreciate the things that I do. They’re happy for me. They’re great supporters. But they would much rather see Black Panther than 12 Years a Slave, let’s be honest,” he said back in November.

“So to be able to write the next Batman, for them to know that this next Batman is going to be black, everybody else on the planet can hate it, have a problem with it, denigrate it, but I have my audience and they already love it.”

Fox will make his first appearance in the new four-issue Future State: The Next Batman in January.