Who is Oberon Sexton (The Gravedigger)?
The mystery of who is Oberon Sexton deepens with every issue of Grant Morrison’s ‘Batman and Robin’ series. Oberon is a new character who has yet to reveal his identity, but he’s motivated in helping Damien Wayne discover what happened to Bruce Wayne (who is currently trapped in the past).
It would be too easy for Oberon to be Bruce Wayne, especially since the Return of Bruce Wayne story doesn’t even start to come out for another month, but it’s clear Oberon is someone that has relations to the Batman family, or Bruce Wayne. It could easily enough be Bruce Wayne’s father since Morrison has been toying with the idea that Bruce Wayne’s father might still be alive, bringing back Bruce’s father would cripple Bruce’s motivation to remain being Batman.
This might but a bit far-fetched, but through the various clues Oberon has revealed about himself I think he might actually be The Joker. That Joker’s been MIA since the Batman: RIP storyline, and hasn’t sparred with the new Batman (Dick Grayson).
The Joker has been known to revert into other personalities (sane personas), and without Batman to constantly toy with, he’s directionless with his madness. He needs Batman to continue being murdering wacky self. There’s been enough information delivered in previous comics to suggest that The Joker knows Batman is Bruce Wayne, but doesn’t care about Bruce Wayne, because he’s only interested in Batman.
Grant Morrison could reveal Oberon to be a completely new character (doubtful) or even to be a character from the past who not many people remember, but I have a feeling that Oberon is either The Joker or someone very notable from Bruce Wayne’s past.
GREAT HYPOTHESIS HERE - I haven’t been able to see beyond issue one of Morrison’s run on this, so I haven’t seen the character, but the assumption of the Joker plays into both those things mentioned - J needing Bats to play off of - and J’s original origin as the Red Hood (most recently seen probably in Alan Moore’s THE KILLING JOKE graphic novel).
