The Joker. The Clown Prince Of Crime. That playing card that seems to get little attention outside of building a game show around it, but the villain styled on it gets all the attention. Some would even say too much, but we’ll get into that. The Joker is arguably Batman’s most popular arch enemy, though the Ridder is still my favorite. He’s really popular with the writers and the higher-ups at DC Comics. So you wouldn’t think they’d screw up such an important character.
You really don’t understand the corporate mindset.
They never look to see WHY a character is popular. They just see that he is and want to capitalize on him. That makes the Joker more exciting to writers, who see doing a Joker story as some kind of right of passage even if they aren’t doing a Batman story. Superman’s dealt with him solo. So has Wonder Woman, the Flash, Spider-Man even though he’s not IN the DC universe, and I’m pretty sure that this point Sugar and Spike have run into him, though I could be wrong on that point. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him in Gemworld or some Sonic Disruptors story. I didn’t have to look that last one up. I saw the ad so often I’m surprised I never read it.
The problem is that the main DC Comics have so screwed up the idea of the Joker that fans are calling for him to die…or at least for Batman to do so, because heaven forbid a judge, a cop in the paddy wagon willing to deal with punishment, someone at Arkham, or an army of Gothamites don’t try to do it. Nope, has to be Batman, or at least have Batman allow Red Hood to finish him off. In truth, fans would hate that because at some point want a Joker story. It’s the idea that Batman hasn’t killed the Joker yet to save Gotham, thus violating Batman’s “no kill” policy like he needs to be the Punisher now (though the DC universe has at least two would-be Punishers in Vigilante and Wild Dog), that has actually damaged Batman as a character in some of these fans’ perspective.
However, let’s focus on how the Joker has been depicted in recent years, how DC comic writers (and some movie writers) have damaged the character, and how DC editorial let it happen if not called for it with trade writing and Eventitis.
The nature of Joker’s crimes…
The Joker first appeared in Batman #1 all the way back in 1940, as Batman and Robin graduated from being a feature in Detective Comics, formerly an anthology and now just another Batman title. It’s ignorant to say that Joker in the old days never killed when his first appearance was literally him killing guys to steal their stuff and throw it in the face of the police. However, killing wasn’t Joker’s top priority and it certainly wasn’t the mass murders he does in the comics now, where he’s killing Gothamites in numbers of most small towns. He killed for revenge or to steal their stuff but it was the spectacle of the crime that mattered, not the body count. He wasn’t even the lunatic we know today. When he was caught he went to prison, not the asylum. Arkham Asylum wouldn’t even be part of the comics until 1974, and the first person to escape was Two-Face. (That one I did look up.) He was just another villain with a gimmick like Penguin, Catwoman, Clock King, or that dude obsessed with pennies.
I think you can blame The Dark Knight Returns for the Joker’s depiction as someone trying to prove that anyone can have “one bad day”, as if trying to show he’s actually the sane one. I don’t mean that “hypersane” crap they try to pull now. That’s just dumb. I mean sanity is the “joke”, and he wants people to laugh at that joke as much as he does. Since the Bronze Age the Joker had already started getting more gruesome with his murders, with the 1990s, being the 90s, leaning more into that, and the 2000s, the century that has given us Professor Pyg the child mutilator, going hardcore psycho.
It’s more recent stories where death seems to be all the Joker is after…besides Batman, but that’s next. I’ve heard Joker crimes that involve mass murder on a high scale because every story nowadays needs to be for ALL the stakes as if the writer is more interested in the Epic than the series. Joker really wants to kill the Batman family due to his obsession (especially if you ask Tom King, a writer who seems to mentally live in a world that makes modern Gotham look like Silver Age Metropolis), but the high body count is recent. He seems to be more interested in death (the “punchline” to the joke if you ask King) than in crimes or weaponized comedy. It makes you wonder why nobody else tries to off him if the system won’t.
The Joker’s weird obsession with Batman….
It’s one thing for a villain to want to kill their heroic arch nemesis. That’s a story as old as the returning villain. It shows that the hero’s constantly ruining their plans is getting on their nerves, that they know they can’t commit a villain act if the hero is always there to stop him. I expect Skeletor to want to take down He-Man, Megatron to see scrapping Optimus Prime as important, and for the Joker to want to get Batman out of the way so he can commit whatever crime he wants unopposed.
The Central City villains have their own odd connection to the Flash, especially Barry. There’s a bit of respect and almost friendship there that’s interesting. In Gotham, where obsession is a way of life (just ask me), the Joker’s has gotten out of hand, to where people think he’s gay for Batman. As Pied Piper once pointed out to Wally, the Joker isn’t capable of that. Even Harley he was messing with for his own purposes, using her desire for acceptance to his own ends and amusement. The Joker is not gay for Batman, but unlike the above page, written by King, it’s also not that he needs Batman to stop him. He needs Batman and the rest of the city to become him, but again, that comes from Frank Miller, the whole “one bad day” thing he was trying on Commissioner Gordon. As Joker has gotten crazier, so has his obsession with Batman. King’s whole run, especially the marriage arc, was that Bruce “needs his pain” to be Batman, which is nonsense. Batman can be happy. He’s been happy and still effective as Batman in other continuities, including Earth-2. He doesn’t need the Joker to “save him”.
One recent aspect of the Gotham rogues I do like (though it wouldn’t make sense for mobsters and other “normal” villains) is not wanting to know Batman’s identity, not wanting it to potentially ruin his crimefighting either because of wanting a challenge (Joker and Riddler) or a fear that without the Bruce identity to use he would go full Batman and start doing what that small group of fans want not just to the Joker but to them. They don’t want to die. They don’t want an actually obsessed Batman because the driven one is bad enough. If you’re going to do that, though, don’t let them know who Batman is under the mask or you’ll have to wonder why they don’t attack Bruce when he’s vulnerable, when he’s not expecting it. The possibility that they wouldn’t succeed, maybe, but Joker knows who Batman is, depending on the writer. I can see the Joker wanting to get rid of Batman, but not “needing” him, and certainly not in the creepy pseudo-gay way.
That “three Joker” nonsense….
I’ll make this one quick. The occasional imposter aside, there are NOT three Jokers, one for each personality. The Joker is chaos. He’s after revenge one crime, money another, control yet another, and Batman’s head the following Thursday. That’s what makes him unpredictable. That’s what makes him interesting. It’s just the one Joker, a chemist altered by chemicals and driven nuts, with an obsession for comedy and chaos. He doesn’t need to be anything more than that. In the same vein…
….we don’t need another hero origin for the Joker!
One thing I will give Frank Miller credit instead of blame for is the idea that the Joker’s origin story is “multiple choice”. And yet, Miller tried to give him a backstory. So did Tim Burton, who seems almost as obsessed with the broken characters as Tom King. Almost. Burton can at times make a happy ending, strange as it might be. Burton’s obsessed with the macabre, King’s obsessed with the broken without the repairs. Not giving the Joker a backstory keeps his past mysterious because that past really doesn’t matter. The Joker is…the Joker. Who he was has no bearing on that because of how mad he is. He doesn’t need a failed comedy career, or a forgotten family, or being a former mob enforcer who was sleeping with the boss’ moll, or any of that crap. He just needs to be the Joker, someone whose real name is unknown but knows enough about chemistry to make his signature Joker venom and also know ways to distribute it. That’s what makes him scary. That’s what makes him dangerous. That’s what makes him the Joker.
I almost forgot the overuse.
Because Joker is so popular, everyone wants to use him. The only reason the old serials never used him was because he wasn’t as big back then, as none of the then small number of recurring villains were. So when you have Joker who can’t stop killing everyone in his path and everybody has to use him at least once…
…I wasn’t kidding about him fighting Spider-Man, he has numerous chances for fans to get sick of him, or think less of Batman for not saving the remaining citizens of Gotham by finishing him off or letting someone else do it. Some fans honestly have Joker fatigue. DC should remember that and let one of the other villains have more time in the spotlight for a while.
Instead, DC Comics and some of their adaptations don’t know when to stop. Joker doesn’t just kill at times, he mass kills entire blocks constantly. He doesn’t just have a rage for Batman, he has a hard on. He doesn’t just exist, we have to explain every minute detail of his life down to the night he was conceived. He doesn’t show up occasionally, but every few months. It’s nonsense, it’s unnecessary, and it’s ruining the character. Tone it down, guys. The Joker can be a good villain, but not if he’s making fans question the hero’s ethics or making the fans sick of seeing him. Nobody’s laughing anymore, and the Joker would hate that more than Batman.
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