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The Joker

The Joker is the main antagonist in the Batman comic books, T.V. shows, movies, video games and other media. He is the archenemy of Batman, having been directly responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, including the death of Robin and the paralyzing of Barbara Gordon (Oracle, formerly Batgirl). In the comics, the Joker is portrayed as a master criminal whose characterization has varied. The original and currently dominant image is of a highly knowledgeable psychopath with a twisted, sadistic sense of humor.

His most prominent origin story was that he fell into a tank of chemical, which bleached his skin white, turned his hair green and turned his lips bright red, giving him the appearance of a clown.

The Joker has been portrayed by Cesar Romero in the Batman television series, Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's Batman and Heath Ledger in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. He is one of the most iconic and recognized villains in popular media, having been ranked #1 on Wizard's list of the 100 Greatest Villains of All Time.

His manipulative mind allows him to control the city with the press of a button. He is shown to have a high level of knowledge and is able to comprehend various scientific tasks. The Joker will often claim he never has a plan, but this menace often has a plot drawn out long before he meets the protagonists. His crazed grin, evil, clown-like appearance and sadistic practical jokes all make the Joker one of the most diabolical villains of the Batman franchise and of all time. He is also one of Batman's greatest adversaries, a dangerous foe to the Justice League, and Batman (Terry Mcginnis)'s greatest foe.

Origin

About three months after Bob Kane, writer and creator of Batman first introduced the caped crusader to comics, a suggestion came from Co-writer Bill Finger, who approached Kane about the idea. The idea originated from the 1928 film “The Man Who Laughs”, when actor Konrad Veldt played the part of a mute clown. The original plan was to have The Joker killed off after a couple of episodes, but Bob Kane felt that The Joker as a major reoccurring villain in the DC universe would be much more interesting. After five episodes, The Joker was killed off, accidentally stabbing himself as he rushed at Batman. However, his early showings inspired later writers to re-include him in the Batman Universe.

The Joker in the 1940’s was shown merely as a no-name spree killer/mass murderer. It was not until the 1980’s that an origin story for the Joker was first developed by Alan Moore which showed a de-jokerised version of an engineer. The engineer, destined to become The Joker quit his job to become a stand up comedian, only to fail miserably. Desperate for money and with a wife Jeannie heavily pregnant the engineer turned to two criminals to help him out. Helping the criminals to break in involved the engineer to dress up as the Red Hood. This was made as an excuse by the criminals to say that they wished to protect his identity. However, they failed to mention the history of the Red Hood. “In this version of the story, the Red Hood persona is given to the inside man of every job (thus, it is never the same man twice); this makes the man appear to be the ringleader, allowing the two criminals to escape. During the planning, police contact(ed) him and inform(ed) him that his wife and unborn child have (had) died in a household accident.”

The engineer, distraught at the loss of his wife and unborn child, tried to back out of the plan, but he was strong-armed into continuing. The plan was doomed from start to finish. When they entered the plant, their cover was immediately blown and a shoot out with security guards ensued. In the resulting melee, the two criminals were killed and the engineer escaped, only to run into Batman, who happened to be investigating the disturbance.

The engineer, so frightened by the appearance of a “black demon”, jumped over the railings into a vat of chemicals in order to escape from Batman. His attempted escape was successful, but the chemicals bleached his skin and turned his hair green. The unfortunate events of the day, coupled with the hideous reformation, resulted in The Joker becoming completely insane.


This is just one of three origin stories suggested by writers in The Batman Universe. The true story is unclear due to the fact that the only man who knows what really happened (that being, The Joker) is an unreliable source. The Joker even says to Batman after a battle between the two:

“Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another. If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple-choice!”

Another origin is suggested by Alex Dini says that The Joker was, in fact, a mob enforcer who worked his way up the Gotham criminal food chain until he led a powerful criminal faction. Dini then suggests that The Joker created the Red Hood personality to commit small-time crimes, since he reveled in “dirty work”. This resulted in an inevitable “path crossing” with Batman.

Strategy

There are so many strategies employed by The Joker that there can often be no discernible pattern to his attacks. For instance, The Joker often uses his lapel either to shoot his "Joker gas", or to shoot nothing at all. Other times The Joker has pointed guns at others with a label saying "bang", yet as "Infinite Crisis" has proven, The Joker can also be extremely sadistic. As such, this makes The Joker a very dangerous opponent indeed due to his unpredictable mind.

Emperor Joker

In a special mini-series that ran through several issues of Superman the Joker tricked the reality-warping imp known as Mister Mxyzptlk into giving him his powers: this resulted in Joker becoming a god and transforming the entire world into a sick amusement-park style nightmare dedicated to his own madness. Despite all of Joker's vast power in this special storyline he had a weakness in the fact that his relationship to Batman had reached a point where he could not exist with him, a kind of psychological "vicious cycle" deal in which for all his hatred of the Dark Knight the Joker couldn't kill him as the two had become interlinked as characters: in short without Batman there was no Joker.. Superman used this knowledge to his advantage and ultimately defeated the omnipotent Emperor Joker as a result - Joker has never obtained such godlike power again.

Personality

In the mini-series Underworld Unleashed, The Trickster remarks, "When super-villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories". As far as truth about Joker’s personality, one word sums him up… unpredictable. One day The Joker may be a harmless clown, on others he can become a crazed super-killer.

Various psychologists in Arkham Asylum have tried to diagnose, though unsuccessfully, the nature of Joker's mania. It has been stated that he tests positive for all of the clinical markers for both sociopathy and psychopathy although given his unpredictability and volatile nature, the joker would be closer to a psychopath. It is believed that a combination of trauma of falling into the chemicals that changed him and the chemicals affect on his system that twisted the Joker into what he is which is partially supported by the fact that the Lazurus pit temporarily cured him of insanity and the pit is known for it's healing properties.


At his most harmless the joker is still a menace and will endanger lives with no regard for the harm he causes. At his worst the joker would be best described as a living nightmare. A creature whose only purpose is to bring pain and death for his own perverse amusement.

In addition to this The Joker is one of the few villains attributed with killing one of Batman's sidekicks (the other being Black Mask). The Joker beat Robin/Jason Todd to death in the comic "A Death in the Family". For any Batman villain, killing a Robin is almost the peak of villainy. Only two Robin’s and one Batgirl have ever been maimed or killed at the hands of supervillains.

However, even the Joker has his standards. During a DC/Marvel crossover, while Joker is working with the Red Skull, he thought he was wearing a costume. However, when the Red Skull revealed himself as a REAL Nazi, the Joker was horrified, and in the end he fights him as he was about to drop a bomb on Washington DC.

Holy Musical Batman

He was only mentioned by name by the Penguin and Sweet Tooth. The Clown Prince of Crime was supposed to be the main villain in the show, but instead, Sweet Tooth, portrayed by Jeff Blim, replaced him.

Facts

  • Real Name: Unknown
  • Known Alias: Jack Napier, Jack White, Joe Kerr, the Clown Prince of Crime, the Harlequin of Hate and the Ace of Knaves among others.
  • Occupation: Professional Criminal
  • Base of Operations: Gotham City
  • Eyes: Green
  • Hair: Green
  • Height: 6' 0" ft
  • Weight: 160 lb
  • First Appearance: Batman #1 (Spring, 1940)

Relationship with Harley Quinn

Previously known as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a perky, ambitious young psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum, Harley is now employed as the Joker's hench-wench/ girlfriend. The relationship began when Harleen took on the Joker's case at the asylum, becoming his doctor. During the short time she was his psychiatrist, the Joker wooed and subsequently manipulated her into breaking him out of Arkham. Her obsessive love is what keeps her with him; the Joker is often abusive (physically and emotionally) towards her, taking out his anger on her and taking advantage of her. It is speculated that over the years the Joker developed some kind of fondness for her; however, most believe he keeps her around for the sadistic pleasure he gets from abusing her. She is elemental in many of his schemes, and he occasionally demonstrates a jealous possessiveness of her.

Another story is that when she took on the case of The Joker in the Asylum, he told her that her name reminded him of the French acrobat Harley Quinn, thus where she got the name. The next day, when she went into her office, she found a rose on her desk from The Joker. she grew fond of him over the next few weeks. He later broke of Arkham and she was worried sick. When The Joker was dragged back to Arkham by The Batman covered in cuts and bruises, Harley Quinn left Arkham, went and bought her suit, broke The Joker back out of Arkham and swore a vengeance against The Batman for hurting her 'Puddin.'

Other media

1989

The Joker is the main antagonist in the 1989 Batman movie. He was portrayed by Jack Nicholson and has a name known as Jack Napier.

Past

Napier was born in Brooklyn and came to live in Gotham. In his school years, Jack proved himself to be emotionally unstable, but highly intelligent, showing aptitude in art, science, and chemistry. He also turned to a life of violent crime. When he was fifteen, Jack was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon.

Years later, as a young man, he and his partner in crime mugged Bruce Wayne's parents, Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife, Martha. When Thomas interceded to protect his family, Napier stepped from the shadows and shot both him and Martha in cold-blooded murder. Napier pulled the hammer back on his gun and next pointed it at Bruce. Napier inquired "Tell me kid, you ever danced with The Devil by the pale moon light?". Before Napier could fire, his panicked partner urged him to leave. Napier decided to spare the boy and left, saying, "See you around, kid." Little did he know that his prediction would come true -- that he and Bruce would meet again.

Batman

Years later, Napier became the right-hand man of the crime boss Carl Grissom, but when Carl found out that Napier was fooling with his girl, he called Lt. Eckhardt to kill his right-hand man, who (along with his men) was trying to erase the evidence in the Axis Chemical Factory.

Becoming the Joker

Eventually, Napier meets Batman for the first time. Before he was going to escape, he kills Eckhardt after he told him to think about the future. Napier then turned the gun on Batman and caught a ricocheted bullet through his cheeks; in a panic, Napier stepped off a catwalk over a vat of a toxic chemical. Though Batman caught Napier's arm and attempted to pull him back up to to safety, Napier's leather glove slipped through Batman's and he plummeted into the chemical vat below him.

Napier somehow survived and tried to do reconstructive surgery, which severed critical facial nerves, leaving him with a wide, ridiculous and famous smile. He returned to Grissom's office to kill him, which he did and became the new crime lord known as the Joker. When he learned about Vicki Vale, the Joker fell in love with her and tried to steal her from Bruce Wayne.

The Joker begins his "parade" at the start of the Gotham City Festival that celebrating the city's 200th anniversary, bringing very hefty sums of cash to all Gotham's citizens. Along with his parade were his precious and cartoonish balloons filled with the deadly Smylex gas made from the ingredients used to create his cosmetic Smylex products. But after Batman stopped his maniacal festivities and saved everyone from the Joker's Smylex via his Batwing, he shot and killed his right-hand man Bob the goon, and eventually went on to face the Batman while his men ordered everyone to leave money-littered, panic-stricken streets. The Joker used his peashooter and shot the Batwing down before took hostage Vicki Vale who was there alongside her fellow photojournalist Knots. Batman followed them into the old Gotham City Cathedral. While Batman battled his thugs, Joker dances with Vicki before the Dark Knight finally faces him.

Fate

During their confrontation, Batman repeatedly beats up the Joker and manages to knock him off the balcony, but the Joker reached both his arms up, and managed to pull Batman and Vicki down, themselves holding on for life from a narrow ledge. The Joker's helicopter arrived to retrieve him to safety. Batman used a grappling hook to tie Joker's ankle to a large, heavy gargoyle. Batman sealed The Joker's fate when he broke it loose.

Unable to break free from the heavy burden of the gargoyle, The Joker lost his grip on the helicopter's rope ladder and fell to his death, hitting the cathedral's flight of steps below hard, breaking every single bone in his body.

Ironically, just a few seconds beforehand, he said "Sometimes I just kill myself!" Commissioner Gordon came upon The Joker's body, hearing a repetitive laugh. He reached into The Joker's coat and pulled out a laugh box that had been activated by the landing.

Bruce Wayne would continue to have bad memories of Jack Napier slaying his parents for several years.

1960

The Joker is one of the recurring villain in the 1960s TV show Batman.

The Joker is of the main antagonists in the 1960s Batman TV series. His first ever role apart from the comic books was in the 1960's Batman (TV Series). He was portrayed by Cesar Romero. The Joker also appeared in the 1960's Batman film adapted from the series entitled "Batman 1966". This version of the Joker wasn't the murderous Joker. He was a prankster and his weapons were only his squirting flower which shoots out sneezing powder and water and his joy buzzer. His fighting skills are terrible and this is how he gets beaten up.

Biography

The Joker was the Clown Prince of Crime and one of his first goals was to unmask Batman. Some of his crimes were for little more than goofy amusement, while others were far more dangerous.

Some time later, Joker teamed up with Penguin, Catwoman and Riddler to form The United Underworld, to disband the United Nations. His role in the Combination Trap (that was devised by the Riddler) was the Jack-in-the-Box to send Batman flying toward the Penguin's exploding octopus; however, one of the unnamed thugs fell onto the jack in the box and was killed by the exploding octopus. The four super criminals managed to dehydrate the nine members of the United World Security Council and take them to the submarine, however Batman and Robin draw it to the surface, where the Dynamic Duo fight the United Underworld. Near the end, Robin fights the Joker and defeats him by punching him over the edge, into the water. He is captured along with the other criminals when Batman and Robin chain them to the side of the submarine and Batman calls the coast guard where the police can take them to prison.

His many schemes after this included committing crimes based on the signs of Zodiac, stealing the famous Renison's art collection for ransom and trying to take over Gotham City with a flying saucer. He can also easily persuade women to help him in his crimes with his charm and wits.

Even though Batman defeated him many times, the felonious funnyman never rested until the last laugh was his.

Arkhamverse

The Joker is Batman's archenemy and the main antagonist in Batman: Arkham Origins, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and the secondary antagonist in Batman: Arkham City.

Batman: Arkham Origins The Joker appears as the true main antagonist in the video game: Batman: Arkham Origins, the prequel of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Before Batman met Joker, the Joker was impersonating as the crime lord Black Mask. He did this by first kidnapping Black Mask's lover. Feeling paranoid, Black Mask hired a decoy to see what was going on in his penthouse. When the decoyed enter the penthouse, the Joker shot him in the chest, killing him in the process. With that distraction, Black Mask attempted to silently kill the Joker. Despite Black Mask attempting to kill him from behind, Joker managed to easily over-power and knock out Black Mask. He then forced Black Mask to shoot his lover in the chest, and processed by kidnapping Black Mask. Before he left Black Mask's penthouse, Joker attempted to burn the evidence, and frame the Penguin for the "murder" of Black Mask. With Black Mask out of the way, the Joker was able to take over as the new crime lord of Gotham City, while posing as Black Mask.

When he began to hear about a man who dresses up as a bat, Joker placed a bounty of $50,000,000 on his head to who ever finds and kills Batman. He even hired eight assassins to kill off Batman, promising them $50,000,000 to whoever kills him. The assassins were; Killer Croc, The Electrocutioner, Deathstroke, Copperhead, Deadshot, Firefly, Lady Shiva, and Bane. Most of the assassins didn't know that they were hired by Joker, instead they thought that they were hired by Black Mask.

Batman eventually encounters "Black Mask" to confront him. But during the confrontation, one of "Black Mask's" mercanaries, and a bank manager began to, uncontrollably, burst out with laughter. Knowing that it would blow his cover, "Black Mask" took off his mask, revealing himself to be the Joker. After Joker managed to escape, Batman eventually found out, thanks to a captured Copperhead, that he called for a meeting with the remaining assassins. During the meeting, he revealed to them that he wasn't Black Mask, and that he was the one who hired the assassins. To show how dangerous he was to the assassins, Joker pushed The Electrocutioner out of a window, resulting in him falling over 40 stories to his death. He demanded everyone to continue their search and kill Batman, however Bane stayed, knowing that Batman is on his way.

Eventually Batman managed to reached the Joker. Joker tells Batman that one his tradition on Christmas Eve is to open one present of his presents. Joker proceeds by activating possibly several explosives he had planted in a building that the Joker stated that the building was "blocking his view". Furious, Batman grabs the Joker by his shirt and asks him how many lives had he taken with the explosion, to which the Joker gave two answers; the explosion didn't take any lives, or he thought it didn't at the very least. This only made Batman angrier, as he slammed Joker's head on the table holding all of the Jokers presents and then threw him across the aforementioned table. Joker, leaning upwards grabbed another "present" that if triggered, would potentially cause innocents to die. However, Batman grabbed the trigger and destroyed it.

Joker ended up getting rescued by Bane, as Bane continued by fighting Batman. While that was going on, Joker was watching Bane and Batman fight. During the fight, the GCPD showed up. But Joker only retaliates by firing at the helicopter. During this, Bane hops on his helicopter, processed by firing a rocket launcher at the hotel. The blast from the rocket launcher caused Joker to fall off the balcony, but Batman end up rescuing him. After rescuing Joker, a couple of Joker's men attempted to kill Batman. But after being rescued by Batman, Joker started to questioned why he was rescued, and as a result, Joker took out his gun and killed the two. Joker ended up getting arrested by the GCPD and was sent to Blackgate Prison.

While he was in Blackgate, Joker eventually came across Dr. Harleen Quinzel, as his psychiatrist. In some way, the Joker told Harleen about his story on how he originally thought that Fate was evil and him respecting a man he doesn't really know. Later that night Joker broke out and caused a prison riot. During which, Joker wanted to test Batman to see if he can kill. He placed a heart monitor on Bane that was connected to an electro-chair. Joker told Batman that if Bane's heart didn't flatline, it would electrocute him. However, Jim Gordon showed up and was taken hostage by the Joker. During the conflict, Batman remembered that his Shock Gloves can both stop a person's heart as well as jump-start a person's heart. So he used his gloves to stop Bane's heart for a few minutes, so Joker and Gordon could get out of their predicament, to which he later restarted Bane's heart.

Shortly after Batman beat Bane, he continued his search for the Joker, Gordon told Batman where he saw the Joker. Batman managed to find the Joker, just waiting for him. Joker told Batman that he was admittedly shocked to see him kill Bane. But Batman replied that he didn't. Confused, Joker looked at the heart monitor, seeing that Bane's heart is still beating. Joker processed by attempting to shoot Batman, but Batman managed to pull the gun out of Joker hand, and processed by beating up the Joker. Batman was considering to kill the Joker, but instead, he knocked him out. Gordon watched the whole conflicted. He told Batman that he would've killed the Joker if he had the chance. With that, the Joker was arrested and taken back to his cell.

Considered that the Joker, or any other insane criminal would escape again, seeing how Blackgate has had two breakouts, and two prison riots in one night, Quincy Sharp tried to do everything in his power to reopen Arkham Asylum. After a while, Sharp managed to convince the board to reopen Arkham Asylum. Shortly Arkham was reopened, it's likely that the Joker was one of the first inmates to be placed in Arkham. The Joker is the main antagonist in the videogame Batman: Arkham Asylum. He got himself locked up in the asylum, along with other so-called "super-villains" to pull off a daring scheme. He planned to build an army of super henchman by mutating his normal henchman with Titan, a venom created by a scientist of Arkham Asylum. To do this, he had to take over the entire asylum, and he was quite successful, since he managed to take control of the security system, the warden, and even over Batman. When his plan fails, it looks like he committed suicide, but really he injected himself with the Titan Formula and turned into the Titan Joker. Titan Joker is a giant monster version of The Joker and the final boss in Batman; Arkham Asylum. Titan Joker is about as tall as Killer Croc. He's an incredibly muscular monster, a lot of his bones such as a large amount of his ribs on both sides as well as his fingernails are sharpen and revealed, and his hair is now a mohawk. During the boss fight Titan Joker will try to hit Batman with his claws. If Batman gets to close, Titan Joker will grab Batman and toss him which deals damage toward Batman. After some time he retreats and calls some of his minions. While Batman's fighting Joker's minion, in the background, Joker electrocutes the Commissioner just for fun. Joker also throws some bombs, some that are chattering teeth that move toward batman, and other that are thrown throughout the arena. As time goes on, Titan Joker gets distracted by Jack Ryder's Helicopter. With this distraction, Batman uses his Ultra-Batclaw, which forces Joker to fall to the ground and get stuck. Joker then gets hit by Batman dealing some. Batman does this about three times and Titan Joker is defeated. When Titan Joker falls through the floor, he gets electrocuted by the electro-boxes underneath the arena. When the Joker tried to get back up, Batman sprays his glove with some explosive gel. When Titan Joker tries to attack Batman, Batman manages to punch Joker in the face, which caused the gel to explode, knock out the Joker. After he was defeated by Batman, he was reverted back to his normal form and was arrested. Because of the Titan Formula, Titan Joker possesses superhuman strength, durability, endurance and is large in size. He has razor sharp claws, but unlike the Titan induced victims, Joker can maintains his verbal ability, it's probably because Joker was insane in the first place, since the Titan formula turn everyone into psychopathic monsters. He also distributes bombs throughout the battle arena, some that stay in one spot and some that walk toward Batman. An insanely homicidal super-villain, the Joker’s white skin, green hair, and blood-red lips belie the chaotic nature underlying his cartoonish appearance. The self-styled Clown Prince of crime has no superpowers beyond a capacity for incredible violence and a skill at creating deadly mayhem. He frequently concocts elaborate schemes to entrap his arch nemesis, Batman. Joker appears in Batman: Arkham City, the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum as the secondary antagonist. The Joker has been stricken with a poison in his blood system, because of the Titan Formula. He was desperate for a cure, so he kidnapped several doctors to cure him, blackmails Mr. Freeze that if he creates a cure, Joker would give his wife Nora back, he even poisoned Batman & Gotham with the same disease. He was also planning massive breakout of Arkham City win the war between Two-Face and Penguin. In the end, He accidentally destroys his own cure and finally succumbs to the titan poisoning, taking his plans and secrets with him. After the events of Arkham City, Commissioner Gordon personally has Joker's body transported away from the massive prison, knowing that if any of his men got their hands on him, they would tear his body apart. Gordon is forced to move Joker's body to various locations over the following weeks to ensure that none of his followers break in to retrieve it, telling no one of it's location except for, eventually, Batman. As Gotham descends into chaos over the Joker's death, Batman's mind sinks lower as his depression over the loss of Talia and guilt over Joker's death begins tearing him apart on the inside.

Batman soon realizes that the Joker had made a set of contingency plans in the event of his death to ensure that Gotham is destroyed and the Dark Knight broken. As Batman investigates the late villain's final schemes, Harley Quinn breaks out of her imprisonment and takes control of Joker's gang in her own plans for revenge against Batman. Taking over the Steel Mill, the last location the GCPD need to evacuate to shut down Arkham City for good, Quinn takes various police officers hostage to lure Batman to a trap. Quinn's tactics prove to be successful as Batman is captured and locked in an air tight prison.

With the aid of Robin, Batman is able to escape and stop Quinn's plans, leading to her being arrested again and allowing Arkham City to officially be shut down and Batman to refocus his attention on Joker's back up plan. Investigating what is left of the Steel Mill, Batman finds a message from Joker that was made before he died and meant to be communicated to Batman in the event of his death. As Batman analyzes it at the Batcave, he locates a video message from his eternal enemy, who begins to taunt the hero and reveals one last, twisted and sick joke against Batman and all of Gotham.

DC Animated Universe

The Joker was a major recurring villain in the DC Animated Universe which started with Batman: The Animated Series and continued through the series making up the DCAU. The Joker was voiced by Mark Hamill, who may now be as well known for this as for his live-action role as Luke Skywalker. Starting out, he was an unknown crook working for the mob as an enforcer. Once, he was referred to as having the name Jack Napier, like in the 1989 Batman film, but in this case it may have been just another alias. The Joker was an unnamed assasin working for Salvatore Valestra, Buzz Bronski, and Chuckie Sol. The mob sent him to kill a business man who had embezzled from them. Sometime later, he formed his own gang and robbed the Ace Chemical plant. Batman arrived, and in the ensuing scuffle, the thug fell into a vat of chemicals and became the Joker, also apparently destroying his sanity. While placed in Arkham Asylum often, he gained a secret ally in Doctor Harleen Quinzel, who fell in love with him and eventually joined his gang as his chief flunky, Harley Quinn. It is frankly an abusive and at times very pathetic relationship, and the affection Harley feels is often very one-sided, the narcissistic egomaniac Joker, as Batman put it, being capable of loving only himself. As the Joker, he pulled schemes such as a Christmas-themed kidnapping of Commisioner Gordon, attacks on Summer Gleeson, and Harvey Bullock. He once tried filling Gotham City with his laughing gas, and planted dynamite at the birthday party of Mayor Hill's son. He also blackmailed a guy named Charlie Collins and made threats to him that he would kill his family, though Collins ended up getting the better of the cowardly psychopath. The Joker was used as a pawn in the schemes of Cameron Kaiser, but the Joker ended up tricking him. The Joker once even captured Batman and tried to electrocute him on live TV, but this attempt was foiled by Catwoman, who was then his ally. However, the Joker managed to capture Catwoman and left her bounded and gagged at a cat food factory to be shredded while Harley Quinn watched. This act was also foiled by Batman, who pretended to be Killer Croc in order to lull the Joker into revealing Catwoman's location.

A vigilante called The Phantasm came to Gotham and, one by one, killed the mob leaders Joker had once worked for. Batman was accused of these crimes, but the Joker doubted this and set up a trap to kill the Phantasm before he himself was targeted. managed to find it wasn't Batman at all. The Joker later found out it was Andrea Beaumont, daughter of the embezzler he once killed on mob orders, taking up the identity of the Phantasm. He fought the Phantasm, but both managed to escape in an explosion. He, along with other inmates in Arkham Asylum, also ran a sham trial for Batman with the inmates as judge and jury. The Joker has also gotten hold of an atomic bomb, taken the the mayor hostage, and even tried to succeed as a stand-up comedian, ruining three comedians' acts for revenge on their judgement of him as unfunny, something he could never forgive. Becoming broke and desperate, Joker and stole an artifact that turned out to be forged from Kryptonite. Using this, Joker traveled to Metropolis and put himself for hire for one billion dollars to kill Superman. Lex Luthor agreed to Joker's deal. Batman eventually fought The Joker along with the Man of Steel. Joker began to annoy Luthor whe he demanded to be paid more to kill both superheroes. While attempting to betray Luthor (who needless to say, had also tried to betray him) The Joker ended up fighting the World's Finest in an aircraft, the explosion of which seemed to kill him, though his body was never recovered.

He turned up alive, was captured, but was shocked when he inherited millions of dollars from a mob kingpin named Barlowe, who had always despised him. Through deception and playing the Joker's ego and greed, Barlowe set up a trap. Joker almost literally bought his way to a clean criminal record and then lived the high life on what he believed to be hundreds of millions. It was eventually revealed that only the first ten million dollars were real, which the Joker not only blew through, but was now, as Barlowe's heir, in the sights of the IRS. Joker could not reveal he'd been tricked without looking like the clown he was. Joker decided to pull off a heist to restart his enterprises, but was foiled as always by Batman.

On the seventh year anniversary of the Joker's "birth", the Joker's actions turned reporter Jack Ryder into the Creeper. The Creeper, while heroic, mercliessly harassed Harley and Joker, to the point even Joker considered Creeper to be a lunatic, actually begging Batman to arrest him. While not as obsessed as Calendar Man, Joker is fond of unleashing schemes on holidays, notably April Fools Day, Christmas and New Year's.

Later life and Justice League

The Joker went to Dakota after his old gang was defeated and had local mutates known as "Bang Babies" join his new gang there. Villains such as Hotstreak and Talon eagerly joined his gang. They started a crime spree in town only to be stopped by Batman, Robin, and Static. In a particularly humiliating moment, Joker tried to shock Batman with a joy-buzzer after his defeat, only for Static to not only ignore and absorb the buzzer's power, but shock the Joker right back, only worse.

Not wanting anything to do with Joker after their first encounter, Lex Luthor tried to keep him out of his Injustice Gang, but was persuaded to relent based on Joker's supposed knowledge of Batman. While this proved useful at first, the openings created by Joker's overwhelming desire to kill Batman was one of many factors that saw the entire villain team beaten and imprisoned.

The Joker later went to a government building in Arizona and recruited 5 metahumans, which he called The Royal Flush Gang to create terror and chaos in Las Vegas. His real scheme was to use a girl named Ace to make all the television viewers his pirate broadcast pulled in go insane. But his smaller schemes were stopped thanks to the Justice League, while Joker made the mistake of making Ace mad at him. The young girl reached into his mind and found levels of insanity even Joker couldn't handle. For a good while, he was catatonic as a result. Years later, he planned one final joke on Batman after realizing the "game" was getting old. The Joker and Harley Quinn kidnapped Tim Drake and subjected him to two weeks of torture and brainwashed him into becoming Joker Junior, also finding out all of Batman's secrets in the process. Batman came to the abandoned Arkham Asylum and saw what had happened to Tim. In retaliation, Batman engaged in a bloody fight with the Joker only for the Joker to stab Batman in the knee and gloat over his success. He gave a Bang-Flag gun to Tim to finish off the Dark Knight but instead Tim focused his rage on the one who had broken him, and fatally shot the Joker, killing him. (In the edited version, he pushed Joker, and the villain slipped and grabbed some electrodes, electrocuting himself to death.) Commissioner Gordon learned of what happened and promised to keep it a secret, while it seemed Harley had perished during the battle as well. The remains of the Joker were buried under Arkham, and Bruce forbid Tim from being Robin again. Barbara Gordon quit as Batgirl shortly after. Bruce continued his crimefighting career for years after the incident. In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, his final desperate scheme was revealed. While Tim Drake had been his captive, Joker had a micro chip placed on him encoding the villain's DNA and personality, set to awaken at a later time. Leading the Jokerz, a gang named for him, Joker in Tim's body led a campaign against Bruce and his successor Terry McGinnis. As Joker's master plan involving a Kill-Sat unfolded, McGinnis as Batman openly mocked the Joker, infuriating him and making him sloppy. McGinnis was able to force Joker's joy-buzzer onto himself, frying the chip, restoring Tim Drake and ending the Joker's existence once and for all.

Early Cartoons

The Joker was a recurring villain in earlier cartoons, most prominent in the 1968 Filmation cartoon, The Adventures of Batman. Larry Storch provided the voice. These cartoons were before the primary DC Animated Universe, where Mark Hamill had his most iconic animated role.

Storch reprised his role for two crossover episodes of the 1972 series, The New Scooby Doo Movies. He teams up with the Penguin in both episodes and causes trouble for Batman, Robin, and the Mystery Inc. team.

The Joker made 5 appearances in the 1977 Filmation cartoon, The New Adventures of Batman. The late Lennie Weinrib provided the voice.

He had an appearance in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians in the episode, The Wild Cards. He was voiced by Frank Welker. This episode had a version of the Royal Flush Gang. Ace, the leader of the group, was actually the Joker in disguise assisting Darkseid as a stooge in his latest plot. Batman figured this out when he noticed the Joker's house of cards fortress was missing his own namesake card. The Superfriends later foiled Darkseid's plot.

JLA: The Nail

The Joker appears as one of the villains in the DC Elseworlds story "JLA: The Nail" where he has acquired hi-tech gauntlets that have made him far more dangerous than ever before. Notably this version of the Joker was so despicable and evil in terms of his actions that he managed to get Batman to outright kill him. This version of Joker first appears having staged a mass prison break at Arkham Asylum via his new power-gauntlets. Setting himself up as the ruler of the asylum, he kills Killer Croc and Clayface for challenging him and then forces the other Batman villains to fight each other for his amusement. Catwoman proves to be the victor, and Joker expresses the intent to make Catwoman his slave. When Catwoman attacks him, Joker knocks her out, and is then attacked by Batman. Effortlessly overpowering him with his new weapons, Joker notes how unsatisfying his victory is, as Robin and Batgirl are absent. When the two show up (against Batman's orders to stay put) Joker overpowers them as well and brutally murders them in front of Batman. Recovering just in time to watch this, a horrified and disgusted Catwoman attacks Joker with the intent of killing him, but Joker again knocks her out. Now freed, an enraged Batman attacks the Joker and after a battle that goes to the outside of the Asylum, snaps his neck, ending his foe's reign of terror.

Smile Pretty Cure!

Joker works alongside Wolfrun, Majorina and Akaoni of the Bad End Kingdom. His appearance is based off Harlequins. Vibrant as his clownish appearance, Joker tends to playfully break out in acrobatics and non sequiturs, but it is clear that his bouncy bearing belies a sadistic lover of destruction. Joker appears as the most human compared to his partners, with the exception of his long fingernails and sharp teeth; he wears a white half masque, hiding his eyes which appear as black slots, a white and violet bodysuit with a small violet cape. His hair is styled into the appearance of a traditional jesters hat, and is multicolored blue, red, yellow and violet. In episode 40 when he shows his impatient and angered side, his face became more monster-like. Only he has red eyes and his teeth became fangs. Joker is a spawn of Emperor Pierrot, leader of the Bad End Kingdom. As such, he's bent on causing much chaos and destruction to satiate his own fun. Prior to the series, he paid a visit to Marchenland and confronted three fairies who were based on villainous characters in fairy tales, the Big Bad Wolf, the Witch and the Ogre. These three were mistreated based on the characters they're based on. Using their memories of mistreatment, Joker seduced them into joining the Bad End Kingdom to 'relieve their pain'. Thus, Wolfrun, Akaoni and Majorina were born from these fairies and became the commanders of Bad End Kingdom. Joker first appears in the Bad End Kingdom, when the three commanders are playing cards. He comes out of the "Joker" card that the three are using for the old maid. He then goes on to explain the full Bad End Plan including the fact that they plan to eventually do this to the entire universe starting with Earth. Joker appears again in the Bad End Kingdom to give the three commanders blue noses which allows them to summon monsters that are resistant to the precures normal attack since they are not made from cure decor. It is also revealed, behind the commanders back, that Joker finds his allies bothersome and he is trying to find the miracle jewel which grants wishes. In the Bad End Kingdom, Joker appears landing softly on a lake, holding and shuffling a pile of cards. When he lands on the lake, the ripples cleared to show the reflection of the clock that shows how much Bad energy collected. Joker tells to himself that soon, when it is full, it will revive the Emperor Pierrot. He picked a Card and it turn into a Rose and it wilted black as a couple of petals fallen and float on the water. Later he is now on the bridge still shuffling cards and remembering Candy's power of granting the Miracle Jewels. Then Akaoni appeared saying that he's going to get bad energy and Joker cheered on to Akaoni to say "Good Luck". At the end, The Precures got all of the Decor's. Just as they were going to put it in the Decor Decor, Joker swooped down stealing the box and last decor, preventing them from reviving the Queen. Then he throws a card at in front of Candy and suddenly the card multiplied into many, got on and covered Candy and when the cards flew away, she was gone and suddenly in Joker's hand. Joker capture her because she has the Miracle Jewels to grant wishes and is a great support to the Precures. Then he leave doing the same card trick on Candy to flee. He laughed as it echoed when he left and Miyuki, Pop, and the Precures trying to call out Candy's name , Somehow he survived Beauty Blizzard and revived the commanders from death. After reviving the Generals, Joker once again took the sidelines, observing the battle between the Pretty Cure and the Generals. He did appear once, when he trapped first Candy, then Miyuki's friends into the Ball of Neglect, which put them in a dream world where they're put in a trance of doing nothing but 'having fun' without hardships, the effort was eventually defeated when Miyuki snaps the rest of the team back to reality. Later, Joker offered the Black Nose to enhance the power of Akanbes. What Joker didn't tell at first was that the Black Noses would drain the lifeforce of the commanders. When eventually the Commanders fell due to the Pretty Cures' new resolves, Joker made his move and targeted the 'brain' of the team: Reika Aoki/Cure Beauty. Instead of directly attacking her, Joker brought her to his dimension and merely congratulated her for being chosen to study overseas. He then began to shatter most of Reika's resolve, as she was torn in choosing to stay as a Pretty Cure or fulfill everyone's expectation as the 'model student' to study overseas. The Pretty Cures broke into the dimension and despite showing a brave front to see Reika off with a smile, they eventually couldn't keep up the masquerade any longer and started bawling, not wanting to see Reika off, and expectedly, Reika also cried due to not wishing to separate, thus she made her decision to forego going overseas to protect humanity as Cure Beauty. Joker's response was to laugh at what he called 'silly show', which eventually caused Reika to fly into calm rage, transform into Cure Beauty and defeated Joker using her new Beauty Blizzard Arrow. After being defeated by Cure Beauty, Joker called up the three Commanders again and gave them one last chance to defeat the Pretty Cures, if they fail, the Black Noses would destroy the last remnants of their life forces. Despite knowing about how their lives were in danger due to the noses, the three accepted the offer and launched one final attack against the Pretty Cure, just around the time Candy suddenly went into a deep sleep and turned into a 'gem'. The Pretty Cure managed to defeat the three Commanders with Miyuki reminding them that even if they're based on villains of fairy tales, she still loved them, reverting them into their fairy forms. However, Joker appears unleashed his new creations by using the final Cure Decors from the three: the manifestations of the Pretty Cures' dark sides: Bad End Pretty Cure. The Bad End Pretty Cure trapped the Pretty Cures in their dark dimensions as he stole Candy, who reveals as actually being the Miracle Jewel he sought for, revealing that he wanted to destroy the Miracle Jewel to destroy all dreams and hopes for fun. With more Bad Energies fed to Pierrot, Joker turned the whole world into desert. However, at that time, the Pretty Cures found enough resolve to defeat their dark sides and returned to the real world.

Exparasted that his creations were defeated, Joker started breaking down, but eventually he yelled that whatever they do, it's too late, Pierrot has been revived. At that time, a puddle of black ink made from Pierrot fell onto Joker. He laughed as he dissolved into a black pudding, reuniting with Pierrot and claiming that they will destroy the world together. However, in the end, the Pretty Cures defeated Pierrot for good, along with Joker inside. Joker can conjure items. In Episode 6, Joker conjured a "Little Earth" as a visual aid during his explanation of the villains plan. He can use his cards to make them big to defend or throw one card make many to capture and teleport them or himself. In Episode 22, he is capable of fighting all the PreCures using offense and without a effort (include the purification attacks). Like Wolfrun, Akaoni, and Majorina, he can use a piece of the Black Paint of Darkness, and can darken a blank page of his Picture Book of Darkness (symbolizes the brand new future). This changes the world into a Bad End alternate reality with a purple and black sky. in episode 23 he finally summoned an akanbe for the first time. In Episode 24 Joker revived the dead commanders. In Episode 32, it was revealed he created the hyper akanbe noses with the same black paint of the darkness.

The Batman

The Joker is one of the recurring villains in the TV Show, The Batman. A very different interpretation of the Joker appeared in the animated series The Batman, voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.

In this series he is only referred to as simply "Joker" and never as "the Joker" - he had wild green hair, red eyes, dark red lips and a milky blue tongue. He was born by falling into a vat of chemicals, which bleached his skin, dyed his hair and drove him to insanity. In his first few appearances his costume consists of a purple sleeved straitjacket, blue pants, fingerless gloves and bare feet. Later in the series, he regressed back the more traditional garb of a purple suit and spats, but still had wild hair and wore no shoes, save one episode (which had mechanical stilts concealed in them). Joker also moves and fights with a monkey-like style, using his feet as dexterously as his hands, and often hangs from the walls and ceilings.

Whilst it can be argued that this version of the Clown Prince of Crime more resembles the colorful, comic relief character featured in the comics of the 1950s and '60s, he is still a highly dangerous, knowledgeable and cruel character - whilst most of his crimes are silly and prank-like in nature, they can still be legitimately destructive. He treats each of his crimes like an elaborate joke designed to make his victims literally die laughing. Due to his unpredictable nature, bizarre appearance and unnerving instinct for the absurd he has earned a reputation as one of the most dangerous criminals in Gotham.

He believes himself to be inextricably linked to the Batman, and considers him to be his favorite sparring partner and opponent - he says their relationship is "like comedy and tragedy - two sides, same coin". His weapons include his signature Joker venom (called "Joker Gas" in the series), razor sharp playing cards, grenades with Joker smiles on them and a bomb shaped like a Jack-in-the-Box. One of his most famous crimes was creating the supervillain Clayface. Joker captured and tortured detective Ethan Bennet, in order to drive him mad, he exposed Bennet to "Joker putty" a deadly chemical he created which mutated Bennet transforming him into the shapeshifting monster Clayface. As Clayface Bennet would attempt to get revenge on Joker many times. It is possible that this incarnation of the Joker has an origin similar to the Killing Joke, as he mentions having always wanted to make people laugh, in a flashback to his origins he is shown wearing red clothes after emerging from the chemicals suggesting at the very least a red hood origin. It is also hinted that Joker will one day cripple Batgirl like in "the killing joke" as Barbra Gordon is shown to be confined to a wheelchair in the future. He also maintains a rivalry with the Penguin for the title of Gotham's greatest criminal. In one episode, there's a near almighty version of Joker, Joker 2.0, who's presumed based on Emperor Joker. At one point Joker got bitten by Dracula and became a vampire. His hair turned white, his eyes turned blue-white, and his clothes were affected as well. Unlike all the other vampires however, he retained his individuality and his speech as well as gaining vampiric superhuman strength and speed. Nevertheless he is still incapable of betraying Dracula's resting place. He stays this way until Batman managed to find a cure and revert Joker back to normal. As a side effect, Joker didn't remember anything after his meeting with Penguin outside of Dracula's mausoleum and is sent to Arkham Asylum shortly after being cured.

Joker 2.0

Joker 2.0 is the main antagonist from the "The Batman"-episode "The Metal Face Of Comedy". When Marty, Joker's accomplice, invents a helmet that can make the Joker hack every computer system, he tries to use it in bank. Batman and Robin appear, so the Joker transfers his soul into Gotham's computer network. To stop him, Batman and Robin send him into a computer game, but Marty transfers his soul into some nanobots invented by Wayne Enterprises. In this new, near almighty form, the Joker returns to his lair. Meanwhile, the Joker wakes up in a hospital and returns, too. The nanobot-Joker, who's calling himself Joker 2.0 now, teams up with his "brother" to steal juwels, but Joker 2.0 tricks him and leaves him in front of the shop. The Joker runs after him to the car where Marty, Harley Quinn, Punch and Judy are waiting. When Joker 2.0 tries to kill the original Joker, Batman and Robin save him, but Joker 2.0 absorbs metal to grow up. In this giant form, he tries to throw Batman, Robin and the Joker away with a catapult, but fails. Batman fights Joker in his armor, but Joker 2.0 is too powerfull. When Robin recognizes that Marty is the player who always defeats him, he tells Batman to use a signal to transfer Joker 2.0's soul back to the game. When that's done, Joker 2.0 is defeated by Nightwing, Robin's avatar.

The Dark Knight

The Joker depicted in The Dark Knight is often considered the darkest version of the Clown Prince of Crime since his early beginnings in DC comics (prior to a softening of character) perhaps somewhat due to the popularity of Dark Knight some of this Joker's extreme sociopathy has began to sink into the mainstream Joker but in general they are still considered very different criminals in the way they act and think. The Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger, is the main antagonist in the movie The Dark Knight. The Joker is a psychotic villain who claims to be an "agent of chaos," seemingly doing it for the sake of destroying the plans of others and causing maximum psychological and physical damage. In the film, the Joker rescinds his comic weapons in favor of explosives, knives and firearms. He is responsible for the death of Rachael Dawes and for the wounding and psychological manipulation of District Attorney Harvey Dent into Two-Face among others.

The Joker states that he won't kill Batman because he is simply too much “fun” and Batman won't kill him because of his “moral obligation.” In the movie, instead of trying to kill Batman, the Joker attempts to show Gotham and subsequently Batman that anyone can be as bad as the Joker under the right circumstances. Heath Ledger died under mysterious circumstances of a drug overdose before the movie was released. Out of respect for him, the filmmakers did not even mention the Joker whatsoever in the following film, The Dark Knight Rises. Thus, it is unknown what happened to the Joker after he was arrested. But according to the original script of the third movie, it is likely stated that he was imprisoned far away from Gotham City (Possibly Guantanamo Bay) , never to be heard from again. Another likely scenario is that he died by the time of Bane's revolution.

The novelization of 'Rises' places him as possibly the one and only prisoner of Arkham, (the way Rudolf Hess was in Spandau Prison) or perhaps he escaped. Nobody was really sure.

The Dark Knight Returns

The Joker was a character that appeared in the second part of the animated feature Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, where he serves as the main antagonist. He was voiced by Michael Emerson, who also portrayed Benjamin Linus on Lost. Well into his fifties, the Joker spent ten years at Arkham Asylum in a near catatonic stupor. When news hit the wire that his arch-nemesis the Batman had come out of retirement, the Joker's conscious mind resurfaced and he decided that it was time for him to come out of retirement as well. Having manipulated his psychiatrist into declaring him 'cured'- the doctor proclaiming that he was merely a victim of Batman's own psychosis- the Joker murdered the guests at a talk show where his psychiatrist had intended to publically reveal his 'recovery' before taking hostages at a local carnival. Tracking the Joker there, Batman engaged his foe in the hall of mirrors before the fight progressed into a sewer, where Batman broke the Joker's neck just enough to paralyse him. However, in a last act of revenge against his enemy, the Joker was able to twist his neck just far enough to kill himself, committing suicide and framing his enemy for his own murder.

Under the Red Hood

The Joker is a terroriser of Gotham City and Batman's most widely known villain. He was voiced by John DiMaggio, who also voiced Dr. Drakken. The Joker is hired by Ra's al Ghul to distract Batman and Jason Todd, the second Robin, from the terrorist's plan to destroy the world economy. The Joker lures the Dynamic Duo to Sarajevo, Bosnia, where he beats Jason with a crowbar and leaves him to be killed by a bomb. Feeling guilty for his death, Ra's al Ghul revives Jason with the Lazarus Pit. Years later, Jason returns to Gotham as a crime lord calling himself the Red Hood, purposely taking his murderer's former criminal identity to attract his attention. After his first encounter with the Red Hood, Batman goes to Joker for information in Arkham Asylum. He claims that there is no connection. When Red Hood tries to kill him, Black Mask hires the Joker as a hitman to take down the Red Hood. The Joker kidnaps Jason's eight under-bosses, including the Black Mask, and holds them hostage inside an oil tanker. Jason arrives and reveals that his previous actions were designed to lure the Joker away from the safety of Arkham so that he could kill him. Jason beats and kidnaps the Joker and brings him to Crime Alley. He forces Batman to either kill him or the Joker, or Jason will detonate a bomb killing all three of them. Refusing either offer, Batman allows Jason to detonate the bomb but saves himself, Jason and the Joker. While Jason escapes, Batman takes the Joker back to Arkham.

Young Justice

The Joker is a recurring villain on Young Justice. He is Batman's archenemy and a member of the Injustice League. He was voiced by Brent Spiner. The Joker was a member of the Injustice League when It decided to come out of the shadows. He used a device that allowed him to manipulate Poison Ivy's plants to attack various cities around the globe. After the Injustice League headquarters were discovered by Robin and his team Joker left his position and tried to defeat the intruders and Robin especially. After the Justice League arrived, Joker surrendered before being forcefully apprehended. The Joker is a dangerous and psychopathic criminal. Although he looks like a clown, he is never to be underestimated. He is cruel, sinister, manipulative and above all completely insane, the Joker has proven multiple times to be the Batman's greatest foe. He also claims to have multiple personalities and has a tendency to break the fourth wall. The Joker is a tall, slender man, with chalk white skin, ruby red lips and a head of bright green hair falling down in a mop style. His most distinguishing feature, however, is his massive and wide smile that is constantly on his face, giving him a sinister sort of appearance at all times. He is most commonly seen wearing a purple suit with a flower on his lapel, skinny leg pants, a skinny purple tie and a silver chain at his waist.

  • Knives: Joker uses dual knives in combat as he likes to savour the emotions of his victim when using them as guns are "too quick".
  • Joker Venom: A chemical which, when inhaled, causes its victims to laugh uncontrollably until they die with a wide grin on their faces.

Jokermon

Jokermon is a minor villain in Digimon Xros Wars. Jokermon is an Unknown Level Digimon that resembles a clown. He wears a purple jacket, teal pants, and wears a jester hat. He also carries a scythe with him at all times. Jokermon is one of the Digimon that came out of the DigiQuartz. He was a servent toward Sakkakumon. He's the one who runs the Digimon Amusement Park. After Sakkakkumon was defeated and captured by Arresterdramon, with the aid of Bakomon, Jokermon was captured as well. He does the Lunatic Slash attack.

Lego Batman

Joker is a primary antagonist in Lego Batman: The Videogame, then he reappears as a secondary antagonist in the second video game, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, and a upcoming lego movie, LEGO Batman: The Movie. The Joker is a incredibly dangerous psychopathic criminal who is a constant nemesis of Batman and Robin. In Lego Batman: The Videogame, he busted out of Arkham Asylum with a bunch of other criminals and formed a group consisting of Harley Quinn, Killer Moth, Mad Hatter, and Scarecrow as they intend to destroy a cathedral and spread his deadly laughing gas across Gotham. Years later he teams up with Penguin, Two-Face, Riddler and Harley Quinn to steal the Man of the Year awards. He is foiled by Batman and Robin and taken to Arkham. He is later freed by Lex Luthor to aid him in his plan to become President. The duo then cause mischief and destroy the Batcave. Later Joker is confronted by Batman the Justice League, during Lex's campaign and wields a giant Joker robot. He is beaten once again and brought back to Arkham. However he manages to escape to the Ace chemicals building before being beaten by Batman once again. Unrepentant homicidal maniac, albeit without a precise psychological diagnosis, Depending on portrayal, has varying levels of strength, however he has always been portrayed as extremely agile His past is unknown; conflicting, unconfirmed reports state that he was a failed comedian, a petty thief, and a broken family man Employs various deadly weapons, often based on party-gag items Frequently uses a toxin that stretches victim's face into a Joker-like grin and causes death Teams with Lex Luthor and even gains a giant Joker-Mecha in the second game. The Joker appears in the interrogation room in the GCPD (Gotham City Police Department) after nuking Metropolis, where he was being interrogated by Batman. This was then cut short when Superman intervened and confronted him. After taunting and insulting Superman multiple times, the Man of Steel killed the Joker, as Batman watches in horror. The Joker manically shrieks with laughter as Superman tears his heart out. Normal Joker first appears after the Justice League discover Lex Luthor gave him a nuke to blow up Metropolis. He is seen arming the bomb next to a statue of Superman in Metropolis, much to the excitement of his world's Harley Quinn. After Harley discovers Batman was teleporting to their location, the Joker forcefully makes Harley return to their van as he has a conversation with Batman and takes the bomb off standby, and forcefully orders Harley back to the getaway van. As he activates the bomb, multiple members of the Justice League quickly try to intercept him, only to teleport to the Regime universe, pulling Joker with them. Batman and Joker are separated from the others who teleported, namely Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Aquaman and Green Lantern. The Joker, enraged that his trigger failed to detonate the bomb, blames Batman for their displacement and attacks him. Batman manages to subdue him, just as Regime troops appear and attempt to apprehend the two. Batman uses a sonar distrust or and smoke bomb to escape the troops, while Joker sneaks away during the ensuing chaos. The Joker tries to find his old gang by hijacking and killing the troops in the van and traveling to Gotham City, where he discovers he is well known in the Regime world, exclaiming; "My fame proceeds me!". Batman, having followed the Joker to Gotham, attempts to launch a surprise attack. Joker becomes aware of Batman's presence beforehand, and counters him, injuring Batmans leg. Because of this, Joker defeat Batman and almost sprays him with Joker Venom. Just as Joker is about to "put a smile" on Batmans face, he spots alternate Hawkgirl and Yellow Lantern and runs off. Joker watches from afar as they arrest Batman and take him away. As the Joker retires to his original plan, he finds himself being approached at gunpoint by an altered Harley Quinn, now going by her real name, Harleen Quinzel. Though he tries to persuade her that he is in fact, the Joker, Harleen insists that the Joker is dead, and that he is just another imposter. Outraged, Harleen attacks him, but is quickly subdued by him. Recognizing his fighting style, Harleen realizes he is the Joker and embraces him. The two then travel to the abandoned Arkham Asylum, where Harleen introduces Joker to the "Joker Clan", a large gang that worships Joker as a martyr, and combats the Regime through acts of terror. The Joker addresses the Joker Clan, introducing the pill to them under the name "Happy Pill". This would provide him and the gang members with superhuman durability. The event is then cut short when Hawkgirl and Nightwing (Damian Wayne) arrive with a fleet of Regime soldiers to attack the clan. The Joker is repeatedly shot with an assault rifle by a trooper, but survives and thanks the "Happy Pill". Hawkgirl attacks the Joker, believing him to be the Joker from their world. The Joker defeats Hawkgirl and attempts to remove her feathers with his knife. Nightwing notices this and quickly charges towards him. The Joker throws his playing cards at Damian, overpowering him. He proceeds to mock Nightwing for leaving Batman and becoming Superman's 'pet', believing him to still be Dick Grayson. A fight ensues, and Joker defeats Nightwing. Altered Batman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Green Arrow and Wonder Woman rush in, and both Hawkgirl and Nightwing retreat thanks to Harley's call for help. The group is surprised to see the Joker, which leads them to the conclusion that Batman was sent to the parallel dimension as well. Joker is aprehended by Insurgency Batman. The Joker is later broken out of custody by Harley Quinn, despite her orders from Batman. The two of them hijack a Regime vehicle and confront Insurgency Lex Luthor on his way to assist the Insurgency forces against the Regime. The Joker orders Harley to take down Luthor and take his suit, but she fails. Annoyed with her, the Joker fires Harley and attempts to kill her, but Luthor intervenes and subdues him. Enraged by his attempt on her life, Harley tries to kill the Joker with his knife, but Luthor convinces her to stand down, saying she's outgrown him. In the epilogue, the Joker is shown being lead at gunpoint by Harley Quinn to the portal that will take him back to his dimension. He appears in the upcoming video game, Scribblenauts: Unmasked, as the main antagonist. While the Joker is almost a given to appear in any video game that has Batman, he has not appeared in all of them, and is not always the Big Bad. On systems and games before the modern era, he has appeared in :

  • Two Batman PC games from the late 80's, Batman and Batman : The Caped Crusader both of which featured the relatively primitive graphics of that era.
  • A TurboGrafix 16 (PC Engine) game with Pac-Man like mechanics.
  • Games for several systems, based upon the 1989 Batman movie featuring Jack Nicholson as The Joker. This included a full-featured arcade game.
  • Return Of The Joker for NES and Genesis, an unofficial semi-sequel to the 1989 film and the games based on it. Both hero and villain rely a lot more on weapons than combat, ala Contra. Each level had a sub-boss.
  • Two games based on the 1990's Batman : The Animated Series in its early incarnation. In neither case is Joker the central villain. Stages are based on villains' lairs and traps from the series. This appeared on SNES, Genesis and Sega-CD (Mega Drive and Mega-CD). The Sega/Mega CD version of The Adventures Of Batman & Robin had extensive animated scenes made for its cutscenes, to the point it is considered a 'lost' episode.
  • Batman : Chaos In Gotham for Game Boy Color. Not the central villain. These later games are based off The New Batman Adventures. Another Arkham mass breakout.
  • Batman : Gotham City Racer, as the name implies, a racing game, based again on the 90's animated series. For PS1. Joker and Harley Quinn had specialized race cars, similar to LEGO Batman.
  • Batman : Dark Tomorrow, an original video game adventure. Joker either works for or is manipulated by Ra's Al Ghul. XBox, GameCube. Plagued by plotholes stifling game play.
  • Batman : Vengeance, based upon The New Batman Adventures and featuring extensive cinematics based on it. While the graphics, cinematics and story were widely praised, the controls left a great deal to be desired. In this, it appears that Joker has died at Batman's hands, and Harley is out for revenge. But is he really gone?
  • Batman Beyond : Return Of The Joker - As in the animated feature, a reborn Joker bedevils the Terry McGinnis Batman, and his mystery is tied up in the final battle between Joker and the original Batman. For N64 and Playstation, very poorly received.
  • Batman : Rise Of Sin Tzu - Only a non-speaking cameo
  • Justice League : Injustice For All - The Joker as a member of the Injustice League aids their schemes. Based on the Justice League animated series from the 2000's. For Game Boy Advance.

Video Games

The Joker was a character who originally appeared in DC comics and has made many appearances in a variety of video games throughout his career, many of these appearances can be considered either out of canon or in separate alternate realities: Joker is a minor character/villain in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. He's one of the playable characters in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Joker managed to escape Arkham Asylum so he could confront his nemesis Batman. Batman managed to defeat Joker, however when Lui Kang distracted Batman, Joker managed to escape.

While he was escaping, Scorpion appeared right in front of him. As soon as they saw each other, both Scorpion and Joker confront each other. However Joker ends up getting defeated by Scorpion. For whatever reason, Scorpion decided to spare the Joker life.

Later on, Joker, along with Catwoman, and Deathstroke, were recuited by Lex Luthor, during the merging. When Lex Luthor had the criminals spilt into two teams, Joker went with Deathstroke. Lex wanted both Joker and Deathstroke to find a teleportal.

While searching in a graveyard, both of them came across both Sonya Blade and Kano. Joker tried to give Sonya a flower, but all he really wanted to was spray her with acid. When Joker attempt to spray her with acid, it missed her face, but it accidently hit her teleporter on her guantlet. This forces Joker, Deathstroke, Sonya and Kano to teleport to another area, the planet Oa. While Deathstroke was fighting Kano, Joker fought Sonya. Joker was able to defeat Sonya, but Deathstroke was still fighting Kano. With the Kombat Rage starting to consume him, Joker decided to jump in Deathstroke's place and fight Kano. After Joker defeated Kano, both he and Deathstroke got teleported back to the graveyard. However, after defeating both Sonya and Kano, he thought that he was unstoppable, so he decided to turn against Deathstroke, telling him that he doesn't what happens to the world, and that he doesn't work well with others. After he defeated Deathstroke, he really thought that he was unstoppable, so he went to see Batman to finally defeat his arch rival. Joker was able to defeat Batman but while he celerbrating his victory, Batman grabbed a taser and electricuted Joker, knocking him out. During the final fight between the DC characters and Mortal Kombat characters, Joker ends up fighting Kano. It's unknown who won the fight though it's likely that it ended in a draw since they are both knocked out. After Raiden and Superman defeated Dark Kahn, and everything went back to normal (,with the exception of Darkseid in the Mortal Kombat Universe, and Shao Kahn in the DC Universe). It's very likely that the Joker is still creating plans to kill Batman and taking over Gotham City.

Fighting Style

Joker's fighting style mainy consist of boxing techniques and trickery. Joker also uses several different weapons in combat such as an extendable boxing glove, razor sharp cards, an electric joybuzzer, bombs, pistols and gas for distaction. He's also as an ability called Funnyman, in which he lets the Kombat Rage get the best of him and increase his rage. Like most of the Mortal Kombat characters Joker has a couple fatalities.

  • His first fatality is called; The Killing Joke, Joker takes out a gun and shoots it, but it was fake and shows the words "Bang" on it. He drops it and starts to laugh. Then he pulls out a real gun and shoots the opponent in the head, killing them. In the North American version, this fatality is edited so that the camera zooms in on Joker as he shoots, cutting the victim out of shot.
  • The second one is called; Card Trick, Joker takes out 4 cards and throws 3 at the opponent body. Than he throws one more at the opponent's head. In the Joker's MK vs. DC Universe ending, he gain new supernatural powers since after the parallel universes-merger crisis. He now uses them to ultimately enslave all of Gotham City forever, proclaiming himself "Mayor Joker". Within his chaotic city, the Joker held a new tournament in which contestants fight for his amusement, and the winner of all these challenges would have to face the final opponent, the Joker himself.

Joker Venom

Joker Venom

The Joker Venom (known collectively by many names such as the Laughing Gas, the Joker Gas, Joker Juice, Smilex, Smylex, Laugh-A-Loads, Perma-Smile, the Grinning Death) is a fictional and signature drug that is a weapon utilized almost exclusively by the Joker - one of DC comics' most popular and famous supervillains, and the archenemy of the equally popular superhero Batman.

Joker Gas has similar properties to laughing gas in that it makes its victims laugh uncontrollably but has a horrific side-effect known as a "Joker Grin" in which the victim's face is distorted into a grotesque death grin similar to the grin often portrayed on The Joker.

In the original Batman: The Animated Series, the Joker was prone to utilizing this gas as an alternative to killing (the creators stated that Joker couldn't kill in the series due to it being a children's show - however as they rightfully stated the Joker Gas scenario is almost as bad (if not worse).

Perhaps the most famous (and grand) use of the Joker Venom (under the name Smylex) was in the original Batman movie in which the Joker unleashed a tide of the toxic gas on Gotham with the use of modified parade balloons.

Joker Venom Bottle

Joker Venom Bottle Pendant by GeneveveX

Trivia

  • Joker's first name is nearly revealed and apparently begins with "Ja--" However, before Melvin Reipan is about to mention the name, the Joker shushes him, saying "We don't use that name anymore, remember? I'm Cousin Joker now."
  • Joker arguably has the largest individual body count in the DC Universe (galactic rulers and planet destroyers aside). While Mongul, Cheshire, and Black Adam have devastated entire cities, Joker probably has killed more in a single act, ranging from traditional knives and explosives to his lethal electric joybuzzer and his signature laughing gas.
  • The Joker is voiced by Mark Hamill in both Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Batman: Arkham City.
    • The Joker is voiced by Troy Baker in Batman: Arkham Origins.
  • The Joker's death in Arkham City was considered, by many Batman fans, to be one of the most shocking moments in video game history.
    • However, some fans speculate that the Joker is still alive, that he just faked his death.
  • The Joker is the first villain that's playable in the Arkham series, the second being Catwoman, and the third being Deathstroke.
    • Though in chronological order, The Joker is second playable villain, the first being Deathstroke
  • The Joker is also seen in many video games based on the Batman Animated Series.
  • Joker's hair is coloured red, blue and yellow, each with ending with a bauble simillar to the Akanbe noses. In episode 32, it is revealed that the baubles in fact, are Akanbe noses.
  • Joker is the second villain to use cards to attack, the first being Cobraja.
  • In Episode 16, it seems he studied/observed the Smile! Cures and made a stack of data (for Akaoni). He might be the second to take notes on Pretty Cures, the first was Scorp.
  • Unlike the three commanders, Joker was not redeemed in the end.
  • Joker is the DC's equivalant of Kano.
  • When Captain Marvel mentions Dark Kahn's name, Joker unexpectically screams out, "KAHN!", which is a reference to Captian Kirk screaming out Khan in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn.
  • Joker is the only character (if he doesn't perform one of his Fatalities) to attack his opponent after he defeats them. He walk towards them and stomps on thier groin.
  • In Kano's MK Vs. DC Universe ending, he becomes a Joker-like killer in his universe.
  • In MK9, Shang Tsung has a Fatality where he morphs into a red-nose-and-makeup clown, and then shoots with a gun that first gives off a BANG! flag, only to then really shoot the enemy, with him giggling over it. It is very similar to Joker's MK vs. DCU fatality, and some accounts say that the programmers actually wanted Tsung to morph into the Joker, but copyright concerns arose.
  • Mike Matei of Cinemassacre.com appears as the Joker with his cohort James Rolfe in an Angry Video Game Nerd review of past Batman games. He taunts the Nerd, dressed as Batman, when the controls on the older games prove a frustrating challenge for Rolfe, who notably does not have Batman's self-control. The Joker appears as a major antagonist in DC Universe Online where he acts as the mentor for villains who choose to specialize in technology.
  • Jokermon's name is based on the DC comic book villain The Joker

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