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JOKER COMPENDIUM

6 years ago

I’ve noticed a lot of talking about Joker lately, so I put together a little compendium about him. Enjoy :)

Joker was actually the first classic batman villain to receive its own ongoing series. Back in 1975, Joker became so popular and gained so much interest that DC actually decided to give him his own ongoing comic series. Creating a Joker protagonist, however, was a bad move for DC. The idea was a flop and the series got cancelled after only nine issues. This is the comic series that ignited amazing graphic novels, animations, and plotlines like the ‘Killing Joke.’ Without further ado, here is my Joker Compendium. Let's start off with the best events in Joker History:

 

EMPORER JOKER: JOKER MITE?

In ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ (Season 2, Episode 19: Emperor Joker) Joker accidentally received Bat-Mites powers. In order to thank Bat-Mite, The Joker invented a miniature version of himself, calling it “Joker-Mite.” What the Joker didn’t expect was for “Joker-Mite” to go rogue; trying to stop both his creator and Batman. Luckily, Bat-Mite and Harley Quinn were able to defeat the little freak. Once Bat-Mite finally got his powers back, he undid everything the Joker had made, except for “Joker Mite” which was taken to the Fifth Dimension to serve as his arch nemesis. You can watch this episode at the link below:

http://watchcartoonsonline.eu/watch/batman-the-brave-and-the-bold-s02e18-emperor-joker/

 

KIDNAPS BABIES AND KILLS GORDON’S WIFE

In Detective Comics #141, Joker kidnaps dozens of babies and hides them in the basement of the GCPD (Gotham City Police Department). When Sarah Essen (Commissioner Gordon’s Wife) discovered Joker’s twisted scheme, she pulled a gun on him. In return, Joker threw a baby at her! Sarah caught the baby, but was shot point-blank in the head by Joker. The last thing she heard before she died were the Joker’s twisted words: “Merry Christmas.” He left Sarah’s corpse; the infant still screaming and crying in her dead arms.

This was a pretty dark and emotional comic, but now we finally got know what happened to the commissioner’s wife.

 

EATING CHINA

In the comic book Superman: Emperor Joker, Joker steals Mister Mxyzptlk’s powers and uses them to altar reality. In this reality, he used his powers to make gruesome/twisted versions of superheroes, constantly kill and resurrect Batman, and ate the entire Chinese population… just so he could make a joke about China.   

 

DARK CLAW AND CREED QUINN?

This is probably my favorite and most interesting thing that has ever happened to the Joker. It all started in 1996, when the Spectre and Living Tribunal created a universe of Marvel/DC hybrid characters. This sparked the Amalgam Comics line and got a lot of attention. In the comic “Legends of the Dark Claw”, Batman is fused with Wolverine (Darkclaw) and Joker is fused with Sabretooth (Creed Quinn). Each of these characters were created by a secret Weapon X Project, turning them into living weapons. This idea was absolutely radical, but at the same time amazing. You should look it up sometimes.

 

DEATH IN THE FAMILY/BATMAN UNDER THE RED HOOD

There’s almost no one who hasn’t read this series or at least watched the animated version ‘Batman: Under the Red Hood.’ This remains a classic and one of my favorites for many reasons. This comic series was one of DC’s dark/gritty spins on the Joker and his origin. If you read ‘Batman: The Killing Joke’ this comic works as the perfect sequel.

The Joker kidnaps Robin, drags him to an abandoned warehouse, and beats him brutally with a crowbar; all the while laughing and making fun of him. When he’s finished with his dirt work, the Joker leaves Jason Todd (Robin) alone in the warehouse with a bomb. Batman arrives, only seconds late; the bomb explodes.

 Batman dugs Jason out of the rubble and debris; what he saw horrifying him. Jason was dead; for the second time, Batman has lost his Robin.

Ra’s ah ghul brings Jason back to life in his so called ‘Lazarus Pit.’ He emerges from the pit of slime; ready to extract his revenge. He stole the Joker’s Red Hood cowl, mocking him, and became one of Gotham’s new vigilantes. A feared one that violated Batman’s moral code. At one point in the movie, he actually tried to kill the Joker.

The plot fascinated me and I loved the flashbacks of Joker’s past, much like the ones seen in Batman: The Killing Joke.

I also understand that this comic/animated movie focused more on Jason Todd, but none of it would’ve been possible without the Joker.

 

JOKER: FLASHPOINT

In an alternate universe, Bruce Wayne died instead of his parents. His dad became a much older and more brutal Batman. His mom, however, became the Joker of this universe; driven crazy from the grief of her dead son. Nice plot twist, right?

 

QUICK FACT: Joker has one of the biggest kill counts of any DC character, ranging from 680-1500 people. That’s a lot!

 

I could talk about Jokers interesting plot lines all day. How he made Superman kill his pregnant wife (Injustice), or how he tried to patent Joker-Fish, or how he had plastic surgery to become normal…. But I’m ending it here to start with a new section of the Joker Historium: FAN THEORIES

(Try looking these up. A lot of these theories have evidence to back them up and are quite intriguing!)

 

  1. The Joker is immortal
  2. The Joker has a supernatural sense of timing
  3. The Joker is Bruce’s brother, Thomas Jr.
  4. He was a war veteran
  5. He and Harley had kids
  6. Joker has ‘Super Sanity’
  7. Alfred Pennyworth is the Joker
  8. Jason Todd is the Joker
  9. The Joker is an ancient virus
  10. Joker is Batman from the Future

 

 

EVERY JOKER ACTOR SO FAR

Troy Baker

Jeff Bennet

Steve Blum

John DeMaggio

Mark Hamill

Heath Ledger

Jared Leto

Jack Nicholson

Kevin Richardson

Cesar Romero

Brent Spiner

Roger Stoneburner

 

QUICK FACT: The Joker knows Batman is Bruce Wayne… and he doesn’t care.

 

JOKER’S NICKNAMES:

The Clown Prince of Crime

The Ace of Knaves

The Jester of Genocide

The Harlequin of Hate

Mistah J (Harley Quinn's frequent name for him)

The Red Hood

 

Aliases:

Melvin White

Jack White

Jack Napier

Joe Kerr

Dr. J Reckon

Oberon Sexton

‘Eric’

THAT’S IT… I HOPE YOU ENJOYED!Image result for cool joker art

JOKER COMPENDIUM

6 years ago

The joker does have quite a history of being some sort of virus but honestly I like the explanation that he's the avatar of Nyarlathotep better. There's also one where Batman takes place in an alternate universe where Fight Club goes really, really wrong. (The Joker's usual street name is Jack Napier. In the book, the narrator is given the name "Jack". Both are pretty mental and have a pretty extensive knowledge on explosions, acid, punching, brainwashing, and temporarily repairing abusive relationships.) I really liked that one too. 

Also, the psychologists in the book claiming he has "super-sanity" were both quacks that had no understanding of therapy or psychology. Rather than attempting to address why Two-Face felt the need to make coin-based decisions in the first place, they simply gave him increasingly complex mediums of decisionmaking until he would in theory be able to make all the decisions that we can. Also something about helping all these dangerous fucking people taje over the fucking asylum so they can heal in a more constructive environment iirc. The Joker is by definition insane. He has a mental disposition that fucks with his cognizance and his behaviour to the point where it's caused a MYRIAD of problems in his life, which includes but is not limited to an inability to form healthy/meaningful relationships, an inability to hold proper employment, and routinely getting the shit kicked out of him by Batman and everyone else. That by its very nature is a psychological disorder, and while some edgy emo psuedo-philosophers in Serious House may argue that "He's saner than everyone else" they're wrong by definition alone, if not for all the other fucking reasons.

Aaaand I'm also pretty sure the kill count thing is false, especially in the DC Universe, considering Lobo destroyed his home planet, and then ate a planet after that, and Green Lantern villains/Darkseid/Most bad guys in the realm of the Fourth World/outer-spacey type series will straight-up destroy inhabitted planets with startling regularity.

JOKER COMPENDIUM

6 years ago

The kill count came from DC's Joker wiki, which had him ranked in the top 10.

JOKER COMPENDIUM

6 years ago

Yeah, maybe the kill count is limited to human characters?

Love the hell out of Lobo though, I've got his entire anthology in my collection. Need to make a movie about him in the DCEU, it would rival Deadpool is hilariousness.

JOKER COMPENDIUM

6 years ago

Yeah, I haven't read much Lobo.... I heard He's pretty cool, though. My friend called him the Deadpool of DC...

JOKER COMPENDIUM

6 years ago

Much grimier and more grotesque. I'd recommend checking out his mini-series, Unamerican Gladiators.

JOKER COMPENDIUM

6 years ago

I will. Thanks for the recommendation...

JOKER COMPENDIUM

6 years ago

There was an Elseworld story called Batman Lobo which actually had the Joker and Batman as long lost brothers. Joe Chill kidnapped the Joker after he shot their parents (Joe admired the Joker standing up to him) and taught him to be a criminal.

Oh and Lobo does a bunch of killing in the story as usual.

JOKER COMPENDIUM

6 years ago

That's awesome!!!

JOKER COMPENDIUM

6 years ago

Huh, sounds interesting. Surprised I've never heard of it.

I feel like a Lobo/Batman/Joker mashup would be cool though, I'll check it out, see if I can order it.