Joker

The Joker was a super villain and Batman's archenemy. With an unknown past, the Joker suddenly became Gotham City's most notorious criminal.

Biography
Jack Napier was in his mob days A photograph of Joker before his chemically altered appearence The Joker was originally an unidentifiable criminal with a checkered past, who started out as both a hitman and a chauffeur working for the Valestra mob.[1][3] One of his last known jobs took place in Europe on the Mediterranean Coast. His target was businessman Carl Beaumont after mob bosses Sal Valestra, Buzz Bronski and Chuckie Sol discovered he had embezzled from them. Andrea Beaumont returned home from grocery shopping, only to see the thug emerging from the house, silently walked past her and she rushed inside to find her father murdered in cold blood.[3]

Returning to Gotham City, the thug formed his own gang and staged a robbery at the Ace Chemical Plant, which was thwarted by Batman. Either because Batman pushed him, or he stumbled after getting punched, the thug fell off a catwalk and into a drainage vat of chemical waste that washed him out into the river, changing his life forever. The chemicals had an adverse effect on him: they dyed his hair green, his skin was bleached white, and his lips were permanently stained red. Vowing to show the world the triumph of his comic genius, the career of one of history's most dangerous and intelligent psychopaths, the "Joker", began.[1]

Endeavors
A frequent inmate of Arkham Asylum, the Joker was often psycho-analyzed at one point by Dr. Harleen Quinzel. After one session, Joker fooled Dr. Quinzel as he painted himself as a misunderstood soul crying out for the world to accept him as Quinzel later found herself in love with Joker and broke him out of Arkham.[4] However, a combination of Joker's ego and Harley Quinn's lack of humor tends to push Joker's buttons. More often than not, Joker abuses and throws Quinn onto the streets until he decides he wants her again.

The Joker's plans have little prejudice. Although he has shown particular delight in playing his jokes on the most ordinary, innocent victims, like mild-mannered salaryman Charlie Collins, he is just as dangerous to Gotham City's highest level officials such as Commissioner James Gordon,[5] or Mayor Hamilton Hill.[6] But Joker has had his share of provocations. Joker was one of three villains to travel to Yucca Springs on an invite from Hugo Strange claiming to know the identity of Batman.[7] Ex-businessman Cameron Kaiser deliberately made his casino resemble Joker's look to draw the villain out as a means to trick Joker into wrecking the casino so he'd get away with the insurance, although this plan ultimately backfired when Joker, thanks to information revealed by Batman on the plot, decided to instead kill Kaiser and then manage the casino from behind the scenes.[8]

Depending on the joke, the Joker's plans can range from small-scale to global. On one occasion, he tried to con his way to a local comedy trophy (or more accurately, the title of "funniest man alive"), that he was denied in disguise on account that he registered late, by using the Mad Hatter's mind control chips on the event's judges.[9] Another time, Joker stole a nuclear warhead and almost successfully set it off on Hamilton Hill's residence.[10] One of his most (in)famous schemes involved infecting all the fish in Gotham Harbor with his Joker venom, then demanding a copyright for them. When refused this, he went on a killing spree, infecting several bureaucrats of the Gotham Copyright Office with his Joker venom.

Some time later, the Joker was hunted by the Phantasm due to his former ties to the Valestra Mob. He also ended up disposing of Sal Valestra after the latter foolishly requested his help in stopping Phantasm. He later injected Arthur Reeves with Joker Toxin, and finally confronted both Batman and Phantasm at the World of the Future Fair. At this point, he discovered his former gang's executioner is actually the daughter of the man whom he murdered a long time ago. He nearly kills her, but is ultimately stopped by Batman. When defeated by Batman and at the mercy of Phantasm while the theme park was burning to the ground, Joker couldn't help but laugh, which eventually made Phantasm let him go after seeing that he simply was not sane anymore.[3]

Joker and Luthor make a deal Joker making a deal with Lex Luthor. Batman shut down the Joker's operations in Gotham City on a routine basis but Joker really did go bankrupt on a few occasions. One such instance caused him to travel to Metropolis, where he briefly allied himself with Lex Luthor to kill Superman for one billion dollars. Luthor scoffed at Joker, claiming he was overconfident in his ability to kill a superpowered Kryptonian when he has not been able to kill "a mere mortal in a Halloween costume", but agreed to pay should he succeed. Joker planned to use the statuette Laughing Dragon actually made of Kryptonite. Joker's plans fell apart when Batman deduced what the antique was made of and headed to Metropolis, reluctantly cooperating with Superman to defeat the villain.[11][12] Fearing Joker's failures were exposing him, Luthor called the deal off. Consolidating his losses, the Ace of Knaves kidnapped Lex and hijacked the experimental Lexwing assault vehicle, planning to destroy everything Luthor had built for fun (as Luthor had a hand in building half of Metropolis). The plan backfired when, in an engagement with Batman, Joker's exploding marbles fell across the plane. While Batman and Superman rescued Luthor and Harley Quinn, Joker was helpless on the crashing plane, laughing manically as it exploded in the river.[13]

The Joker returned to Gotham City a month later, still bankrupt. He unwittingly received a $250 million inheritance from his former gangland rival Edward "King" Barlowe. Joker immediately spent the first million on various pursuits, such as hiring a defense team to wipe his criminal record clean and even trying to buy Nightwing and Batgirl off. However, Joker was duped. The majority of the money was counterfeit and the IRS was claiming its dues, which Joker could not dispute without an embarrassing admission that he'd been tricked, thus making him a laughingstock in the Gotham underworld. Desperate, Joker tried to steal a routine money dispersal from the Gotham Mint without using any of his trademarks until Batman intervened again. Trying to jump over the ship, Joker was stopped from doing so by Batgirl as it would be pointless to go after the money that went over board. However, crying, Joker said "I don't want to save it. I want to go with it.", implying he was sad enough to commit suicide. Joker was then returned to Arkham with a little pay back from Harley on the way.[14]

During the seven-year anniversary of his transformation into the Joker, the Gotham Insider made a live report from Ace Chemical Plant. The Clown Prince of Crime made an appearance and attacked the news crew. Jack Ryder was doused with Joker venom then shoved into a drainage vat. Ryder transformed as well, but the combination of the chemicals and the laughing gas pushed Ryder further, giving him an energetically maniac yet still basically conscientious personality. Fashioning himself into the crazed vigilante known as the Creeper, he went on a rampage to get revenge on Joker. As a result, Joker found himself in the bizarrely terrifying situation of being relentlessly pursued by this new insane superhero of his own inadvertent creation. Although Creeper's mania is benign, his methods are so extremely wild and frantic that he even practically begged Batman to arrest him, clutching Batman's cape and crying "He's a lunatic!". Batman then cuffs Joker while somewhere along the line, Joker was saved and Batman sedated Creeper.[1]

Other schemes
In another routine shut out, the Joker was forced to move his enterprises outside of Gotham City. This time he chose the Midwestern town of Dakota. Joker planned on forming a metahuman gang. However, Batman, Robin and Static teamed up and escaped Joker's death trap, arresting the Clown Prince of Crime in the process.[15]

Some time later, the Joker wound up in Metropolis again. He was just in time to meet Lex Luthor's Injustice Gang. Lex, remembering the past alliance with Joker years earlier, simply ordered him to leave. But after some persuading (which resulted in Joker knocking out Solomon Grundy), he conned his way into staying by providing his expertise on [Batman]. His one condition was this: After the Justice League was successfully destroyed, Joker was promised Batman. Using a tracker, Joker had obtained, the Injustice Gang captured Batman and imprisoned the Dark Knight.[16] Joker started to try and convince Luthor to kill Batman whilst they had the chance but Luthor refuses. Joker is later seen with Ultra-Humanite and Lex as they try to deactivate the defensive system on Batman's utility belt which they do so successfully and find a communicator and key to the Justice League's space station. Luthor then sends the other Injustice Gang members to the space station, which was being guarded only by the Martian Manhunter, to plant a bomb on the headquarters and call them back. However, the Justice League survived and eventually defeated the Injustice Gang. Deciding to cut his losses, Joker attempted to kill Batman but it seemed Batman had manipulated the situation throughout the entire endeavor. Batman easily knocked out Joker to end the conflict.[17]

Continuing to cause more chaos, the Joker discovered and entered the secret compound Section 12. Since the compound was under the supervision of a secret initiative, he took some of their technology for later uses. Joker then freed the compound's captives and fashioned them as a card deck hand metahuman gang. Next, he purchased air time on several networks under the moniker "Gwynplaine Entertainment" and broadcast a live feed of Las Vegas. Joker secretly planted several dozen high explosives all throughout the city. Though the Justice League manage to disarm the bombs, the bomb stunt was merely to attract viewers throughout the world.[18] The real plan was to use the powers of his gang's fifth member Ace. Joker transmitted Ace's thought waves across the air to render everyone under a mass psychosis. When Batman confronted Joker alone, the Dark Knight managed to reveal to Ace that Joker held on to a special headband used to nullify Ace's powers. Ace, in turn, used her power on Joker and temporarily incapacitated him.[19]

As he was deciding that the "game" between him and Batman was growing old, the Joker devised one last scheme directed at Batman's "family". After Dick Grayson left for Bludhaven, Joker and Harley Quinn kidnapped Tim Drake, Dick's replacement as Robin while the Boy Wonder was alone on patrol, unaware that this is a trap. In the former partially demolished Arkham Asylum, Joker systematically tortured Robin for three weeks. After several serum injections and electric shocks, Robin revealed all his secrets to the Clown Prince of Crime, including the fact that Batman was really Bruce Wayne. Joker then completed the "makeover" by splicing their DNA together, resulting in his victim's face contorting into a Joker like smile and then dressed as a crude version of himself named "Joker Junior" (or "J.J." for short), much to the horror of Batman and Batgirl. Joker even went far enough to document the torture to show in the operating theater to Batman as the "Our Family Memories" video. While succeeding in enraging Batman, Joker delivered a knife to Batman's knee, crippling his nemesis. However, not even Joker could fully turn J.J., and rather than shoot Batman and "deliver the punchline", J.J. shot and killed Joker instead. Joker's last words were "That's not funny... That's not..." before gasping in his last breath and collapsing from the mortal wound, dead. Then Tim suffers a mental breakdown and Batgirl comforts him.[2]

Legacy
Though buried deep beneath Arkham Asylum's remains, the villain's last bid tainted the trio and engineered the end of the Bat-team.

Despite his death, the Joker's criminal mastermind and homicidal legacy would live on for years. Whilst the people of Gotham City were free of the villain, several teenagers street gangs were formed to honor the Clown Prince of Crime's destructive legacy, although these, unlike the Joker, never killed people.

Personality
The Joker was demonstrated to be a psychopath, even prior to his chemical bath.[1][3] He harbored little remorse regarding any murders he committed under Sal Valestra's gang,[3] and also intended to start his own criminal gang.[1] In addition, one of the few photographs of Joker pre-chemical bath that existed (which had Batman deduce who had killed Andrea Beaumont's father) had him holding a cigarette, implying that, at least pre-transformation, he had been a cigarette smoker.[3]

After being dunked into a chemical bath, his insanity increased, making him among the most dangerous criminals in Gotham, attempting to commit mass murder all for the sake of jokes. He has little regard for his own life and safety, even laughing in instances where his own death was seemingly inevitable, as evidenced by his reaction when the fairgrounds were exploding around him alongside the Phantasm's preparations to kill him,[3] as well as his reaction when he saw, during a failed evacuation from the doomed LexWing, his explosive marbles rolling towards him.[13]

Once, he even deliberately aimed a gun turret on an airplane he planned to make an escape in on the nuclear bomb he had set to detonate, fully acknowledging that he will most likely die from the bomb being set off just to ensure Batman could not disarm the bomb.[10] His lack of regard for his survival was such that, after Batman came very close to killing Joker in anger for the torture of Tim Drake, Joker referred to the act of Batman killing him as "that kind of fun" when calling Batman out by stating he should have done it years ago. When the returned Joker believed that he finally was about to eliminate Bruce once and for all, he admitted that he despised Bruce and actually "hated his guts." [2]

Despite this, however, the Joker nonetheless earlier gave his nemesis a eulogy when it seemed as though the latter had died, although mostly because he felt he allowed crime to have "a punchline".[20] His personality was best summed up by Bruce Wayne when Terry McGinnis asked if he was the top of the rogues gallery, "It was no popularity contest. He was a psychopath, a monster."[2]

Despite his evident insanity, the Joker was also shown to be quite intelligent, which was best demonstrated with the Phantasm murders, where he very quickly deduced the Phantasm's true identity, Andrea Beaumont, just from hearing her name on a secretary's announcement, knowing it couldn't have been her father as he had personally made sure he was dead from his prior life as a mob hitman.[3] Other demonstrations of his intelligence include his deliberately stealing the Laughing Dragon due to not only deducing Superman's fatal weakness to kryptonite, but also the fact that the infamous heirloom was made out of the material,[11]. Also, when the Injustice Gang managed to capture Batman, he repeatedly insisted that they kill Batman when they have the chance due to realizing just how much of a threat he posed to their plans,[17] and when he deliberately chose to forego his usual trademark gimmicks for his crimes, and even sent a body double to the Iceberg Lounge while he went to rob the U.S. Mint of cash specifically to avoid having Batman track him down.[14]

Even when he was "reborn" via Tim Drake, his intelligence hadn't died down, as evidenced by how he managed to deduce the true identity of the new Batman, as well as anticipating that the new Batman would deduce that Drake was in on his schemes. He also anticipated that Bruce Wayne had "monkey-wired" the new Batman and was monitoring everything they were saying at that point, even implying he was hoping for this in order to expose the truth to his old archnemesis that Drake was literally under Joker's control via a Cadmus chip.[2]

The only thing equal to Joker's insanity was his massive ego. He perceives himself as the greatest comedian in the world and the greatest nemesis of the Batman, and will not hesitate to destroy anyone who claims or demonstrates otherwise. One example of this hubris is when he was booted out of a comedy show and got back at the ones responsible by hypnotizing them into becoming super villains in order to cement himself as the "funniest man in all of Gotham", only to end a laughingstock afterwards.[21]

Another blow to his pride is when he was made to believe that he had inherited a massive fortune from a hated rival of his, only to learn that a majority of it was fake and it was a trick to get the last laugh on the Clown Prince, enraging the Joker beyond words.[22] Another time is when Harley Quinn managed to successfully capture Batman so that she and Joker can truly live together, but Joker saw this as an insult to his profession and assaulted Harley, going as far as to push her out of a window to her possible death. Batman then admitted that he tricked Harley into calling the Joker because he knew that his ego would never allow another to kill Batman, further damaging Joker's pride.[23]

Bruce Wayne would later reference this character trait of Joker's when advising the new Batman on how to beat Joker by referring to him as being "vain" and "loving to talk." Ultimately, it was this arrogance that led to the Joker's demise twice; the first was believing that Tim Drake, having been transformed into Joker Jr., was firmly under his control, only for the boy to resist and end up fatally shooting the Joker in the chest, with the clown using his last breath to remark his disappointment in the following events. The other time was when Terry McGinnis began insulting the Joker's sense of humor and relationship with the original Batman, causing the Joker to become even more dangerously insane and attempt to choke the boy with his bare hands, allowing Terry to destroy the chip on his neck and end his threat once and for all. Ironically, the latter instance came about after the new Batman decided, instead of blocking out Joker's taunts and powering on through (Bruce Wayne's original tactic of dealing with him), to beat Joker at his own taunts due to realizing that the new Batman himself also "liked to talk."[2]

Owing to his more clown-like appearance, he generally uses more comedy-based elements in his crimes and plans. As such, he also gets angry whenever someone "explains the joke" to him viewing it as not a joke at all. This resulted in him nearly killing Harley Quinn when she explained how she modified the plan for Joker in an attempt to help him kill Batman (alongside the above mentioned massive ego).[24]

Abilities and equipment
Joker overpowers Superman Joker uses a joy buzzer on Superman. Throughout the years, the Joker used a wide variety of instruments to exact his comedic homicides. He is as brilliant as he is insane and he has sufficient expertise in chemistry and physics to be able to invent gadgetry and concoct elaborate schemes. His equipment included card-shaped blades, guns (of the trick and real variety), joy buzzers (which electrocuted the victim), a wide variety of laughing gases (which incapacitated the victim with laughter), and his deadly Joker venom. Most famously, Joker had a flower attached to his suit. This flower emitted a wide variety of chemicals, depending on the situation and Joker's mood. Laughing gas and acid were popular variants, but the possibilities were limited only to the Joker's mind.

The Joker also seemed to have a strange relationship with death, constantly surviving and coming back from potentially fatal things—including long falls, explosions, and even being psychically mind-wiped, to name a few—that should by all rights have ended his career, although the last aspect may have been due to the complexity of Joker's own mind. Even when he was killed by the brainwashed Tim Drake, Joker still managed to cheat death through Tim himself, surviving long enough to come into conflict with the new Batman but was destroyed once and for all.

Originally, the Joker possessed little more than average physical strength, albeit enough to regularly hold his own against the original Batman. But upon inhabiting Tim Drake's mind, he acquired the training, conditioning, and knowledge of the original Batman and Robin, allowing him to easily outmatch the new Batman in a fist fight.

Background information
Originally, the Joker was slated to be voiced by voiced by legendary actor Tim Curry, who at the time had just finished voicing and portraying Pennywise the Dancing Clown from the film adaptation of Stephen King's It. However, the casting ultimately went to Mark Hamill instead, with him being chosen in large part because of his performance as Ferris Boyle in "Heart of Ice". Contrary to popular belief, Tim Curry's rejection was not because of his voice work proving too scary for what was intended to be a children's television program. It was actually because of his voicing style conflicting with showrunner Paul Dini and the other producers' vision for the character, as Tim Curry voiced the Joker as a more straightforward villain, while the producers of the show envisioned the Joker's characterization in the cartoon as being more chaotic and playfully twisted, as revealed in Batman Animated.[25] Some fans had rumored that Curry recorded some lines for the episode "Joker's Favor", but wheter this is true or not remains unknown at the current moment.

After voicing the Joker in the Justice League episode, "Wild Cards", Mark Hamill returned to play the character alongside Kevin Conroy as Batman and Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn in the non-DCAU video-games Batman: Arkham Asylum and DC Universe Online. Only Hamill and Conroy returned for Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Knight. Hamill and Conroy later returned to voice their respective characters in the animated film Batman: The Killing Joke.

As an interest fact, an skeleton seen wearing a shred of purple clothing with a similar bow flower in the Batman Beyond episode "Joyride" is believed by many to be that of the original Joker. Considering what Terry McGinnis is told that the Joker's body was buried beneath Arkham Asylum's remains as shown in the deleted scenes of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, this could very well be true.

During the earlier episodes of the series, he was frequently given the name Jack Napier, which was the true name of the Joker in the 1989 Batman film. However, as the animated series went on, references to the name were dropped, with it eventually being implied in Beware the Creeper that this had simply been an alias. Similar to the 1989 film version of the Joker, this version also worked as a hitman within the mafia, and was also responsible for Bruce Wayne adopting the identity of Batman (in the 1989 film, Joker's role had been direct via Joker, or rather, Jack Napier proceeding to slay Bruce's parents and almost killed Bruce himself; in the animated series, his role was more indirect, as it was his and the Valestra Gang's threatening the Beaumonts and forcing Andrea to break off her relation with Bruce so she could go into hiding that resulted in Bruce fully adopting the identity of Batman[3]).

--Revamp== Along with the rest of the cast, the Joker underwent a revamp when Batman: The Animated Series streamlined into The New Batman Adventures. Joker's change was relatively minor; however, he lost his trademark red lips, his hair was almost black, his eyes were turned black, and he was made to appear physically smaller and thinner. Audio commentary on the DVD release of the Superman: The Animated Series episode "World's Finest" and one of the first appearances of Joker's new style, reveals that the producers of the DCAU regret the stylistic change, and admit that removing Joker's red lips was a mistake, and that doing so was Glen Murakami's idea.

The character was altered again for Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker; this design, using elements from the original design with the second design's angular style, was later used for the character's appearances in Static Shock and Justice League. Like in the original design, the Joker also is shown to have red lips and green hair, although they were depicted in an extremely dark manner that the color is only identifiable via highlights. According to the DVD commentary of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the Joker's Batman Beyond era appearance (the red eyes and the slicked back hair) were based on an illustration of Hannibal Lecter from the novel The Silence of the Lambs.