The Clown Prince of Crime, Mr. J, the Laughing Man or whatever you want to call him. There’s no denying that Joker is one of the most iconic comic book creations of all time. Introduced in 1940’s Batman #1, Joker has 83 years of adventures in comics.
While Batman often takes the spotlight, Mr. J has had some wild comic arcs. From devouring entire populations to becoming an immortal demon to stealing babies to raising a gorilla, the Joker has (almost) done it all. And now Joker has gotten pregnant and given birth, so let’s take a look at the 11 Craziest Things DC Has Done With Joker.
Joker’s pregnancy
In the latest in a long line of wacky Joker stories, he is seen “with a child.” Matthew Rosenberg and Francesco Francavilla’s story in Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing pits him against Zatanna during a complicated plot to steal Gotham’s water supply.
Following the Joker’s romantic advances on Zatanna, she casts one of her signature spells in issue #4 and turns the tables. Waking up in Wonder Woman’s bed, Joker appears to be nine months pregnant. Upon being seen by the villain Doctor Phosphorus, Joker vomits a Clayface-like substance that transforms into his image. He is a… Joker!
A clearly proud Joker welcomes his son with open arms, but let’s remember that this isn’t the first time Joker has had problems with his father. Far from Harley’s twins in Batman: White Knight or the convoluted story of Duela Dent, however, this has to be the most outlandish paternity plot to date.
Cut your own face (and put it back on)
One of Joker’s most iconic plot threads involves his face being cut off on purpose and then stapled back together. The villain has always had a creepy look, but seeing his half-cut face has become synonymous with 2012’s Death of the Family story arc.
In Tony S. Daniel and Ryan Winn’s 2011 Detective Comics #1, Joker gets himself imprisoned in Arkham Asylum in order to cross paths with the Dollmaker. When he is there, he asks to have his own face cut off to show that even under his “mask” he is crazier than ever. Joker is missing in action for an entire year, steals his refrigerated face from the GCPD again, then puts it back on for a knockout blow.
Gathered for a twisted dinner, Joker uses his toxin to convince the Bat-Family that he has also taken their faces and served them dinner. The Joker’s story is so iconic that there are even theories that he was adapted for Barry Keoghan’s version of the character in The Batman.
Vote for me… or I’ll kill you
On the cover of 2005’s Batman: Dark Detective #1, the Joker parodies Uncle Sam as he tries to run for governor. Joker confronts Senator Evan Gregory, who is the love interest of Bruce’s former flame, Silver St. Cloud.
All of this means that Batman is on the fence about who to root for. Speaking of the iconic catchphrase “Vote for me. Or I’ll kill you,” screenwriter Steve Englehart told CBR: “If an actor can become governor, why can’t a super criminal?” Since only the Joker can do it, he even offers Batman a spot on his political team.
Joker kidnaps Silver in an attempt to get Gregory to quit, and then the typical showdown ensues at Joker’s trap-ridden mansion. Obviously, Joker doesn’t end up as Governor, but he does make you wonder who you’d vote for with a threat of violence hanging over you. It’s not just in the comics that Joker is running for election, as Rocksteady’s Arkham game posters also confirm that he is running for president.
be alfred
If there’s one person Batman can always rely on, it’s his long-suffering butler and best friend, Alfred Pennyworth. But that wasn’t always the case, and in one of the biggest twists to grace the pages of DC, Bruce Wayne’s doting mentor revealed himself as the Joker…for a brief period of time.
The idea of Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert and Scott Williams in What Happened to the Caped Crusader? it was to represent the idea of the last Batman comic in history. The 2009 story features Batman’s friends gathered for his funeral, though the Dark Knight watches from the sidelines.
When Alfred takes the microphone, he reveals in awe that he created Joker to make sense of Batman, while hiring his fellow actors to play other characters like the Riddler. With white paint and red lipstick, Alfred/Joker terrorizing Gotham was a way of giving Batman an “opposite” and keeping him busy to preserve his sanity.
eat china
We know Joker has an appetite for chaos, but in 2000’s Superman: Emperor Joker had a more literal appetite: eating the entire population of China. As the name of the arc suggests, our standard Joker becomes the character known as Emperor Joker.
Upsetting the universe in which Superman’s allies are villains and villains are heroes, Joker adopts his new form as Emperor and gobbles up 1.4 billion Chinese people from a takeout box with a pair of chopsticks. There’s a chilling shot of Emperor Joker sitting on top of a pile of skulls stripped of flesh.
The Emperor Joker’s manias don’t end there, and as if eating all of China wasn’t enough, he also turns Superman into a dog, has Jimmy Olsen beaten to death with rubber chickens, and traps Batman in a perpetual loop of torture.
Making Joker Fish… For Profit
The Joker’s conspiracies aren’t about tying members of the Bat-family to exploding birthday cakes or becoming an Iranian diplomat. Sometimes he wants to make a quick buck. Here comes the legend of the Smiling Fish.
Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers’ 1978 story is one of the Joker’s wilder schemes. Joker contaminates the fish in Gotham Harbor and gives everyone his same pale face and crazy grin. He doesn’t do it to create a race of killer fish or poison Batman, but to make money from royalties. (Though Mr. J is told he can’t register animals, so he kills a Copyright Commission employee.)
Today, the story is remembered for the Batman: The Animated Series episode, titled “The Laughing Fish.” It was a version for children that dispensed with brainless torture.
raise a gorilla
Although the many Joker origin stories are typically tragic, some have a warm touch. Even though Joker knocks out a gorilla’s mother and kidnaps him to raise as the son he never had, Joker’s relationship with the animal soon grows.
Joker flashes back to his abusive childhood with Aunt Eunice. In addition to bragging about murdering his uncle with a Colombian tie, Aunt Eunice also rubs young Joker’s skin with bleach and removes her beloved monkey puppet.
Back in the present, the gorilla grows disillusioned with Joker’s increasingly dangerous plans and accepts his fate: to die by falling out of a plane rather than be the clown’s toy. A sadistic Joker jokes about it and tells him that he can just go find another gorilla at the zoo.
be an immortal demon
Joker dies a lot, but in classic comic book style these deaths never last. However, his numerous deaths and ease of resurrecting him take a decidedly darker turn if you stick with Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman: Endgame. Is Joker really an immortal demon connected to the League of Shadows?
This story basically turns Joker into his own version of a Savage Vandal or Ra’s al Ghul; it is assumed that he is an immortal demon known as the Pale Man. He found the secret ingredient to the Lazarus Pit long ago and has used it for centuries to haunt Gotham over and over again.
With the Joker appearing in old photos and history books, Endgame takes inspiration from The Shining. Although the story seems to feed into the acclaimed Three Jokers arc, we never get answers as to whether the Pale Man is real or just another made up Clown Prince of Crime story.
Superman pierces his chest
NetherRealm’s Injustice: Gods Among Us is more than just a Mortal Kombat-esque fighting game, as it also spawned the Injustice prequel comic book series. The idea of an alternate reality ruled by a rage-fuelled Superman is a license to print money.
In the Year One storyline, Joker steals a nuclear submarine and places a kidnapped Lois Lane on board. He uses Scarecrow’s fear toxin to control Superman, who beats Doomsday to death. There are several twists and turns, with Superman finally realizing that he is actually a pregnant Lois that he has killed.
Lois’s heart is synchronized with a nuclear warhead, and when it stops, the bomb ripped through Metropolis. Having lost his family, an enraged Superman punches Joker in the chest. Which leads to the rise of this Evil Superman… decimating an entire reality is much bigger than the average Joker plan.
Creation of the Batman Who Laughs
Joker is never afraid of sacrificing himself for the greater evil, and if you thought creating the world of Injustice was one thing, it’s nothing compared to Earth-22 of the Dark Multiverse. The Batman Who Laughs is an instantly recognizable creation of modern DC, and it’s all thanks to Joker.
Joker gets this version of Bruce Wayne to break his no-kill rule by dissolving Jim Gordon in a vat of acid, bombing Gotham, and killing the parents of the Jokerized children in Crime Alley. By killing Joker, Batman releases a deadly toxin that lurks in the villain’s heart.
Days later, the nano-toxin begins Jokerizing Bruce, who quickly turns into the Twisted Metal version of Batman and murders the Bat-Family. Ravaging this reality with his own Rabid Robins, the Batman Who Laughs takes down the Justice League and leads his Dark Knight counterparts, a feat the Joker could never do alone.
throw a baby
Proving there’s nothing Joker won’t do, kidnapping babies isn’t below his moral level. Towards the end of 2000’s epic No Man’s Land crossover, Detective Comics #741 shows the Joker at his worst.
Stealing babies from the city and locking them in the GCPD basement is just the beginning of the madness, as we get a tearful send-off from Jim Gordon’s wife. Sarah Essen and Jim had a long history dating back to their 1987 romance, and though they managed to survive No Man’s Land, these lovers are doomed by Joker.
Essen is the hapless detective who finds Joker’s baby dungeon, and when she pulls a gun on him, he throws a baby at her. Essen catches the innocent baby, but is shot in the head by Joker. Then we see the horrifying image of babies crawling over his bloody corpse.
