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From SCIFIPEDIA
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| Batman Character
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| The Joker
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| Publisher
| DC Comics
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| Gender
| Male
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| Species
| Human
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| Creator(s)
| Bob Kane
Bill Finger
Jerry Robinson
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| First Appearance
| Batman #1 (1940)
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| Profession
| Homicidal Maniac, arch criminal
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| Affiliations
|
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| Special Features
| Crazy, uses special Joker toxin, once The Red Hood
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The Joker is a fictional comic book villain, arch nemesis of the comic book superhero, Batman.
The Joker is a homicidal maniac, portrayed as various degrees of crazy over the years. His skin is chalk white, his hair is green, his lips are red, and his maniacal grin is his trademark.
Character Origin
The Joker’s origin was first told in Detective Comics #168 (1951), by Bob Kane, Sheldon Moldoff and George Roussos. The Joker had been a lab worker turned criminal called the Red Hood, plaguing Gotham City series in a series of crimes. The Hood wore a red mask with no features, and could see out of the thing by the use of red two-way mirrors for eye-holes. He was robbing the Monarch Playing Card Company and escaping through a chemical plant next door. When Batman confronted him, he escaped by diving into a vat of chemicals, and swimming out to the river. The criminal somehow survived the deadly chemicals, but they changed the coloring of his face and hair to resemble a Joker playing card.
This story was updated in Batman: the Killing Joke (1988) by Alan Moore, Brian Bolland and John Higgins. In this version the Joker had still been a lab worker in a chemical plant, but this time he had quit his job to become a stand up comic. He was unsuccessful, and he and his pregnant wife were starving and unable to make the rent payment. It turned out he just wasn’t funny, and went through a series of humiliating fruitless attempts to make people laugh, to no avail. This time, the Red Hood was a series of patsies created by a gang of thugs to deflect blame of a series of crimes away from them. When they found out that the unsuccessful comedian used to work at the chemical plant who had access to the Monarch Card Company (their actual target) they recruited him as the latest patsy to play the Red Hood and help them past the plant security. Desperate for money, he agrees to take the job for this one time score. Just before the crime, he is informed that his wife was killed by an electrical short in a baby bottle heater. The gang forces him to go through with the plan anyway, and he is again confronted by the Batman, and escapes by diving into a vat of chemicals. When he removes the hood and sees his transformed face, he becomes unhinged.
History
In his first appearance, he began by announcing the murder of his next victim over the radio, including his exact future time of death. It wouldn’t matter what the victim would do. In one case, a group of policeman would surround him at the announced time. In any case, when the hour struck, the victim would keel over and die. The Joker had already given him a special time released poison, calculated to kill him at that very hour. The poison used was a special invention of his, the Joker toxin, which would force the muscles of your face to contract in death, so that you would die with a “death grin” on your face, resembling that of the Joker.
The Joker was supposed to die at the end of his second appearance. At the last minute Bob Kane redrew the ending so that a doctor announced that the Joker would somehow survive, saving the character from oblivion. This began the tradition of the Joker seeming to die at the end of the story, but actually surviving somehow to return. This is a motif that would be repeated many times over the years.
The Joker was portrayed more clever and calculating, and not quite the senseless murderer that he is today, in the late Golden Age, as well as the 1950s and the Silver Age of Comics. He was a wacky character, driving a "Joker-Mobile" and hiding out in his "Ha-Ha-Hacienda".
It would take the slightly more mature Bronze Age to bring the Joker back to his dark roots. In Batman #251 (1973), Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, and Dick Giordano cemented the darker Joker character, a truly insane homicidal maniac. They brought back the deadly Joker toxin from his first appearance, and set the dark tone for all his future appearances. This interpretation was popular enough to win the Joker his own short-lived comic book series during the 1970s.
Despite the fact that he is said to have murdered thousands of people, including many of his own henchman, the Joker always escapes the death penalty due to his criminally insane status. It soon became part of the Batman mythos that, when captured, the Joker would not go to prison but to Arkham Asylum for the criminally insane. Soon, other of Batman’s crazier foes would join him there, like Two-Face, Victor Zsasz, and the Scarecrow.
It was in Arkham Asylum that he met Dr. Harleen Quinzel, the criminal psychologist that turned out to be mentally unstable herself. Harleen fell in love with her patient, and soon became the Joker's sidekick, Harley Quinn.
Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.
The Joker’s most infamous crimes over the years was the crippling of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl and Oracle), the kidnapping and torture of James Gordon, and the murder of Jason Todd (the second Robin).
Joker Portrayals
- Heath Ledger took on the role in the 2008 film sequel to Batman Begins and the portrayal differs significantly from the previous live action and animated films and series. Ledger's Joker is less comic in appearance and more genuinely terrifying.
External links
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