" Once again a skipper malefactor stalks the city street – a vicious wind a WWW of death about him – leave stricken victims behind fatigue a ghastly clown ’s grin – the sign of death from THE JOKER ! "
– Batman # 1 , 1940
Green hair , white skin , a violent grin and an unlimited supply of purple suits – when a sure playing card made its appearance at the end of the bountiful - blind relaunch " BatmanBegins , " fans started clamoring for every gritty image or leaked plot item about everyone ’s favorite Bat - scoundrel . The Joker , played by Heath Ledger , made his takings to the swelled screen in " The Dark Knight " in summertime 2008 .
But long before the Joker was mixing it up in big - budget summermovies , he was make Batman ’s life miserable in the monthly deed of DC Comics ' Batman and Detective Comics serial publication .
The Joker’s First Appearance
The Joker was originally conceived during the Golden Age of comics as an evil motor lodge jester . He made his first appearance in Batman # 1 ( 1940 ) . The original Joker resembled player Conrad Veidt as he looked in the silent picture " The Man Who Laughs . "
bewilder both Batman and the Gotham Police Department , the Joker made his debut as a master thief and mass liquidator . He annunciate the name and exact time of death of his next dupe over theradio . The Joker accomplished this feat by poisoning his victim with a time - release , facial - sign on poisonous substance have it away asJoker Toxin .
In this first portrayal , the Joker was a account cause of death who pass on victims with a lasting demise grinning . While he was slated to be killed off from a tongue wound in his 2nd appearance in the same issue , the DC column department felt the character had potential . At the last mo , a instrument panel was added at the end of the comic revealing that the Joker was still alive . This started the trend of get the Joker meet his apparent demise only to be revealed as animated and well .
The Joker’s Comic Origin
" I ’m not on the button certain what happened . Sometimes I think it one way , sometimes another … If I ’m plump to have a past , I prefer it to be multiple choice ! "
– The Joker , " The Killing Joke , " 1988
In comics lore , as revealed in Detective Comics # 168 ( 1951 ) , the man who would become the Joker first masquerade as acriminalknown as the Red Hood . During a bungled robbery at a Gotham chemical industrial plant , the Hood jumped into a ad valorem tax of wild chemical to escape from Batman . Upon emerging from a drain tobacco pipe , he discovered that his skin had been bleached blanched . His hairsbreadth had turn over green , and his oral fissure was for good falsify into a large grin with bright red lips . The chemicals make him to go mad , thus transforming him into the Joker .
Although this root is reckon canon in DC Comics continuity , the Joker ’s earlier life history is up for debate . So are the circumstances surround why he bear the Red Hood pretense . The most recognised origin is retrieve in Alan Moore ’s " Batman : The Killing Joke . " Moore presents the pre - toxed Joker as a chemical technologist who quit his caper to become a stand - up comedian . go bad miserably as a laughable and heroic to ply for hispregnantwife , the man take a job to guide on two stealer to the Monarch Playing Card Factory through the neighboring chemical plant life where he worked . During the planning stages of the heist , policeinform the gentleman’s gentleman that his married woman has been killed in a household accident . It ’s potential she was down by corrupt constabulary involve in the heist . Although he ’s hesitant to continue the caper , the man is strong - armed into donning a cerise helmet and take the two thugs through the industrial plant .
While " The Killing Joke " is the most accepted comic - book origin of the Joker , the desperate engineer is not the only version of the villain ’s beginnings . In another retell , the young Joker collects the os of animals he tortures . He also exact pleasance in his female parent ’s contumely at the hands of his father . This adaptation reveals that the Joker ’s first murder was committed on a region boy who discovered his " favorite memorial park " and that the young Joker afterward murdered his father .
In accession to the different stories of how the Joker came to be , there is much debate over who should be called the Father of the Church of the Clown Prince of Crime . Comic - book artist Bob Kane , colleague artist Jerry Robinson and author Bill Finger all stake a claim to having make the Joker . Kane maintains that he and Finger created the joker , while Robinson contributed only the Joker ’s playing card [ generator : Frank Lovelace ] . Robinson , on the other hand , alleges that he had already drawn the Joker before Finger ever show him a picture of Veidt [ origin : Epstein ] .
Next , we ’ll look at changes to the Joker ’s fictional character over the years.
Calming the Clown
" Batman ! I accuse you of intervene with the right of crook to invest crimes ! "
– Batman # 163 , " The Joker Jury "
During the 1940s and 50s , comicbooks featuring horror andcriminalthemes were among the most popular titles being published . Believing that these playscript were help to winnow the flames of puerile dereliction in untested humans , Dr. Frederick Wertham published " conquest of the Innocent : The Influence of Comic Books On Today ’s Youth " in 1954 . In his book , Wertham reprinted grisly , red and sexually thematic images from popular comics . He reason that comics advance anti - social and homoerotic behavior in American youth .
While the Joker now practiced a more non - lethal regalia of activities , he remain one of Batman ’s most intelligent adversary . He employed numerous widget such as " CrimeCostumes , " Joker utility belts and even a Joker - Mobile that feature a large Joker face on the front grill to help further his vicious schemes . This version of the villain lasted until the sixties . Then , Julius Schwartz , who was not a fan of the Joker character , started editing the Batman comics . The Joker about go away into funny - record oblivion .
The Joker Today
" Zip - a - dee - do - da , zip - a - Diamond State - oom , my - group O - my , what a howling manna from heaven … "
– Joker # 3 , " The Last Ha hour angle "
When writer Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams were task with update the Batman line of descent in 1973 , the Joker hail back to the forefront . In his tardy incarnation , the Joker returned to his more homicidal ways . But rather of a dusty and calculating stealer , this Joker became a homicidal lunatic with no reservations about driving and sporadic killings .
This more lethal Joker picture himself as Batman ’s equal in terms of intelligence and wit but did not waffle to employ the occasional doojigger , like Joker Toxin . He displayed increasingly sociopathic conduct , such as ceaselessly murdering his henchmen . It was during this time that the Joker even get his own limited serial . In it , he battled a unlike hero each number only to be re - remand at the finale of each history . During the late eighties , this maniacal behavior was taken to the next level in several instalment . Hiscrimesincluded beating the 2nd Robin , Jason Todd , with a pry bar before apparently pour down him in anexplosion . He also kidnapped and excruciate Commissioner Gordon and paralytic Batgirl , Gordon ’s girl Barbara , by burgeon forth her in the spine .
In current DC continuity , the homicidal harlequin incarnation of the character has continue firmly in place while the Joker has engage in some of his most ambitious endeavor to date . Such campaigns include stealingSupermanfoe Mr. Mxyzptlk ’s reality - vary might to reshape the populace in his figure of speech , as well as infecting a large population of top-notch - villain with his insanity - producing Joker - Venom .
The Joker has also managed to find a brother of sorts in Harley Quinn , his one - time psychiatrist who he manipulate into becoming obsessed with him . Though from time to time think big , the Joker has remained no stranger to random sadism . This is manifest in the execution of Commissioner Gordon ’s second married woman and the shooting of Zatanna , magician and Batman friend , in the throat .
Most recently , the Joker was shot in the face by a corrupt police officer masquerading as Batman . He nearly died before being resuscitate at Arkham Asylum . wide rehabilitative surgery was require to revive him , and now the Joker has been left with a permanent grin that make it unmanageable for him to address .
Believing himself to have been shoot by the actual Batman and once again face further disfigurement , the Joker emerge with an even more lethal and psychotic persona . able-bodied to communicate by blinking his eye in Morse codification , the Joker order Harley Quinn , masquerade as his speech healer , to put to death each of his former collaborator . Sparing only Harley herself , the new knight " Crown Prince of Killers " and " Harlequin of Hell " now believe that he must up the ante for compete with Batman , who he conceive is willing to mangle him .
Last Laughs
" I did it ! I finally killed Batman ! In front of a bunch of vulnerable , handicapped kids ! ! ! ! Now get me Santa Claus ! "
– Batman # 655 , " Batman and Son Pt .
The on-going battles between Batman and the Joker raise a pair of head . Why have n’t the Joker and Batman kill one another ? And if the Joker has dispatch so many people , why is he still alive ?
As far as Batman is pertain , it is against his personal code and missionary work assertion to kill his foe and thus become as they are . The Joker ’s excuses , on the other hand , are a little more complex . On numerous occasions , the Joker has gotten the drop on Batman only to refuse to end his foe . His reason include it not being a dramatic enough end to their rivalry or find that putting a prone Batman down would be anticlimactic . The Joker feel that it is his destiny to overcome Batman in a suitable manner that finally proves his random craziness is higher-ranking to the Batman ’s look detective skills . It has also been hypothesized that the Joker fears that without Batman as a accelerator for his actions , his living would become meaningless , as evidenced in Batman # 663 when the Joker states , " I could never pop you . Where would the turn be without my neat man ? "
The Joker has superintend to avoid thedeath penaltydue to being labeled criminally insane . In the graphic novel " Arkham Asylum , " author Grant Morrison proposed that the Joker suffered from a form of " tops - saneness " of heightened receptive perception and that he miss a true personality of his own , adapting his brain to whichever was the most beneficial . Morrison revisit his ideas on the Joker ’s saneness in Batman # 663 and nominate that each time he escaped from confinement , a newfangled personality would emerge , explaining the change in the Joker ’s role through the long time .
Thus , alternatively of being sent to prison house follow his capture , the Joker is sent to the Gotham City psychiatrical hospital , Arkham Asylum . Originally make to house only the mentally trouble of Batman ’s foes such as Joker and Two - Face , Arkham Asylum has evolve into the destination for most of the Dark Knight ’s rogue verandah . It ’s also where the Joker cope with his ex-husband - psychiatrist turn sidekick , Harley Quinn .
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