Joker (DC Animated Universe)

**Joker**is Batman's archenemy and a supervillain in the DC Animated Universe.

## History

### Origins

Originally an unnamed criminal with a checkered past, he started out as a young chaffeur working for mob bosses Sal Valestra, Buzz Bronski and Chuckie Sol. At one point early on, he and Bruce Wayne caught a glimpse of each other. One of his last jobs took place in Europe on the Miditerranean Coast. His target was businessman Carl Beaumont after the mob bsses had discovered he had embezzled them. Andrea Beaumont returned home from grocery shopping, only

   to see the criminal emerging from her house, silently walked past her as she rushed inside to see her father murdered in cold blood.

Years later, the criminal formed a gang and staged a robbery at the Ace Chemical Plant. It was at the heist he first encountered Batman. It was unknown if he was pushed or slipped, but he fell off the catwalk and into a drainage of a vat of chemicals that washed him into the river, changing his life forever. The chemicals had an adverse effect on him; dying his hair green, skin was bleached white, lips were permanently stained red and his clothes were dyed purple giving him the appearance of a clown. All of this snapped his already twisted and sadistic nature, thus becoming the Joker. Vowing to show the world of the triumph of his comic genius, the career of one of the world's most dangerous and intelligent psychopaths began.

### Endeavors

A frequent inmate of Arkham Asylum, Joker was often psycho-analyzed by Dr. Harleen Quinzel. After one session, Joker fooled Quinzel as he painted himself as a misunderstood child crying out for the world to accept him as Quinzel later found herself in love with him and broke him out of Arkham. 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.

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

Depending on the joke, Joker's plans can range from small-scale to global. On one occasion, he tried to con his way to the local comedy trophy, 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. Another time, Joker stole a nuclear warhead and almost successfully set it off on Hamilton Hill's residence. One of his most famous schemes involved infecting all of 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, Joker was hunted by the Phantasm due to his former ties with 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 Venom, and finally confronted both Batman and Phantasm at the World of Tomorrow. 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 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 after seeing he was simply not sane anymore.

Batman shut down the Joker's operations in Gotham City on a rountine basis but Joker really dd 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 is not able to kill "a mere mortal in a Halloween costume", but agreed to pay if successful. Joker planned to use the statuette Laughing Dragon actually made of Kryptonite. Joker's plans fell apart when Batman deduced that the antique was made of and headed to Metropolis, reluctantly cooperating with Superman to defeat the villain. 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. 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.

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 his first million on various pursuits, such as hiring a defense team to wipe his criminal career clean and even trying to buy Batgirl and Nightwing off. However, Joker was duped. The majority of the money was counterfeit and the IRS was claiming it's duties, which Joker could not dispute without an embarrassing admission that he'd been tricked, thus making him the laughingstock of the Gotham criminal 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 overboard. However, crying, Joker implied that he was sad enough to commit suicide with the money and the clown returned to Arkham Asylum with a little payback from Harley on the way.

During his seven-year anniversary of the transformation into the Joker, the Gotham Insider made a live report from Ace Chemical Plant. The Clown Prince of Crime made his 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 as a 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 franatic that he even practically begged Batman to arrest him, clutching Batman's cape and crying his a lunatic. Batman then cuffs Joker while somewhere along the line, Joker was saved and Batman sedated Creeper.

### Other Schemes

In another routine shut out, 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.

Some time later, Joker wound up in Metropolis again. He was just in time to meet Lex Luthor's Injustice Gang. Lex, remembering his last alliance with Joker's years earlier, simply ordered him to leave. But after some convincing 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 Injustice Gang was successfully destroyed, Joker was promised Batman. Using a tracker, Joker had obtained, the Injustice Gang captured Batman and imprisoned him. Joker started to try to convince Luthor into killing the Dark Knight whilst they had the chance but he refused. 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 the Caped Crusader had manipulated the situation throughout the entire endeavor. Batman easily knocked out Joker to end the

    conflict.

Continuing to cause more chaos, Joker discovered and entered the secret compound Section 12. Since the compound was under the supervision of secret iniative, 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 on Las Vegas. Joker secretly planted several high explosives all throughout the city. Though the Justice League managed to disarm the bombs, the bomb stunt was merely to attract viewers around the world. The real plan was use 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 powers on Joker and temporarily incapacitated him.

### Final Joke

As he decided that the "game" between him and Batman was growing old, Joker devised one last scheme direct at Batman's "family". Joker and Harley Quinn kidnapped Robin while the Boy Wonder was alone on patrol. In the former partially demolished Arkham Asylum, Joker systematically tortured Robin for three weeks. After several serum injections and electric shocks, Robin revealed all of his secrets to the Clown Prince of the Crime, including the fact Batman was actually Bruce Wayne. Joker then completed the "makeover" by splicing their DNA together, resulting

    in the victim's face contorting into a Joker like smile and then dressed a crude version of himself named "Joker Junior", 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 "Our Family Memories" video. While succeeding in enraging Batman, Joker delieved a knife to Batman's knee, crippling his archenemy. However, not even Joker could fully turn Tim and rather then shoot Batman and "deliver the punchline", he shot and killed Joker instead. Joker's last words claimed it wasn't funny before gasping his last breath and collapsing from his mortal wound, dead.

### Legacy

Though buried deep beneath Arkham Asylum's remains, the clown's last bid tainted the trio and engineered the end of the Bat-Team. Despite his death, Joker's criminal mastermind and homicidal legacy would live on for years. Whilst the people of Gotham City were free of the villain, several street gangs were formed to honor the Clown Prince of Crime's destructive legacy.

### Return

Unknown to anyone, Joker's greatest experiment on Tim Drake involved the usage of stolen cutting-edge genetics technology to encode his own DNA into a microchip that was implanted on the top of the victim's spinal cord. Forty years later, Joker's subconscious awakened and began to assume control of Tim's body and plotted his return. If Drake's family ever got worried, he'd simply call Tim's wife in the host's voice saying he'd be working late. Using Tim's knowledge of communications, Joker staged a series of corporate thefts utilizing a sub-group of Jokerz. He

    then had his Jokerz raid Bruce Wayne's Welcoming Back party, both to steal the necessary last piece of equipment and to expose to Gotham City his back. He later dispatched the Jokerz to kill Terry McGinnis while Joker himself personally broke into Wayne Manor and dosed Wayne with Joker Venom, also abused the dog Ace in the process, nearly killing Wayne had Terry not supplied Wayne with an antidote that was earlier hidden.

With the stolen communications technology, Joker created a satellite jammer and hijacked control of a Hyperion class defense satellite orbiting the planet so he can imposed his will on Gotham. His first target was the yacht belonging to his ally Jordan Pryce after dispatching the Jokerz to tie up loose ends by trapping him aboard. After Terry deduced that Drake was likely involved in Joker's scheme, Joker had anticipated that Terry had deduced the connection and set up a trap involving a hologram of Drake, as well as a recording that activated after Terry touched the holographic representation of his victim that "confirmed" Drake had indeed joined with Joker, as well as unveil that he used the hijacked satellite to attack Terry, although not before McGinnis uncovered his hideout.

Joker then regressed to the original form of his new body's owner before trapping Terry with an electronic restrainer and then demonstrated his transformation to both Batmen. Having revealed the mystery of his revival, Joker planned to crush the new Dark Knight's spirit by destroying Wayne Manor with Bruce inside then Terry's family and girlfriend. But before he could activate the satellite, Ace ambushed Joker and tackled the mad clown, freeing Terry in the process. Joked then used his joy buzzer to fend off a second attack from the Great Dane and moved to finish him off, but a kick to the jaw used his joy buzzer into vital equipment. After the jamming system accidentally redirected

    the satellite's laser straight to Joker's hideout, a skirmished ensued where Joker used the host's body to know every trick the original Batman and Robin knew. However, the new Batman decided to "fight dirty" and began to taunt and laugh at him. By insulting his poor attempt at jokes, gags and a sense of humor in general, Batman knew that his predecessor had never insulted Joker's ego in such a manner, preferring to fight one-on-one in stoic silence. This act so infuriated Joker that he began throwing everything he had, including mini-pocket bombs. Within moments of the satellite's beam hitting the building, Terry used Joker's own lethal joy buzzer against him; electrocuting him, and incinerating the microchip encoding his DNA on Tim's body. With the microchip burn't to ashes, Tim was restored and Joker's threat was ended once and for all.

## Personality

Joker was demonstrated to be a psychopath, even prior to his chemical bath. He harbored little remorse regarding any murders he committed under Sal Valestra's gang, and also intended to start his own criminal gang. After being dunked into a chemical bath, his insanity increased, making him among the most dangerous criminals in Gotham City, 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 seemingly inevitable, as evidenced by his reaction when the fairgrounds were exploding around him alongside Phantasm's preparations to kill him, as well as his reaction when he saw during a failed evacuation from the doomed LexWing his explosive marbles rolling towards him. His lack of regard for his survival was such that, after Batman came very close to killing Joker for the torture of Tim Drake, Joker referred to the act of Batman killing him as "that kind of fun" when calling him out stating he should have done it years ago.

## Abilities

Throughout the years, Joker used a wide variety of instruments to exact his comedic homicides. He is as brilliant as he is insane and he has a sufficient expertise in chemistry and psychics to be able to invent gadgetry and concot elaborate schemes. His equipment included playing card-shaped blades, guns of the trick and real variety, electric

    joy buzzers, a wide variety of laughing gases which incapacitated his victims 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.

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-warped, to name a few that should have ended his career, although the last aspect may have been due to the complexity of Joker's own mind. Originally, Joker possessed more than average physical strength, albeit regularly hold his own against 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.

## Quotes

* "It'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic, oh, what the heck, I'll laugh anyway!"
* "If you explain a joke, there is no joke!"
* "Look at the size of that cake, man."
* "That's why they call it the finale!"
* "The only things gaining now are the laughing stocks!"
* "Service with a smile?"
* "And people say I'm crazy!"
* "Jingle bells! Batman smells! Robin laid an egg! The Batmobile lost a wheel and the Joker got away! Crashing through a roof! In a one-horse-open tree! Busting out I go! Laughing all the wheeee!"
* "That's right, you're always blaming me. And the children always wonder why we fight."
* "Don't get cute with me, Red! His ripping me off! I'll protest, yeah, I'll sue! Then I'll rip his lungs out! And I will too!"
* "Coming to your local store! Just as soon as that nasty ol' Mr. G Carl Francis decides to give me my legal cut of my profits!"
* "Without Batman, crime has no punchline."
* "Well, that was fun. Who's for Chinese?"
* "You wouldn't dare. You don't have the guts. Not in a million years, would you? Harley, you're the only one for me!"

## Appearances

### Batman: The Animated Series

* Christmas with the Joker
* The Last Laugh
* The Forgotten (Cameo)
* Be A Clown
* I've Got Batman in my Basement (Cameo)
* Joker's Favor
* Fear of Victory (Cameo)
* Dreams in Darkness (Cameo)
* The Laughing Fish
* The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
* Joker's Wild
* Almost Got 'Em
* Birds of a Feather (Mentioned only)
* I Am the Night (Mentioned only)
* The Man Who Killed Batman
* Harley and Ivy
* Fire from Olympus (Cameo)
* The Worry Men (Cameo)
* Trial
* The Terrible Trio (Mentioned only)
* Harlequinade
* Riddler's Reform (Cameo)
* Make 'Em Laugh
* Batgirl Returns (Cameo)
* Lock-Up (Cameo)

### The New Superman Adventures

* World's Finest
* The Demon Reborn (Mentioned only)

### The New Batman Adventures

* Holiday Knights
* Joker's Millions
* Critters (Mentioned only)
* Legends of the Dark Knight
* Animal Act (Mentioned only)
* Old Wounds
* Beware the Creeper
* Mad Love
* Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (Mentioned only)

### Gotham Girls

* Trick or Trick? (Mentioned only)
* Lady-X (Cameo)
* Miss Un-Congeniality (Mentioned only)
* Strategery (Cameo)
* Baby Boom (Cameo)
* Catsitter (Cameo)
* Ms.-ing in Action (Mentioned only)
* Gotham in Pink (Mentioned only)

### Batman Beyond

* Shriek (Cameo)
* Joyride (Cameo)
* Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

### Justice League

* Injustice For All
* Only A Dream Part 1
* Wild Cards

### Justice League Unlimited

* Fearful Symmetry (Mentioned only)
* The Greatest Story Never Told (Mentioned only)
* The Once and Future Thing Part Two: Time, Warped (Mentioned only)
* Panic in the Sky (Mentioned only)
* Epilogue (Mentioned only)