The Joker

**The Joker** was a disturbed criminal based in gotham city during the prohibition era, and was a major antagonist in giant panda king's book Gotham 1919-1939, as well as the series of the same name from the Batfeed. He is portrayed by Anthony Howes

## History

### Origin

No one knows where this man came from, though their are rumors that he was part of a regiment that fought in the trenches during world war 1. They would face gas attacks regularly, and wore painted red gas masks. They were known as the Red Hood Regiment. The rumor stating he was disfigured and driven insane from a gas attack. Other theories state that he was a former circus performer driven mad by the abuse he faced there. Another paints him as a mobster, or a mythological figure that achieved immortality, with the latter linking him to the Dada and Surrealist movements due to his chaotic nature.

Whatever the case, the joker first appeared in gotham city in 1923, and he was unlike anything the city had ever seen. He went on a crime spree that left the police baffled, as his crimes were random in nature, and there was seemingly no motive for any of them. His true identity was such a mystery, that the police offered a $10,000 reward for any who had information on his identity. While it is heavily suspected that he was responsible for a large number of people, he is only confirmed to have killed 4 people.

### First Imprisonment

The joker's case drew the attention of the batman, whom tracked down and apprehended the joker with the aid of the GCPD. Joker would gain a strange obsession with the batman, almost seeing him like his own twisted soulmate. At his trial, joker's defense psychiatrist argued that he suffered from schizophrenia and maybe a bipolar disorder, which swayed them to delay the sentencing and send him to arkham for treatment. These diagnoses have since been proven false, and no one has been able to officially diagnose the joker.

While in arkham, joker began manipulating harleen quinzel, a member of the custodial staff at the asylum, and drove her to fall in love with him. Taking on the identity of Harley Quinn, she broke joker out of arkham, and they went on a cross country crime spree together. However, Joker would go on to be a terribly abusive man to harley. Eventually, Joker and Harley came back to gotham and continued their crimes there.

### Dark Days

In a revenge scheme against commissioner James Gordon for aiding in his arrest, Joker went to his daughter Barbara Gordon's home, and shot her in the spine, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. Later on, he kidnapped the second robin Jason Todd when he came investigating joker's warehouse, and beat him to death with a crowbar. Joker would later be charged for Jason's murder. Jason's death and the parallelization of Barbara, pushed batman over the edge, and he became more brutal, something that joker reveled him.

Joker evaded arrest for many years to come. As time went on his crimes became more sadistic in nature, and he had pretty much lost the little sanity he had left. During the shadow war between the batman's team and the league of assassins, joker escaped arkham when the league bombed it, as well as blackgate penitentiary. During the end of the war, Joker allegedly confronted Ra's Al Ghul in an alley, and shot him point black in the head, as he was angered by all the chaos ra's had been causing, and thus stealing batman's attention from him.

### Final Years

Harley eventually broke off from the joker, and became her own independent woman in gotham. After the disappearance of the Batman in 1939, Joker escaped from Arkham, never being seen again.

In his cell, written in blood where the words

"All the Worlds a Stage, all men and women merely players".

## Trivia

* He is based on real life historical figures like Salvador Dalí and John Dillinger, and fictional characters like the man who laughs.
* His teeth is based on the real life condition known as 'Acromegaly'.
* The Dada movement also played a big inspiration for this version of the joker.