The Joker

'The Joker' is one of, if not THE most dangerous, psychotic and sadistic villain in Batman's rouges gallery. Being responsible for the deaths of more then a thousand people, the murder of Jason Todd and the paralyzation of former Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, The Joker is often cited as Batman's arch-nemesis due to a deep rooted hatred between them. Being extremely intelligent, manipulative and often having access to a variety of weapons such as 'Joker Venom', The Joker often proves to be a match for the Dark Knight in their eternal conflict against each other.

## Origins

Little to nothing is known about the Joker's origin except certain details, such as his former status as 'The Red Hood' and that his creation was directly caused by Batman in some way shape or form. While the Joker has given his 'origin' multiple times to different people it never remains the same, changing details from being in the mob, to being a comedian, to even being an abused child. However, the one largely accepted, including by Batman himself is that the Joker was an un-lucky comedian who suffered 'one bad day' where his wife was killed and he was blackmailed into dawning The Red Hood persona where after an encounter with the police and the infamous Dark Knight, fell into a vat of chemicals in the old ACE building, surviving, but loosing his mind and humanity in the process, becoming the Clown Prince of Crime who would terrorize Gotham for years to come.

## Early Years [1989 - 1997]

### The Man Who Laughs [ 1989 ]

As if appearing out of thin air, The Joker was first spotted in 1989 where he quickly took the Gotham crime scene, then mainly operated by Carmine Falcone, Salvatore Maroni and Oswald Cobblepot, by storm, using a mysterious toxin known as 'Joker Venom' and an arsenal of other weapons to target Gotham's residents [Mainly the rich] and to terrorize the mob, who at the time did not know how to react to such a presence. During this period, The Joker received his name and first encountered Batman during in which the two began their everlasting conflict. After murdering some high profile Gotham residents and attempting to poison Gotham's water supply, the Joker is almost killed by Batman in their first fight, but instead is sent to the recently re-opened, Arkham Asylum, beginning a re-occuring cycle that would continue for years.

### Formation of the Joker Gang [ 1989 ]

However, after the events that transpired, The Joker had gained a following, with this 'The Joker Gang' was formed out of multiple thugs who began to admire the clown, as the recently titled 'Clown Prince' was able to escape from Arkham, chaos soon began as with his new gang the Joker wreaked havoc across Gotham, robbing banks and killing, this cycle repeated as the Joker and Batman had multiple encounters in which Batman would always force The Joker back to Arkham where he'd remain until his eventual escape.

### The Mask of the Phantasm [ 1990 ]

During the time between the four year period of 1989 to 1993, 'The Phantasm Killings' would have occurred, In which after a man hunt for Batman and the murder of various mob bosses, it would end up leading to an eventual confrontation at the abandoned World's Fair Amusement Park between The Joker, Batman and Andrea Beaumont in which a fight between the three would occur before a series of rigged explosions went off, leaving both The Joker and Andrea Beaumont apparently dead with Batman continuing his war on crime in Gotham.

### Spawn and the coming of Malebolgia [ 1993 ]

The Joker eventually resurfaced however, revealing his survival of the events at the World's Fair Amusement Park and returning to his ways of spreading chaos in Gotham, which by now had seen the surfacing of other criminals in the same vein as the Joker. Through this period from 1993 - 94, the Joker would build even more of a name for himself, expanding his gang and range of control through Gotham whilst fighting the Caped Crusader and his new sidekick, 'The Boy Wonder' or Robin, constantly repeating the cycle of returning and escaping Arkham. In 1994, 'Spawn' or Albert Simmons arrived in Gotham during the period of the Joker's constant rampages through the city, whom had violently been attacking hospitals and other places with his gang over the past months. The Joker would soon encounter Spawn during this period, who had befriended Batman and Robin and assisted against Joker. Along with this, The Joker would be present for the large scale battle against the Demon Lord Malebolgia within Arkham, attacking Batman and Spawn during the battle before eventually being incarcerated once more after Malebolgias defeat.

### The Obsession

After the defeat of Malebolgia, The Joker would soon develop from a hatred to an obsession with Batman while serving time in Arkham. Seeing him as the ying to his yang, The Joker would make it his ultimate goal to 'break' Batman by having the Caped Crusader defy his 'no-kill' rule to execute The Joker and end his nihilistic rampage. In order to achieve this, The Joker would begin committing heinous and vile acts, murdering children and woman infront of Batman and executing multiple people to push The Dark Knight to his breaking point, and while Batman came close to killing The Joker on numerous occasions for his crimes, he'd never cross that line, instead often beating him badly before returning him to the doors of Arkham Asylum much to the Joker's frustration and disappointment. However, The Joker would soon begin pushing the line even further as he continued to escape from Arkham again and again, using his gang to continue to spread havoc and crime across Gotham while attempting multiple schemes such as spreading Joker Venom through Gotham, which at the time would fail, but eventually occur years later when the Joker re-attempted it, killing thousands of people in the event known as Hell Night.

### Mad Love [ 1995 ]

Thwarted by the Dark Knight, The Joker had been thrown into Arkham Asylum once again until his eventual escape. In an attempt to somehow help and rehabilitate The Joker's twisted mind, Doctor Harleen Quinzel was assigned to be The Joker's psychologist by the Arkham staff in a hope to try and 'Get to him'. Young and impressionable, the highly intelligent Joker easily manipulated to the young doctor, gaining her sympathy and trust through various talks in which he told lies about his tortured and abusive childhood in which his father beat him senseless and killed his mother. Taken a back by these stories, the young Harleen soon became infatuated with The Joker to the point she was had over heels for him. With little to no hesitation, she broke the Joker out of Arkham, letting him run rampant to cause havoc in Gotham as she dawned the persona of Harley Quinn, assisting Joker in his rampage through the city before being beaten by the Dynamic Duo and sent back to Arkham with the Joker. Believing The Joker loved her, Harleen became confident that he would escape and release them both, but little known to her, The Joker simply used her for his own interests and in fact despised her, never attempting once to assist her escape when he did manage to leave the Asylum, despite all of this though, when Harleen was able to escape she'd accompany The Joker who'd often abuse and torture her mentally when he was bored, harboring the ultimate intent to eventually get rid of her when he felt like it, which would unfortunately occur many years later.

### The Laughing Fish [ 1996 ]

With years of being bashed and defeated by the Dynamic Duo, the Joker Gang would have begun showing signs of weakness seven years after its formation. In an attempt to bring the gang back to it's greater roots, and out of random insanity, the Joker poisoned the fish of Gotham bay with Joker Venom, dumping loads of the toxic material into the near by waters and killing the fish within. This later lead The Joker to his ultimate goal of causing real havoc as he attempted to patent his fish due it containing his facial features but failing, due to this, he'd soon have The Batman on his tail as he later invaded the local News station and aired warnings against multiple people if they were not to patent his fish by the certain time. The first of these people being G. Carl Francis who despite the best efforts of the Gotham Police Department and Batman, would die at the hands of The Clown after receiving Joker Venom bomb in his home. After the death of Carl, the Joker would again air a warning as he warned against the life of Thomas Jackson, a copyright office official, who'd The Joker demanded he allow patent his fish or face the same fate as Francis. Unlike Francis however, Thomas was able to survive Joker's attack in which he used an infected Joker cat to spread his smile.