Joker (DC Animated Universe)

"What's the matter, Batman? No witty comeback? No threat? Then I'll provide the narration... I'll begin with how I peeled back the layers of the boy's mind. Oh, he bravely tried to fight it at first. You would've been proud to see him so strong. But all too soon, the shocks and the serums took their toll, and the boy began to share such secrets with me. Secrets that are mine alone to know... Bruce. It's true, Batsy! I know everything. And kinda like the kid who peeks at his Christmas presents, I must admit, it's sadly anti-climactic. Behind all the sturm and bat-o-rangs, you're just a little boy in a playsuit, crying for mommy and daddy! It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic. Oh, what the heck, I'll laugh anyway. HA HA HA HA HA HAA!"

- Joker telling the tale of how he tortured Robin until he went insane.

The Joker was a major recurring villain in the DC Animated Universe which started with Batman: The Animated Series and continued through the series making up the DC Animated Universe (or DCAU). Like most characters in the DCAU, he is an iteration of the Joker from the DC comic books. The Joker was voiced by Mark Hamill, who may now be as well known for this as for his live-action role as Luke Skywalker. Starting out, he was an unknown crook working for the mob as an enforcer. Once, he was referred to as having the name Jack Napier, like in the 1989 Batman film, but in this case it may have been just another alias.

Past
 The Joker was an unnamed assasin working for Salvatore Valestra, Buzz Bronski, and Chuckie Sol. The mob sent him to kill a business man who had embezzled from them. Sometime later, he formed his own gang and robbed the Ace Chemical plant. Batman arrived, and in the ensuing scuffle, the thug fell into a vat of chemicals and became the Joker, also apparently destroying his sanity. While placed in Arkham Asylum often, he gained a secret ally in Doctor Harleen Quinzel, who fell in love with him and eventually joined his gang as his chief flunky, Harley Quinn. It is frankly an abusive and at times very pathetic relationship, and the affection Harley feels is often very one-sided, the narcissistic egomaniac Joker, as Batman put it, being capable of loving only himself.

As The Joker
As the Joker, he pulled schemes such as a Christmas-themed kidnapping of Commisioner Gordon, attacks on Summer Gleeson, and Harvey Bullock. He once tried filling Gotham City with his laughing gas, and planted dynamite at the birthday party of Mayor Hill's son. He also blackmailed a guy named Charlie Collins and made threats to him that he would kill his family, though Collins ended up getting the better of the cowardly psychopath. The Joker was used as a pawn in the schemes of Cameron Kaiser, but the Joker ended up tricking him. The Joker once even captured Batman and tried to electrocute him on live TV,  but this attempt was foiled by Catwoman, who was then his ally. However, the Joker managed to capture Catwoman and left her bounded and gagged at a cat food factory to be shredded while Harley Quinn watched. This act was also foiled by Batman, who pretended to be Killer Croc in order to lull the Joker into revealing Catwoman's location.

A vigilante called The Phantasm came to Gotham and, one by one, killed the mob leaders Joker had once worked for. Batman was accused of these crimes, but the Joker doubted this and set up a trap to kill the Phantasm before he himself was targeted. managed to find it wasn't Batman at all. The Joker later found out it was Andrea Beaumont, daughter of the embezzler he once killed on mob orders, taking up the identity of the Phantasm. He fought the Phantasm, but both managed to escape in an explosion.

He, along with other inmates in Arkham Asylum, also ran a sham trial for Batman with the inmates as judge and jury. The Joker has also gotten hold of an atomic bomb,  taken the the mayor hostage, and even tried to succeed as a stand-up comedian,  ruining three comedians' acts for revenge on their judgement of him as unfunny, something he could never forgive.

Superman and Financial Failure
Becoming broke and desperate, Joker and stole an artifact that turned out to be forged from Kryptonite. Using this, Joker traveled to Metropolis and put himself for hire for one billion dollars to kill Superman. Lex Luthor agreed to Joker's deal. Batman eventually fought The Joker along with the Man of Steel. Joker began to annoy Luthor when he demanded to be paid more to kill both superheroes. While attempting to betray Luthor (who needless to say, had also tried to betray him) The Joker ended up fighting the World's Finest in an aircraft, the explosion of which seemed to kill him, though his body was never recovered.

He turned up alive, was captured, but was shocked when he inherited millions of dollars from a mob kingpin named Barlowe, who had always despised him. Through deception and playing the Joker's ego and greed, Barlowe set up a trap. Joker almost literally bought his way to a clean criminal record and then lived the high life on what he believed to be hundreds of millions. It was eventually revealed that only the first ten million dollars were real, which the Joker not only blew through, but was now, as Barlowe's heir, in the sights of the IRS. Joker could not reveal he'd been tricked without looking like the clown he was. Joker decided to pull off a heist to restart his enterprises, but was foiled as always by Batman.

On the seventh year anniversary of the Joker's "birth", the Joker's actions turned reporter Jack Ryder into the Creeper. The Creeper, while heroic, mercliessly harassed Harley and Joker, to the point even Joker considered Creeper to be a lunatic, actually begging Batman to arrest him. While not as obsessed as Calendar Man, Joker is fond of unleashing schemes on holidays, notably April Fools Day, Christmas and New Year's.

Later life and Justice League
The Joker went to Dakota after his old gang was defeated and had local mutates known as  "Bang Babies" join his new gang there. Villains such as Hotstreak and Talon eagerly joined his gang. They started a crime spree in town only to be stopped by Batman, Robin, and Static. In a particularly humiliating moment, Joker tried to shock Batman with a joy-buzzer after his defeat, only for Static to not only ignore and absorb the buzzer's power, but shock the Joker right back, only worse.

Not wanting anything to do with Joker after their first encounter, Lex Luthor tried to keep him out of his Injustice Gang, but was persuaded to relent based on Joker's supposed knowledge of Batman. While this proved useful at first, the openings created by Joker's overwhelming desire to kill Batman was one of many factors that saw the entire villain team beaten and imprisoned.

The Joker later went to a government building in Arizona and recruited 5 metahumans, which he called The Royal Flush Gang to create terror and chaos in Las Vegas. His real scheme was to use a girl named Ace to make all the television viewers his pirate broadcast pulled in go insane. But his smaller schemes were stopped thanks to the Justice League, while Joker made the mistake of making Ace mad at him. The young girl reached into his mind and found levels of insanity even Joker couldn't handle. For a good while, he was catatonic as a result.

Joker's Death
Years later, he planned one final joke on Batman after realizing the "game" was getting old. The Joker and Harley Quinn kidnapped Tim Drake and subjected him to two weeks of torture and brainwashed him into becoming Joker Junior, also finding out all of Batman's secrets in the process. Batman came to the abandoned Arkham Asylum and saw what had happened to Tim. In retaliation, Batman engaged in a bloody fight with the Joker only for the Joker to stab Batman in the knee and gloat over his success. He gave a Bang-Flag gun to Tim to finish off the Dark Knight but instead Tim focused his rage on the one who had broken him, and fatally shot the Joker, killing him. (In the edited version, he pushed Joker, and the villain slipped and grabbed some electrodes, electrocuting himself to death.) Commissioner Gordon learned of what happened and promised to keep it a secret, while it seemed Harley had perished during the battle as well. The remains of the Joker were buried under Arkham, and Bruce forbid Tim from being Robin again. Barbara Gordon quit as Batgirl shortly after. Bruce continued his crimefighting career for years after the incident.

Return of the Joker
It seemed not even death itself could restrain the Joker. The microchip that the original Joker had implanted on Tim soon began to activate itself automatically, transforming Drake into the Joker. According to Joker, any lingering memories were chalked up as bad dreams by Drake. Over time, the Joker's subconscious awakened and began to assume control of Drake's body.

Over the course of forty years, the Joker plotted his return using Drake's body. With Drake's knowledge of communications, Joker staged a series of corporate thefts utilizing a sub-group of Jokerz which had formed in his absence, proving how influential he had become. With the technology, Joker created a satellite jammer and hijacked control of a Hyperion class defense satellite orbiting the planet. Joker then revealed himself to Bruce Wayne at a party during his return to Gotham. The new Batman managed to stop Joker from killing Bruce, but Joker escaped. After a time, Terry deduced Drake had some connection and decided to confront The Joker. However before he could reach Joker's hideout, Joker tested the new Batman by chasing after him using his satellite to send a powerful laser at the Batmobile whilst incinerating a small part of Gotham. After stopping the beam, the new Batman tracked Joker down to his hideout (an abandoned Candy Factory called the Jolly Jack) and confronted Tim. Tim started to remember how he killed the original Joker and started to act strange; when Tim accidentally mentioned the new Batman's real name he transformed into the Joker, revealing he had deduced Batman's identity. After explaining how he survived, Joker and Batman fought.

In the skirmish, the electric joy buzzer that Joker was using gets knocked out of his hand and falls into the wiring of the jamming system, redirecting the satellite's laser straight to Joker's hideout. Batman stranded Joker within the compound and fought him one on one. In the finale, Batman taunted the Joker, saying he had only returned because he could never make the original Batman laugh. This greatly enraged Joker and he managed to trap Terry under a pile of rubble and started strangling him. Joker then ordered Terry to laugh before he died and when Joker got closer in order to hear Terry better, Terry used Joker's own toy buzzer and electrocuted him. The surge destroyed the microchip, restoring Tim Drake to normal and ending the threat of the Joker once and for all. After so many years of waging a one-on-one war, Batman had finally won after a long struggle.

Trivia

 * The Joker is also seen in many video games based on the Batman Animated Series.
 * The Joker was voiced by Mark Hamill.
 * Tim Curry, who portrayed It and many other villains, was originally casted to play the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. However, the casting team found Curry's performance, though extremely good, too scary for children and not clown-like so the job was given to Mark Hamill. Additionally, the voice Curry used  for the Joker serverly damaged his vocal cords.