Joker (DC)

"All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day. You had a bad day once. Am I right? I know I am. I can tell. You had a bad day and everything changed. Why else would you dress up like a flying rat?"

- Joker's famous monologue to Batman in The Killing Joke

The Joker is the main antagonist in the Batman comic books, T.V. shows, movies, video games and other media. He is the archenemy of Batman, having been directly responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, including the death of Robin and the paralyzing of Barbara Gordon (Oracle, formerly Batgirl). In the comics, the Joker is portrayed as a master criminal whose characterization has varied. The original and currently dominant image is of a highly knowledgeable psychopath with a twisted, sadistic sense of humor.

His most prominent origin story was that he fell into a tank of chemical, which bleached his skin white, turned his hair green and turned his lips bright red, giving him the appearance of a clown.

The Joker has been portrayed by Cesar Romero in the Batman television series, Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's Batman and Heath Ledger in Christopher Nolan's ''The Dark Knight. He is one of the most iconic and recognized villains in popular media, having been ranked #1 on Wizard'''s list of the 100 Greatest Villains of All Time.

His manipulative mind allows him to control the city with the press of a button. He is shown to have a high level of knowledge and is able to comprehend various scientific tasks. The Joker will often claim he never has a plan, but this menace often has a plot drawn out long before he meets the protagonists. His crazed grin, evil, clown-like appearance and sadistic practical jokes all make the Joker one of the most diabolical villains of the Batman franchise and of all time. He is also one of Batman's greatest adversaries, a dangerous foe to the Justice League, and Batman (Terry Mcginnis)'s greatest foe.

Origin
About three months after Bob Kane, writer and creator of Batman first introduced the caped crusader to comics, a suggestion came from Co-writer Bill Finger, who approached Kane about the idea. The idea originated from the 1928 film “The Man Who Laughs”, when actor Konrad Veldt played the part of a mute clown. The original plan was to have The Joker killed off after a couple of episodes, but Bob Kane felt that The Joker as a major reoccurring villain in the DC universe would be much more interesting. After five episodes, The Joker was killed off, accidentally stabbing himself as he rushed at Batman. However, his early showings inspired later writers to re-include him in the Batman Universe.

The Joker in the 1940’s was shown merely as a no-name spree killer/mass murderer. It was not until the 1980’s that an origin story for the Joker was first developed by Alan Moore which showed a de-jokerised version of an engineer. The engineer, destined to become The Joker quit his job to become a stand up comedian, only to fail miserably. Desperate for money and with a wife Jeannie heavily pregnant the engineer turned to two criminals to help him out. Helping the criminals to break in involved the engineer to dress up as the Red Hood. This was made as an excuse by the criminals to say that they wished to protect his identity. However, they failed to mention the history of the Red Hood.

“In this version of the story, the Red Hood persona is given to the inside man of every job (thus, it is never the same man twice); this makes the man appear to be the ringleader, allowing the two criminals to escape. During the planning, police contact(ed) him and inform(ed) him that his wife and unborn child have (had) died in a household accident.”

The engineer, distraught at the loss of his wife and unborn child, tried to back out of the plan, but he was strong-armed into continuing. The plan was doomed from start to finish. When they entered the plant, their cover was immediately blown and a shoot out with security guards ensued. In the resulting melee, the two criminals were killed and the engineer escaped, only to run into Batman, who happened to be investigating the disturbance.

The engineer, so frightened by the appearance of a “black demon”, jumped over the railings into a vat of chemicals in order to escape from Batman. His attempted escape was successful, but the chemicals bleached his skin and turned his hair green. The unfortunate events of the day, coupled with the hideous reformation, resulted in The Joker becoming completely insane.

This is just one of three origin stories suggested by writers in The Batman Universe. The true story is unclear due to the fact that the only man who knows what really happened (that being, The Joker) is an unreliable source. The Joker even says to Batman after a battle between the two:

“Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another. If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple-choice!”

Another origin is suggested by Alex Dini says that The Joker was, in fact, a mob enforcer who worked his way up the Gotham criminal food chain until he led a powerful criminal faction. Dini then suggests that The Joker created the Red Hood personality to commit small-time crimes, since he reveled in “dirty work”. This resulted in an inevitable “path crossing” with Batman.

Strategy
There are many strategies employed by The Joker that there can often be no discernible pattern to his attacks. For instance, The Joker often uses his lapel either to shoot his "Joker gas", or to shoot nothing at all. Other times The Joker has pointed guns at others with a label saying "bang", yet as "Infinite Crisis" has proven, The Joker can also be extremely sadistic. As such, this makes The Joker a very dangerous opponent indeed due to his unpredictable mind.

Main Article: Emperor Joker
In a special mini-series that ran through several issues of Superman the Joker tricked the reality-warping imp known as Mister Mxyzptlk into giving him his powers: this resulted in Joker becoming a god and transforming the entire world into a sick amusement-park style nightmare dedicated to his own madness. Despite all of Joker's vast power in this special storyline he had a weakness in the fact that his relationship to Batman had reached a point where he could not exist with him, a kind of psychological "vicious cycle" deal in which for all his hatred of the Dark Knight the Joker couldn't kill him as the two had become interlinked as characters: in short without Batman there was no Joker.. Superman used this knowledge to his advantage and ultimately defeated the omnipotent Emperor Joker as a result - Joker has never obtained such godlike power again.

Personality
In the mini-series Underworld Unleashed, The Trickster remarks, "When super-villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories". As far as truth about Joker’s personality, one word sums him up… unpredictable. One day The Joker may be a harmless clown, on others he can become a crazed super-killer.

In 1984, with the conclusion of Infinite Crisis, The Joker cruelly murdered the once-hero now villain of the comic, Alexander Luthor, who was a mirror opposite from Earth-Two of Lex Luthor. Alexander Luthor set up a society for supervillains aimed at taking down Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, however he made the deadly mistake of not inviting The Joker. One night Alexander Luthor was trapped by Lex Luthor and The Joker in an alley. The Joker attacked Alexander with an over-powered joy buzzer, which horribly burnt one side of his face. Lex Luthor watched on as The Joker shot Alexander from point blank range with a shotgun, killing him instantly.

In addition to this The Joker is one of the few villains attributed with killing one of Batman's sidekicks (the other being Black Mask). The Joker beat Robin/Jason Todd to death in the comic "A Death in the Family". For any Batman villain, killing a Robin is almost the peak of villainy. Only two Robin’s and one Batgirl have ever been maimed or killed at the hands of supervillains.

However, even the Joker has his standards. When working with the Red Skull, he thought he was wearing a costume. However, when the Red Skull revealed himself as a REAL Nazi, the Joker was horrified, and in the end he fights him as he was about to drop a bomb on Washington DC.

Facts

 * Real Name: Unknown
 * Known Alias: Jack Napier, Jack White, Joe Kerr, the Clown Prince of Crime, the Harlequin of Hate and the Ace of Knaves among others.
 * Occupation: Professional Criminal
 * Base of Operations: Gotham City
 * Eyes: Green
 * Hair: Green
 * Height: 6' 0" ft
 * Weight: 160 lb
 * First Appearance: Batman #1 (Spring, 1940)

Relationship with Harley Quinn
Previously known as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a perky, ambitious young psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum, Harley is now employed as the Joker's hench-wench/ girlfriend. The relationship began when Harleen took on the Joker's case at the asylum, becoming his doctor. During the short time she was his psychiatrist, the Joker wooed and subsequently manipulated her into breaking him out of Arkham. Her obsessive love is what keeps her with him; the Joker is often abusive (physically and emotionally) towards her, taking out his anger on her and taking advantage of her. It is speculated that over the years the Joker developed some kind of fondness for her; however, most believe he keeps her around for the sadistic pleasure he gets from abusing her. She is elemental in many of his schemes, and he occasionally demonstrates a jealous possessiveness of her.

Another story is that when she took on the case of The Joker in the Asylum, he told her that her name reminded him of the French acrobat Harley Quinn, thus where she got the name. The next day, when she went into her office, she found a rose on her desk from The Joker. she grew fond of him over the next few weeks. He later broke of Arkham and she was worried sick. When The Joker was dragged back to Arkham by The Batman covered in cuts and bruises, Harley Quinn left Arkham, went and bought her suit, broke The Joker back out of Arkham and swore a vengeance against The Batman for hurting her 'Puddin.'

Trivia

 * Joker's first name is nearly revealed and apparently begins with "Ja--" However, before Melvin Reipan is about to mention the name, the Joker shushes him, saying "We don't use that name anymore, remember? I'm Cousin Joker now."
 * Joker arguably has the largest individual body count in the DC Universe (galactic rulers and planet destroyers aside). While Mongul, Cheshire, and Black Adam have devastated entire cities, Joker probably has killed more in a single act, ranging from traditional knives and explosives to his lethal electric joybuzzer and his signature laughing gas.