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The story of the evil Clown Prince of Crime known as The Joker from the DC Animated Universe.

Past[]

The novelisation of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm indicates that the man who went to become the Joker was born around 1948, being 35 around the time of the flashback events of the movie and 45, in the present time is 1993. He became a criminal at some point to make a living, a profession which would last for the rest of his life. It's unknown what the Joker's real name was, and while it's suggested to have been Jack Napier, it's possible that this may have been another alias, as he took several during his career. The reason was possibly to avoid getting detected by the police.

Joker mob days

Joker before his disfigurement.

By 1983, he was an assassin and chauffeur working for Salvatore Valestra, Buzz Bronski and Chuckie Sol, the high-ranking members of the Valestra mob. When Carl Beaumont, a businessman who had embezzled from the mob, was unable to pay them back, he accompanied his boss and associates to pay a visit to Beaumont, who asked Valestra for one more day. Valestra reluctantly agreed, but unknown to him, Carl and his daughter [Andrea fled the country that same night. Beaumont paid Valestra back, but the mobster wanted "interest compounded in blood" and sent the hitman to Europe to find and kill Beaumont. Arthur Reeves, Beaumont's former employee, gave them Beaumont's location in exchange for funding his campaign for Gotham City Council. The hitman killed Beaumont, and passed by Andrea on his way out, greeting her nonchalantly moments before she found her father's body.

Eventually, the hitman formed his own gang. One night, he robbed the Ace Chemical plant, but Batman arrived, and in the ensuing scuffle, the hitman fell into a vat of chemicals. The chemicals beached his skin white, turned his hair green, made his lips bright red; driven insane by his reflection, the hitman reinvented himself as the Joker and dedicated his life to fighting Batman. After taking up his new identity, Joker would establish himself as one of the main crime bosses in Gotham and became Batman's greatest foe. During a stint in Arkham Asylum, the Joker manipulated his psychologist, Dr. Harleen Quinzel, into falling in love with him, driving her to join his gang as Harley Quinn, his accomplice and on again-off again girlfriend.

Batman: The Animated Series[]

The Joker 1

As the Joker, he pulls numerous schemes for both his own amusement and for personal profit, such as a Christmas-themed kidnapping of Commissioner Gordon, Summer Gleeson and Harvey Bullock ("Christmas with The Joker"), filling Gotham City with his laughing gas using a garbage boat ("The Last Laugh"), planting dynamite at the birthday party of Mayor Hill's son ("Be A Clown"), poisoning all of Gotham's fish with his toxins and trying to copyright them ("The Laughing Fish") and escaping Arkham to blow up a casino that was using his name sake ("The Joker's Wild"), but Batman and Robin always managed to defeat him and send him back to Arkham.

Charlie Collins threatens the Joker

The Joker gets a taste of his own medicine.

In "Joker's Favor", Joker tries to blackmail a man named Charlie Collins after he encounters him on the highway, and threatens to kill his family if he doesn't help him in his scheme to kill Commissioner Gordon during an award ceremony. Collins ends up getting the better of the cowardly psychopath, using one of his own fake explosives to trick him into giving up everything he knows about his family to Batman.

In "Almost Got 'Im", Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Killer Croc, and Poison Ivy get together and play poker, remarking on the times in which they had nearly killed Batman. Joker, believing his story was the best, saved it for last, mocking the stories of his fellow criminals. When it was his turn, Joker pulls out a portable television set and played a recording of his failed attempt. In the tape, Joker and Harley Quinn had taken over Late Night Gotham Live, captured Batman and tried to electrocute him on live TV with an electric chair powered by the forced laughter of the kidnapped studio audience, but this attempt was foiled by Catwoman. Due to only being foiled by the appearance of Catwoman, all the other villains agree that Joker had the best story, while he simultaneously wins the poker game (by cheating). Joker then reveals that he had kidnapped Catwoman and was planning to kill her by turning her into cat food as revenge for her ruining his plan, although, he is then immediately knocked out by Batman (who was disguised as Croc the entire time). Batman then saves Catwoman from Harley.

The Joker is one of three villains alongside Penguin and Two Face to travel to Yucca Springs on an invite from Hugo Strange, who claim to know the identity of Batman. Strange's plan fails, and the villains tr7 to kill him only to be stopped by Batman and Robin.

In the movie Batman: Mask of the Phantasm​, a vigilante called the Phantasm comes to Gotham and, one by one, kill the mob leaders Joker had once worked for. Batman is accused of these crimes, but the Joker doubts this and sets up a trap to kill the Phantasm before he himself is targeted. Joker eventually manages to find out that the killer isn't Batman at all and that Andrea Beaumont, daughter of the embezzler he once killed on mob orders, had taken up the identity of the Phantasm. He fights the Phantasm, but she vanishes to escape in an explosion, taking the laughing Joker with her. It remains unknown what happened to him after this but he survives off-screen and goes back to do what he does best — fighting Batman and terrorizing Gotham City with his deadly jokes.

Judge Joker (BtAS)

Judge Joker

In Trial, along with other inmates in Arkham Asylum, Joker runs a sham trial for Batman with the inmates as judge and jury. The Joker later gets a hold of an atomic bomb, taken the mayor hostage (although this is one of the very few times that he shows affection towards Harley when he realises that she has enough ‘guts’ to kill him), and even tries to succeed as a stand-up comedian while ruining three comedians’ acts for revenge on their judgement of him as unfunny — something he can never forgive. After this, he tries to destroy all Gotham City with his henchmen, but Batman, Robin and Harley Quinn destroy his plane and defeat him.

Superman: The Animated Series[]

Joker and the Laughing Dragon

The Joker steals the Laughing Dragon.

Becoming broke and desperate, Joker and Harley Quinn steal a statue of a Chinese Dragon that turns out to be forged from Kryptonite. Using this, Joker travels to Metropolis and put himself for hire for one billion dollars to kill Superman. Lex Luthor agrees to Joker's deal and Batman eventually fights the Joker along with the Man of Steel. Then, Joker begins to annoy Luthor when he demands 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 ends up fighting the World's Finest in an aircraft, the explosion of which seems to kill him, though his body is never recovered. However, he somehow survives that fall and goes back to terrorise Gotham again off-screen.

The New Batman Adventures[]

Joker turns up alive, is captured, but is shocked when he inherits millions of dollars from a mob kingpin named Barlowe, who has always despised him. Through deception is incredibly and playing the Joker's ego and greed, Barlowe sets up a trap. Joker almost literally buys his way to a clean criminal record and then lives the high life on what he believes to be hundreds of millions. It is eventually reveals that only the first ten million dollars are real, which the Joker not only blew through but is now, as Barlowe's heir, in the sights of the IRS. Joker cannot admit the truth, or else he'll look like the clown he was to the criminal underworld. Joker decides to pull off a heist to restart his enterprises (without using any of his calling cards or signature styles that would link him to the crime) but is foiled, like always, by Batman. As he is taken back to Arkham Asylum, Harley Quinn (disguised as a police officer) beats Joker up with a baton for abandoning her to be arrested by Batman and Batgirl in the beginning of the episode and replacing her with a Fake Harley, rather than bailing her out.

Joker and Lex Luthor make a deal

Joker makes a deal with Lex Luthor.

On the seventh year anniversary of the Joker's "birth", the Joker's actions turn reporter Jack Ryder into the Creeper who, while heroic, mercilessly harasses Harley and Joker, to the point that even Joker considers Creeper to be a lunatic, actually begging Batman to arrest him. Creeper captures Harley and defeats the Joker in a dump park, who is later taken in custody by Batman. After, Harley Quinn captures Batman and tries to kill him to obtain Joker's admiration, but he hits her and throws her through the window of the building, believing that no one has the right to kill Batman but himself. Batman eventually frees himself and fights Joker on top of a monorail; punching the Joker into the chimney of Ace Chemicals and apparently killing him. OInce again, he survives the mortal fall and sends some flowers and a note to Quinn to get her back on his side.

Justice League[]

The Joker later plans on forming a metahuman gang from the local mutants known as "Bang Babies" with villains such as Hotstreak and Talon eagerly joining his gang. However, Batman, Robin, and Dakota's own resident hero Static team up and escape the Joker's death trap, arresting the Clown Prince of Crime in the process. Joker tries 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. Joker and his gang are arrested after that.

Not wanting anything to do with Joker after their first encounter, Lex Luthor tries to keep him out of his Injustice Gang, but he is ultimately persuaded to relent by him after Copperhead is arrested and Joker provides knowledge on Batman. Using a tracking device Batman planted on him, Joker lures Batman to the Injustice Gang's hideout and knocks him out. With Batman captured, Joker urges Lex to let him kill Batman but is frustrated when he is not allowed to and then proceeds to annoy Lex as he searches through Batman's utility belt. Joker then forces Batman to watch the expected destruction of the JLA's Watchtower, knowing that Luthor would give him permission to kill Batman if his plan succeeded, but it fails and Joker is not allowed to finish Batman yet again. Knowing Batman was swaying her to his way of thinking, Joker betrays and electrocutes Cheetah into unconsciousness. During the Gang's final confrontation with the JLA, Joker uses a trick exploding doll and several marbles to attack Flash and Wonder Woman, but quickly runs away when he realizes that he's outmatched. After the rest of the Gang is defeated, Joker rushes to the basement of their warehouse base to kill Batman, only to be knocked out by Batman, who states that he could have escaped their prison at any time he wanted, but chose to stay and watch on them instead.

He discovers and enters a secret government compound dubbed Section 12. At the time, it was under the supervision of the Cadmus Project, a federal initiative to procure defences against the Justice League in case they ever went rogue. Joker arrives at the facility and kills the staff using his Joker Venom. He then frees their captives and fashions them as a card deckhand, dubbing them his 'Royal Flush Gang'. During his time at the facility, the Joker also comes across some of Project Cadmus' secret technology and discovers a microchip that allows it's users to copy their DNA.

Rather than use the technology early, the Joker decides to save the technology for another time before leaving with his new team and purchasing airtime on several networks under the moniker of "Gwynplaine Entertainment" and broadcast a live feed of Las Vegas. The Joker secretly plants several dozen extremely powerful time-bombs all throughout the city and threatens to blow up the entire city early if anyone but the Justice League try to stop him. Though the Justice League manage to disarm the bombs and defeat the Royal Flush Gang, the bomb stunt is merely to attract viewers throughout the world. The real plan is to use the powers of the Gang's fifth member, Ace, who can drive people insane just by looking at them in person or on TV. The Joker then transmits Ace's thought waves across the air to render everyone under a mass psychosis. Batman confronts the Joker alone and, despite almost being driven insane by Ace's powers and receiving vicious beatings from Joker, manages to reveal to Ace that the Joker held on to a special headband used to nullify Ace's powers by Project Cadmus. Ace, in anger, uses her power on the Joker and temporarily incapacitates him, rendering him temporarily catatonic.

Joker's Death[]

Joker torturing Tim Drake

Joker torturing Tim Drake to insanity.

Years later, The Joker plans one final joke on Batman after realising the "game" is getting old. He and Harley Quinn decided to kidnap Tim Drake (the current Robin and Dick Grayson's successor) after Tim saves an unknown woman (actually Harley in disguise) from a criminal, the former is unaware that it is a trap and Harley took the opportunity to knock him unconscious with her mallet. In the now-abandoned Arkham Asylum, Tim was subjected to three weeks of torture at the Joker's hands before being brainwashed into becoming a small version of the Joker called Joker Junior or J.J. Because of the torture that Tim went through, this allowed the Joker to know all of Batman's secrets (including his true identity as Bruce Wayne) in the process.

On top of that, he documents the whole interrogation with an old video projector and possibly slides (since he claimed he had them). Batman and Barbara Gordon (AKA Batgirl) came to the abandoned Arkham Asylum and saw what had happened to Tim, much to their horror. Batman went after the Joker, who proceeded to flee while Batgirl tries to bring Tim back to his senses, to no avail. As Batman tries to find the Joker, the latter, from a projector booth, (willing to break the Joker in two for his actions), projects Tim's torture for Batman to witness, which horrified the Dark Knight even further. The Joker then gave him his "final" joke, which provoked Batman into brutally beating him in rage before throwing him down onto a stack of giant-sized toy blocks. Putting the Joker in a chokehold, Batman angrily threatens to break him in two only for the Joker to slash a knife at him before stabbing Batman in the knee, which sent the Dark Knight tumbling down the stack of blocks (in the edited version, he punches Batman off the edge and the blood was removed).

Jokers death

Joker's death in the unedited version.

Joker edited death

Joker about to meet his death in the edited version.

After gloating over his success, the Joker throws a Bang-Flag gun to Tim so he could finish off Batman. However, Tim focuses his rage on the former for breaking him, and, while laughing, fatally shoots the Joker instead. With his last breath, Joker, in shock, mutters that it's not funny before falling dead onto the floor. In the edited version, the Joker's death was alternated; Tim shoves the Joker into a tank of water, soaking him wet, and as the latter angrily approached him, he slips on a puddle made from the water, causing him to grab onto a lever, accidentally pulling it down as he slipped. This caused the Joker to be electrocuted in the process and his scream is heard by Batgirl, who immediately rushed back into Arkham.

Shortly after Joker died, Tim goes into a nervous breakdown, crying with whatever sanity he has left of himself as Batgirl comforts him. The Joker's body is then buried under Arkham, and Tim is given therapy to cope with his trauma whilst Commissioner Gordon learns of what happened and promises to keep it a secret, while it seems Harley had fallen into a bottomless pit and perished as well during her battle with Batgirl. The other people who also knew of the incident were the Dark Knight's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, and Dick Grayson, who has become Nightwing and has left for Bludhaven.

A year later, Tim has finally recovered from his trauma, but Bruce forbids him from taking the mantle of Robin again, swearing that he will never endanger another young sidekick again. This caused Tim to sever ties with Batman before leaving soon after, choosing to make the right decision for himself, and Barbara Gordon soon retires from her career as Batgirl to follow in her father's footsteps as the new police commissioner of Gotham City following her father's retirement.

Legacy[]

Despite his death, the Joker's legacy as a criminal mastermind and homicidal maniac lives on for years. Whilst the people of Gotham are relieved at the Joker's final and ultimate defeat, they still fear his destructive legacy. Years later, several groups of criminals called the Jokerz start appearing around the globe, honouring the Clown Prince of Crime's legacy. One of the gang's members, Ghoul (who coincidentally would be the member of the Jokerz gang that would serve the newly revived Joker) states that there are 9,453 active Jokerz that are divided into approximately 200 separate groups. Bruce continues the rest of his crime-fighting career as Batman for years after the incident a few years before his retirement in the prologue of Batman Beyond.

Future (Return of the Joker)[]

596px-Thumb

Joker in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

It seems not even death itself can restrain the Joker as it turns out that, before Joker died, he implanted the microchip he stole from Cadmus encoded with his DNA, memories, and personality on Tim's neck. The chip soon begins to activate itself automatically, allowing the Joker, who was the original Joker's son, to transform Drake into him, though he isn't strong enough to permanently transform. According to the Joker, Drake chalks up any lingering memories as bad dreams.

Over the course of forty years, the Joker, who planned to avenge his late father, plots his father's mantel return using Drake's body. With Drake's knowledge of communications and his martial skills as Robin, Joker stages a series of corporate thefts utilizing a sub-group of The Jokerz, proving how influential he had become. With the technology, Joker creates a satellite jammer and hijacks control of a Hyperion class defence satellite orbiting the planet. If any of Tim Drake's family are worried in any way, Joker simply calls on the phone with Tim's voice saying he'll be working late. Joker then reveals himself to Bruce Wayne at a party during his return to Gotham. The new Batman manages to stop Joker from killing Bruce, but Joker escapes. After learning what happened to Tim, Terry deduces Drake was involved and decides to confront The Joker.

Joker making Terry ''Laugh''

However, before he can reach Joker's hideout, Joker tests 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. However, the Joker abruptly stops the beam shortly after, allowing the new Batman to track Joker down to his hideout (an abandoned Candy Factory called the Jolly Jack) and confront Tim. Tim starts to remember how he killed the original Joker and starts to act strangely; when Tim accidentally mentions the new Batman's real name, he transforms into the Joker, revealing he had deduced Batman's identity. After explaining how he survived, Joker and Batman fight.

In the skirmish, the electric joy buzzer that Joker is 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 strands Joker within the compound and fights him one on one. In the finale, Batman taunts the Joker, saying he had only returned because he can never make the original Batman laugh. This greatly enrages Joker and he manages to trap Terry under a wooden table and starts strangling him.

Joker then orders Terry to laugh before he dies and, when Joker gets closer in order to hear Terry better, Terry taunts the villain and uses Joker's own toy buzzer to electrocute him on the neck, much to his horror. The surge destroys the microchip as the Joker let out a final scream, restoring Tim back to normal and destroying the Joker once and for all. After so many years of waging a one-on-one war, Batman has finally won after a long struggle, destroying the Joker and his legacy of madness forever.

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