When was joker born




















Detective Comics February revealed that he had been a criminal known as the Red Hood. He tried to escape from the Dark Knight by fleeing to the Ace Chemical Plant where he fell into a vat of chemicals.

He survived but the chemicals had radically changed his body resulting in chalk-white skin, emerald green hair, and a bizarre ruby-red grin. It depicts him as originally being an engineer at a chemical plant who quit his job to pursue his dream of being a stand-up comedian, only to fail miserably.

Desperate to support his pregnant wife, Jeannie , the man agrees to help two criminals break into the plant where he was formerly employed. 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 inside man appear to be the leader, allowing the two ring-leaders to escape. During the planning, police contact him and inform him that his wife and unborn child have died in a household accident.

Stricken with grief, he attempts to back out of the plan, but the criminals strong-arm him into keeping his promise. As soon as they enter the plant, however, they are immediately caught by security and a fatal shoot-out ensues, in which the two criminals are killed. As he tries to escape, he is confronted by Batman, who is investigating the disturbance.

Terrified, the engineer leaps over a rail and plummets into a vat of chemicals. When he surfaces in the nearby reservoir, he removes the hood and sees his reflection: bleached chalk-white skin, ruby-red lips, and emerald green hair. These events, coupled with his other misfortunes that day, drive the engineer through the massive personality shift that results in the birth of the Joker. The story "Push-back" Batman: Gotham Knights , supports part of this version of the Joker's origin story.

In it, a witness who coincidentally turns out to be Edward Nygma, a. The Riddler recounts that the Joker's wife was kidnapped and murdered by the criminals in order to force the engineer into performing the crime.

In this version, the Joker was called Jack. However, the story also implies that the Joker was abusive to Jeannie and that her death was staged to by the GCPD to allow her to go into witness protection.

Bruce Wayne visits her and their child in the Canada wilderness, indicating he knows who the Joker really is. The second arc of Batman Confidential re-imagines the Joker as a gifted criminal and abandons the Red Hood identity, also called Jack, who is nearly suicidal due to boredom with his "job".

He talks to a waitress, Harleen Quinzel , who convinces him to find something to live for. Jack becomes obsessed with Batman after he breaks up one of his jobs, leading Jack to attract Batman's attention at a ball. Jack escapes and Batman gives Jack's information to mobsters, who torture Jack in a chemical plant. Jack kills several of his assailants after escaping, but falls into an empty vat as wild gunfire punctures the chemical tanks above him, and the resultant flood of antidepressant chemicals alters his appearance to that of a clown, completing his transformation into the Joker.

In flashbacks to Batman: Streets of Gotham , there was a boy known as Sonny who had gone over to Martha Kane's clinic at a foster home, who treated him kindly, and then ended up witnessing a horrific crime by some mobsters and got his jaw broken and infected with a laughing virus, with Kane's clinic saving him again.

However, the mobsters proceed to firebomb her clinic and abduct Sonny as he was attempting to save Kane, and was repeatedly abused by the mobsters to such an extent that his already broken jaw was incorrectly aligned, with the mobster in question taunting him to "keep smiling" and stop frowning. It is heavily implied that "Sonny" would grow up to become the Joker. Depicted as the leader of the Red Hood Gang, he led the group on an anarchical crusade to bring chaos to Gotham, claiming to have been inspired by the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

The recruits were also average citizens in Gotham, though many were actually blackmailed into helping the group. After a fight with Batman, the criminal purposely threw himself into the vat of chemicals, though a body was later recovered but could not be identified. During the later Endgame arch, there are hints that the Joker may have operated in Gotham long before Batman appeared. After discovering his use of Dionesium, Batman suspects that Joker, like Vandal Savage and Ra's al Ghul , may use the chemical to extend his lifespan.

The story also mentions of a serial called the Pale-Man who operated in Gotham long before Batman's arrival, implying that the Joker may be centuries old. From the Joker's first appearance in Batman 1, he has been willing and eager to wreak as much havoc as possible upon innocent people in order to claim the mantle of Gotham City's greatest criminal mastermind. Throughout his decades-long war with Batman, he has committed crimes both whimsical and inhumanly brutal, all with a logic and reasoning that, in Batman's words, "make sense to him alone.

Batgirl , paralyzing her below the waist. He kidnaps Commissioner Gordon and taunts him with photographs of what he has done to Barbara, in an attempt to prove that any man can have "one bad day" and become just like him, but fails to drive Gordon insane, despite giving him some serious trauma.

Batman rescues Gordon and tries one final time to reach the Joker, offering to rehabilitate him. After a few moments of consideration, the Joker refuses, stating that it is "too late for that", but shows his appreciation by sharing a joke with Batman which, surprisingly, receives an uncharacteristic laugh from the vigilante and allowing himself to be taken back to Arkham. She betrays her son to keep from having her medical supply thefts exposed, leading to Jason's brutal beating by the Joker with a crowbar.

The Joker locks Jason and his mother in the warehouse where the assault took place and blows it up just as Batman arrives. Readers could vote on whether they wanted Jason Todd to survive the blast. They voted for him to die, hence that Batman finds Jason's lifeless body. Jason's death has haunted him since and has intensified his obsession with his archenemy.

Psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel eventually ponders whether the Joker may in fact be faking insanity so as to avoid the death penalty. As she tries to treat the Joker, he recounts a tale of an absent father and runaway mother to gain her sympathy. Falling in love, she allows him to escape Arkham several times before she is eventually exposed. Driven over the edge with obsession, she becomes the criminal Harley Quinn and the Joker's closest sidekick.

In a company-wide crossover, "The Last Laugh," the Joker believes himself to be dying and plans one last historic crime spree, infecting the inmates of 'The Slab,' a prison for super criminals, with Joker venom to escape. With plans to infect the entire world, he sets the super-powered inmates loose to cause mass chaos in their "Jokerized" forms. Meanwhile, he tries to ensure his "legacy" by defacing statues in his image.

The entire United States declares war on the Joker under the orders of President Lex Luthor ; in response, Joker sends his minions to kill the President. The heroes of the world try to fight off the rampaging villains, while Black Canary discovers that Joker's doctor modified his CAT scan to make it appear that he had a fatal tumor in an attempt to subdue him with the threat of death.

Harley Quinn, angry at the Joker's attempt to get her pregnant without marrying her to continue his legacy, through artificial insemination , helps the heroes create an antidote to the Joker poison and return the super villains to their normal state.

Believing Robin then Tim Drake had been eaten by Killer Croc in the ensuing madness, Nightwing eventually catches up with the Joker and beats him to death heart stopped.

During the events of the No Man's Land storyline, the Joker murders Sarah Essen Gordon , Commissioner Gordon 's second wife, by shooting her in the head as she tries to protect the infants that he had kidnapped.

He did not, however, take any pleasure in the act, shown frowning afterward rather than with his trademark grin.

He surrenders to Batman, but continues to taunt James Gordon, provoking the commissioner to shoot him in the kneecap. After lamenting the fact he may never walk again, the Joker suddenly begins laughing manically as Gordon just avenged the fate of Barbara. In "Emperor Joker" , a multi-part story throughout the Superman titles, the Joker steals Mister Mxyzptlk 's reality altering power, becoming a nigh-omnipotent being , and remaking the entire world into a twisted caricature, with everyone in it stuck in a loop, repeating the same patterns over and over.

The conflict focuses on the fate of Batman in this world, with the Joker torturing and killing his adversary every day, only to bring him back to life and do it over and over again.

Superman's powerful will allows him to fight off the Joker's influence enough to make contact with the weakened Mxyzptlk, who along with a less-powerful Spectre , encourages Superman to work out the Joker's weakness before reality is destroyed by the Joker's misuse of Mxyzptlk's power.

As time runs out, Superman realizes that the Joker still is unwilling to erase Batman from existence, as the Joker totally defines himself by his opposition to the Dark Knight; if the Joker can't even willingly erase one man, how can he destroy the universe?

The Joker's control shattered, Mxyzptlk and the Spectre manage to reconstruct reality from the moment the Joker disrupted everything, but Batman is left broken from experiencing multiple deaths. Superman has to steal Batman's memories so that he can go on, apparently transferring them to the Joker. During the return of new villain Hush to Gotham City, The Riddler hires the Joker to save him, offering the Joker the name of the crooked cop who killed his wife all those years ago.

However, the Joker's attempted revenge is cut short when Hush attacks with Prometheus , forcing the Joker to retreat. After Jason Todd returns to life and takes over his killer's old Red Hood identity during the lead-up to Infinite Crisis , Jason asserts that the Joker was not quite as crazy as he leads people to believe. Jason attempts to force Batman to shoot the Joker, angered at Batman's refusal to kill the Joker despite what he'd done. Batman refuses, however, driving Jason away with a well-aimed batarang instead.

In Batman , a captive shoots the Joker in the face. The Joker returns in Batman after having undergone extensive facial surgery that has left him with a permanent smile and unable to speak coherently.

While in intensive care at Arkham, he sends Harley Quinn to kill his former henchmen, having her use a more lethal version of Joker venom, in order to signal his "rebirth". The Joker has by now developed an immunity to this venom. The Joker states that he never had any daughter, and expresses awareness of the Multiverse's existence and of shifts in reality.

The Joker appears as he did before Batman The Joker is among the many villains transported to a remote jungle imprisonment planet where Psimon is elected as their leader. Joker gives up hope, thinking that he could never surpass Psimon in power, and sinks into a depression. Kid Karnival snaps him out of it and tells him about how he admires the Joker and how he wouldn't let anyone stand in his way, giving the Joker his confidence back to fight.

When Psimon gives his speech, the Joker chucks a stone at the back of his head, stunning him. He then picks up a larger rock and pins Psimon to the ground, giving him a speech on his views on survival and beats him to death with the rock, destroying his brain in the process, proceeding to take command as chief. Lex Luthor questions his leadership and sends Iron Cross after the Joker with the intent of killing him.

Iron Cross is killed by the Joker, upon which Splitshot attempts to kill him to avenge Iron Cross, but is eventually killed as well, being strangled by his own bow. Following this, Lex Luthor takes half of the villains and leaves to form his own tribe. Later, Gorilla Grodd takes over the Joker's tribe and is told by Monsieur Mallah to ditch the humans and form a society together, which results in Gorilla Grodd killing Mallah by smashing the brain case over his head after being insulted.

Grodd, heavily wounded, asks the Joker to help him, being kicked off a cliff and being put into a coma in response. Later on, the Joker's camp invades Luthor's camp, resulting in an all-out brawl. It is then decided that the Joker and Lex Luthor should fight to the death. Luthor, despite having the upper hand for the first half of the fight, is beaten by the Joker. Nearing the end of their fight, the Parademons invade the planet. They decide to work together against the Parademons, managing to defeat the first wave, after which Gorilla Grodd recovers from his injuries, making an attempt at tearing the Joker's arm off in revenge.

Another wave of Parademons invades, interrupting their fight. The Joker helps fight off the invasion, eventually running out of ammunition. He manages to trade guns with a gullible Parademon which he kills a moment later, taking its extra ammo and weapons, getting back in the fight to kill the rest of them.

Eventually, after Lex Luthor uses elemental villains to power his teleportation machine, the Joker is able to escape from the planet, and the remaining Parademons are wiped out when Luthor rigs the machine to explode.

In the beginning of the Batman R. In response, the Joker nonchalantly deals himself a "dead man's hand, with a twist" - the twist being that the eights in his hand are red cards, the aces are still black, and his final card is a joker. During routine therapy, Joker is met by a spy for the Club of Villains who offers him a chance to join them in their crusade against Batman.

He participates in their action, considering it a farce all along knowing Batman will survive their attempts, which he spitefully reveals to them just when they think their plan has come to fruition.

He tells them that he has spent many years trying to kill Batman and that it would only be a matter of time before he'd come back. Later Batman infiltrates the headquarters, and the Joker flees, casually murdering some Black Glove members before escaping in an ambulance.

Joker drives through the Gotham bridge, plowing through police cars. Damian rams the Joker's ambulance with the Batmobile and sends him careening off the bridge unaware that it is the Joker.

During the events of the "Batman: Last Rites" story arc, the Joker is mentioned and shown several times in Batman's past experiences as his history is explored. At the same time however, he operated as the mysterious Domino Killer, killing members of the Black Glove one by one. The Joker then became the target of a blackmail scheme from an organization called "El Penitente". Using a "secret" probably knowledge of his true identity as leverage, they tried to force him to murder Batman.

The Joker as Sexton met Dick Grayson, the current Batman, later to discuss his alleged serial killer, believing that the killer was targeting members of the Black Glove and that Bruce Wayne would be next on the killer's list. Despite his blackmailer's demands, Joker watched Batman leave. For his failure to kill Batman "El Penitente" sent four assassins after him, but the villain escaped his pursuers by a rope out of the window.

He escaped to Wayne Manor, where he aided Damian Wayne against several assassins. Damian revealed that he knew Sexton was not really English, but was faking his accent. He asked Sexton if he was really Bruce Wayne. The Joker denied this, saying he was worried that Wayne was the target of a serial killer. However, he went on to hint to Damian that he was not really who he seems. Eventually, Dick Grayson figures it all out and confronts Oberon about all the domino killings really being a set routine of jokes.

Oberon takes off his mask to reveal the Joker, grinning at his old foe. After the Joker is arrested once more, he underestimates the current Robin Damian Wayne , by trying to win the Boy Wonder's pity before the Clown Prince of Crime begins his attempts on killing the young hero. Instead, he receives a beating with a crowbar mirroring Jason Todd's murder from Robin, whom he realizes is a son of his old foe after noting the resemblance between the child and the original Batman. The officers at GCPD ignore the Clown Prince's pleas for help, as they think Robin can handle the villain easily, and seem to take pleasure in the Joker's suffering.

The Joker seems to attempt to retreat from Robin in fear, apparently completely under the Boy Wonder's mercy. The Joker then wrapped his handcuffs around Damien's neck, scratching Robin's cheek with the metal.

Joker then smeared his own blood on Damien's face causing him to fall under the effects of the Joker Venom in Joker's blood. Damien collapse to the ground with a smile on his face while Joker snatches away the crowbar he had been victim to. Going on to reveal that he has once again manipulated events toward his own ends and mocking Robin for going so far as to provide his own crowbar another reference to the murder of Jason Todd.

Appropriating Robin's utility belt, the Joker escapes to execute his attack on the Black Glove, unleashing his signature venom on an audience gathered under Professor Pyg via tainted popcorn and guiding Batman and his allies to a climactic confrontation. The Joker is seen in an undisclosed location, with Robin bound and gagged, and possessing what appears to be a nuclear weapon. Help arrives in the form of the original Batman who just returned after the events of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne , who aids his successor and his son in their battle against the Black Glove and the Clown Prince of Crime in Wayne Manor and the Batcave.

Joker is later re-incarcerated in Arkham Asylum, where he is bound by a straitjacket and a muzzle. He eventually sees his opportunity to escape when some correctional officers died due to becoming infected with Joker Venom by inadvertently touching his skin while escorting him to a psychologist. However, upon fighting and being defeated by the Dark Knight, Joker reveals that he had absolutely nothing to do with her predicament when warned to stay away from the Gordons, and reveals that it was actually James Gordon's son, James Gordon Jr.

In "The New 52," the Joker is reintroduced as a homicidal killer being hunted by Gotham's police force in Detective Comics. His appearance in the relaunched DC universe has changed relatively little. After a skirmish with Batman, the Joker is caught and taken to Arkham Asylum. Dollmaker , a new villain, visits Joker. The two speak for a short time about their arranged meeting before the Dollmaker cuts the Joker's face off. Detective Comics 1.

Afterwards, the Joker is assumed dead by virtually everyone except Batman, and hundreds of mourners have surrounded the GCPD building in a mock vigil, calling for the Joker's face and Batman's head. Soon afterwards Harley Quinn learns of her "puddin's death" and literally betrays the Suicide Squad, orchestrates a massive prison break in Belle Reve Penitentiary, deactivates her nanite bomb, and kidnaps two guards before hijacking a car and driving off to Gotham City to retrieve the Joker's face and avenge his death.

He later returns, having stuck his face back on with a belt as well as several staples, and proceeded to relive some of his crimes. This included trying to kidnap the mayor for a ransom similar to his first appearance, although this time he kills the mayor's staff instead. Those dark under-eye bags are all real, though. Sonny is eventually the victim of a chemical laughing gas attack by gangster Salvatore Guzzo, who firebombs the clinic and kidnaps Sonny. The mobsters abuse and molest Sonny, and his broken jaw incorrectly re-aligns into what would become his Jokerish grimace.

Sonny-turned-Joker gets his revenge in adulthood, sicking hyenas on Guzzo to eat him alive. Then again, this arc never explicitly ties Red Hood One to the Joker.

So what tips this over the edge into Probably Joker Origin Story territory? Why, because Red Hood One escapes a Batman face off by jumping into a vat of chemicals, of course! Hi, Harley Quinn! Now, he just wants his arch-rival to acknowledge that what the two of them share is special.

From the very beginning of its run, Gotham teased the idea of a Joker origin story with the Arkham-bound circus member, Jerome Valeska Cameron Monaghan.

This one seems to have ditched some of the more supernatural, heightened elements of the backstory sorry, vats of chemical waste purists!

Arthur is a clown and aspiring stand-up, who lives with and cares for his aging single mother, Penny Fleck, and regularly visits a social worker assigned to him after a stay in a hospital for mental illness. Already a subscriber? Create a personalised content profile.

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Aaron Albert. Aaron Albert, a collector of and an expert on comic books, has studied, taught, and written about the comic book genre for more than 20 years. Updated March 08, Iron Man: Avenger, Industrialist, Hero. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for LiveAbout.



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