The Joker is a homicidal maniac and the archenemy of Batman. Completely unpredictable with no regard for human life, the Joker finds murder and mayhem funny, and is perhaps the most dangerous man on Earth with a body count stretching into the thousands, all centered around his obsession with the Batman.
Accounts of the Joker's origins have been varied and numerous. He himself has told the story of how he came to be with several different variations, saying that sometimes he remembers it one way, sometimes another; and that if he has to have a past, he "[prefers] it to be multiple choice". What has remained the most consistent is that his first encounter with the Batman was while he was acting in the identity of the "Red Hood", along with a gang of other thugs, committing a robbery in or near the Ace Chemical Processing Plant. During this robbery he either tripped into a vat of chemicals or was accidentally pushed in by Batman.
Most versions end with him falling into chemicals which bleach his skin, make his hair green, and give him a maniacal red smile. Sometimes the chemicals are also blamed for his mental state, and the combination of chemical exposures, and possible brain damage due to oxygen deprivation have been cited as factors in his insanity.
His activity between the accident in the chemical factory and his first public appearance as The Joker is unknown, but his return to the Gotham City crime scene was a spectacular one. He announced himself on television, after murdering a reporter with Joker Venom, and publicly told the police he intended to murder local millionaire Henry Claridge that evening at the stroke of midnight. Despite taking every security measure possible, Joker managed to kill his intended victim and nearly contaminated Gotham City's entire water supply with his poison, but Batman was able to stop him. The Joker was successfully incarcerated, but not for long.
Incarceration would prove no obstacle for the Mirthful Menace, and he quickly rose to become one of the top members of Batman's Rogues Gallery. He would find a frequent home in Arkham Asylum, Gotham's local psychiatric institution, where he would most commonly find himself imprisoned. Despite the asylum's efforts to contain him, he viewed it as sort of a revolving door, and even a place to simply rest up between his plans. He often committed crime for the sheer enjoyment of it, or specifically to cause pain to others, which he sees as part of "the big joke". Although not all of his criminal endeavors earned him money, he must have had a significant bank roll, and has had possessions as outrageous as a full truck-mounted heat-seeking warhead.
The Joker had a substantial list of significant crimes. His most consistent theme has been personal attacks against Batman, often through loved ones and members of the Batman Family, but he had shown complete indifference as to who his victims were, as it didn't really matter to him. Though many feared to form an alliance with the Joker, the Clown Prince of Crime was recruited into a gang of super-villains led by Two-Face to battle Carmine Falcone's criminal empire. As one of his tasks, the Joker had to eliminate Mario Falcone, but the hit was unsuccessful. The group was also responsible for the Columbus Day Massacre of Gotham's mob bosses, including Bobby "The Don" Gazzo. The team disbanded after a battle with the Hangman and a battle in the Batcave with the newly formed Dynamic Duo, Batman and Robin.
Joker had a habit of escaping from Arkham on various occasions, but two of these occasions are most notable as a result of his criminal activities after his escapes.
On the first occasion, Joker set out to show Batman how easy it was for even the sanest of people to lose their minds and he attempted to drive Commissioner Gordon insane. He arrived at Gordon's house, and before kidnapping him, shot his niece in the spine, then took pictures of her naked, bleeding, and in pain on the floor; later forcing the Commissioner to behold the atrocity in a slideshow. Although the Joker did not know this when he shot her, James Gordon's niece was actually the retired Batgirl. Joker was eventually stopped by Batman and his plan to drive Gordon insane had failed, but Barbara was left wheelchair-bound, but revived her vigilante career as Oracle.
Joker was locked away in Arkham, but it wasn't too long before he escaped once again. This time, he set out to sell nuclear weapons to terrorists. This plan was foiled by Batman and the new Robin, Jason Todd. After this failure, Joker reached Dr. Sheila Haywood and blackmailed her with her dark past. Haywood was Jason's missing mother, coerced into betraying him, and the Joker tied the two of them up together in a warehouse set to blow up after viciously beat Jason with a crowbar. Batman was unable to rescue the two of them before the bomb's detonation, and they were both killed in the explosion.
Afterwards Joker became the new Ambassador of Iran, which gave him diplomatic immunity. Considering his new political position allowed him to avoid justice, the Joker tried to commit genocide at the United Nations Building, but he was stopped by Superman and Batman, although they couldn't find his body after his apparent demise on his escape attempt.
In reality, Joker had sustained serious injuries and was taken to hospital. Still driven by the desire to destroy Batman, Joker manipulated Two-Face from afar, talking to him through a radio and making him believe he was Dent's own subconscious speaking. Following Joker's instructions, Two-Face organized a series of crimes to kill Batman, but he failed and was eventually captured by Batman, Nightwing and a new Robin, a development that Joker found amusing.
However, Joker's injuries were very serious, and he was out of action longer than expected. During this time, he was filled with self-doubt and went through a mid-life crisis in which he started to lose his insanity. When a fake Joker appeared in Gotham, Joker decided to return, despite his diminished condition, in order to set things right. His lack of confidence in his own criminal genius prevented Joker from being himself again and the fake Joker was only defeated thanks to Batman and Gordon. Joker was subsequently captured and taken back to Arkham, where his madness returned. Back to his old self, Joker escaped from Arkham and used Lex Luthor's influence to starts a criminal spree in Metropolis. Eventually, both criminals double-crossed each other and were stopped by Batman and Superman.
When Bane destroyed the walls of Arkham, Joker escaped the facility, but before leaving, he left Dr. Jeremiah Arkham in a death trap to stall Batman.
A few days later, Joker teamed up with Cornelius Stirk and used him in a plan to kidnap Commissioner Gordon in order to control the GCPD. His plan was foiled when Stirk tried to kill Gordon instead of kidnap him and Joker left Stirk to be captured by Batman. As soon as he was leaving, Joker was approached by Scarecrow and together they teamed up and invaded the house of Mayor Krol. They dosed him with Scarecrow's Fear Toxin and forced Krol to do their will.Knowing that Firefly was creating fires all around Gotham, Joker and Scarecrow made Krol cause a strike on the union of firefighters in the most dire of times.
Using Krol, Joker lured the GCPD into a trap, which caused the death of the entire SWAT Team.Finally, Joker and Scarecrow used Krol as bait to lure Batman into a trap in the Gotham River Tunnel. Batman arrived at the place and confronted the villains, but he was dosed with a great amount of Fear Gas, which made him recall Jason's death at the hands of Joker and thus, he furiously beat Joker to a pulp. Joker was barely rescued by Scarecrow, who caused the water from the river to fill the tunnel, forcing Batman to rescue Krol and allowed the defeated villains to escape.
After their failed attempt to kill Krol and Batman, Joker and Scarecrow learned of Batman's defeat at Bane's hands. Scarecrow was furious for their failure and used his fear toxin on Joker. The gas had no effect and in return, Joker attacked Scarecrow and beat him with a chair, leaving him unconscious and ending their partnership.
Not long after this, Joker set in motion his next scheme by pitching an "autobiographical film" to a movie studio. Joker pitched the movie as the "Death of Batman", but when he started his scheme, he realized that Batman was different. After Bane's defeat he had become ruthless, violent and started using a body armor. Joker lured Batman into a filmmaking studio, where he planned to eliminate Batman with help from several hired killers. As Batman knocked down Joker's henchmen, the madman realized that this new Batman was a different person and not his long-time enemy. Joker was eventually defeated by the new Batman, who broke Joker's arm and started to brutalize him until the police arrived and restrained the vigilante. Joker was placed in an ambulance headed for Blackgate Penitentiary, but he managed to escape during the transfer and remained on the loose.
When Gotham City was classed as a No Man's Land, abandoned by the United States and crime ran rampant across town, the Joker was absent for quite a while. Batman also left Gotham for some time, and while he was away the Joker just simply didn't think it worth the bother of being active in Gotham. However, when he did appear amidst the already burgeoning chaos, his impact was shocking. A large number of GCPD officers were murdered when he dressed them up in costumes and makeup similar to his own so they would all be killed by a lone police sniper who had a vendetta against the Joker. A large number of innocent police officers were shot by their comrade.
Later, he took an entire hospital ward full of newborn infants hostage. When Detective Sarah Essen-Gordon, Jim Gordon's wife, arrived on the scene, he pointed a gun at her and told her not to move, before throwing a baby at her. Sarah instinctively went to catch the child, and the Joker shot her in the head. Oddly, he seemed to take no pleasure in this act. When Gordon found out, his anger led him to the verge of murdering the Joker, only shooting Joker in the knee instead. The Joker was immediately concerned about the damage to his leg, worrying that he might never walk again, but quickly cracked up laughing, realizing there was a joke. The Commissioner had just gotten him back for the damage to his niece.
At one point the Joker stole Mister Mxyzptlk's reality-altering power, remaking the entire world into a twisted caricature, with everyone stuck in a loop. The Joker entertained himself with various forms of murder, such as killing Lex Luthor over and over, and devouring the entire population of China. Ever obsessed with Batman, the Joker tortured and killed his adversary every day, only to bring him back to life and do it over again. Superman's powerful will allowed him to fight off the Joker's influence enough to make contact with the weakened Mxyzptlk, who along with a less powerful Spectre, encouraged Superman to work out the Joker's weakness before reality was destroyed by the Joker's misuse of Mxyzptlk's power. As time ran out, Superman realized that the Joker still could not erase Batman from existence, as the Joker totally defined himself by his opposition to the Dark Knight; by this logic, the Joker would be incapable of destroying the entire universe, since he was incapable of doing so to Batman. This broke the Joker's control, and Mxyzptlk and the Spectre reconstructed reality from the moment the Joker disrupted everything. However, Batman was left broken from experiencing multiple deaths and Superman had to erase Batman's memories of these events so that he could go on.
In an attempt to get him to come to terms with his mortality and have some sort of moral realization, a prison doctor informed the Joker he was going to die of a malignant tumor. Instead, the Joker decided he wanted to leave his mark on the world indelibly and began a chain of chaotic events. He used a variant compound of the Joker Venom to actually Jokerize all metahuman inhabitants of Slabside Penitentiary, driving them virtually into the same condition he was in, but with the added benefit of having every single one of them completely loyal to him. The Joker's army ravaged the planet, combating all of earth's heroes, but Batman was eventually able to thwart the attacks using an antidote he obtained from Harley Quinn. Harley was angry at the Joker for attempting to impregnate her without marrying her. Nightwing, falsely believing that Robin had been eaten in the ensuing madness by Killer Croc, caught up with the Joker and actually beat him to death. Batman, not wanting Nightwing to have blood on his hands, resuscitated the Joker and saved his life.
Hush and the Riddler convinced and manipulated several other villains into helping in their attempt to destroy Batman. Part of this included fooling Bruce into believing that his childhood friend Tommy Elliott was the latest victim of the Joker. That brought Batman to the brink of murdering the Joker, and he only stopped when former GCPD commissioner Jim Gordon talked him down, reminding him that by killing the Joker, Batman would become just another killer, and Gordon refused to let the Joker ruin Batman's life in that way.
Joker began a shooting spree with a high-powered sniper rifle murdering Mayor Dickerson and the Superintendent in order to force the inhabitants of Gotham City to stay inside during the Christmas holiday. He then turned himself in to Gotham's Major Crimes unit, before revealing he'd planted bombs throughout the city, as a "Christmas present" for Batman. This caused the M.C.U. to rush to save countless Christmas shoppers from death. Joker then began a shooting spree within the Major Crimes Unit, where he killed several detectives, only to be shot multiple times by Maggie Sawyer, as his bomb went off, leveling a now evacuated toy store. Joker recovered from his wounds in the hospital laughing at the carnage he had caused.
After Jason Todd was resurrected, he sought revenge against Joker. Todd took over the Red Hood identity and found Joker in an abandoned carnival, beating him with a crowbar in reciprocation of his own assault.
After his recovery, Joker learned of Black Mask's latest scheme and confronted the crime lord who was disguised as Batman. The real Batman arrived shortly after and knocked the Joker down before chasing Black Mask. However, during his fight with the crime lord, Joker managed to get away. Sometime later, Joker got a second chance to take down Black Mask and he shot the crime lord on the leg. Joker's vendetta against Black Mask was due to the killing of Robin at the hands of Black Mask, as the crime lord was blamed for Stephanie Brown's death. Joker was mad at Black Mask for taking away from him the chance to kill another Robin. Batman arrived at the scene and stopped the fight, delivering both criminals to the police and Joker was sent back to Arkham Asylum.
A few days later, Red Hood abducted the Joker and held him hostage at Crime Alley, beating him without mercy until Batman arrived. Jason tried to force Batman to kill Joker and then he threatened to do it himself. However, Batman defeated Jason and Joker seized the chance to create havoc by taking a gun and shooting a box of explosives, blowing up the entire building.
The Joker was one of extremely few villains not drafted into Alexander Luthor's Secret Society of Super-Villains. Unlike many of the other villains, such as Catman, the Joker actually wanted to be a member of the Society, but the higher-level members wouldn't let him join, which enraged him. While slaughtering a branch of the Royal Flush Gang on his warpath, the Joker was actually laughed at by the King who said "Don't you get it? The Joker's too wild!" He then electrocuted him with his joy buzzer, before walking away and saying to himself, "That's not funny". After the Society had been defeated, while Alex Luthor was planning what to do next, he was ambushed by the real Lex Luthor and the Joker. Before allowing his brutal murder, Lex simply told his counterpart, "You should've let the Joker play."
For a period, the majority of Earth's villains were deported to the Hell Planet, where the Joker became responsible for one of the factions. They were largely non-constructive and attempted to steal food and supplies from Lex Luthor's group, who were trying to find a way to escape. The conflict ended in one-on-one fisticuffs between Luthor and the Joker. Although the match was nearly even, the Joker ultimately overcame Lex, just before the entire villain community was forced to unite against an oncoming Parademon attack. Joker eventually escaped the planet along with most of the other villains.
Jimmy Olsen interviewed an incarcerated Joker about the murder of Duela Dent, who had called herself "The Joker's Daughter". The Joker stated that he never had a daughter but expressed awareness of the Multiverse and shifts in reality.
A deranged police officer impersonating Batman, named Josef Muller, shot the Joker in the face, leaving him physically scarred and disabled.After having undergone extensive plastic surgery and physical therapy, The Joker reappeared with a drastic new appearance, with scars running from the corners of his mouth high onto his cheeks, and affliction sometimes referred to as a "Glasgow smile." While in intensive care at Arkham, the Joker had developed a new, more lethal variant of Joker Venom, and instructed Harley Quinn to use it to kill his former henchmen to signal his spiritual "rebirth." He went on a rampage through Arkham, attempting to murder Harley (her death being the final "punchline" of his rebirth) before being stopped by Batman.
Joker was locked in his cell in Arkham when Batman showed up and attacked the Scarecrow in front of Joker's cell. Batman opened the cell, cuffed Joker to a pipe and proceeded to torture Crane on the Joker's toilet, much to the madman's delight. After Crane confessed his crime, Batman left the place and Joker was thankful with him for letting him witness such a great performance.
Not long after this, Joker was offered a position on Doctor Hurt's conspiracy "the Black Glove" and murdered several people in Arkham as part of the plan. Joker joined Black Glove on the condition that they let him have Robin, and not long after this, Guy Dax freed Joker from his cell. Joker attacked Dax and mutilated his face after going for his henchmen, and after a while, he attacked El Sombrero, apparently killing him. Joker went to Hurt, and shortly after he faced Batman who had been lured to Arkham. During the fight, Joker cut his tongue and caused Batman to have a mental breakdown.
After the Black Glove buried Batman alive, Joker warned them that the Dark Knight would rise again and eliminate them all. Then, Joker hijacked an ambulance and escaped Arkham, but was pushed off a bridge by the Batmobile driven by Damian Wayne.
Joker soon resurfaced under the guise of British journalist/detective Oberon Sexton. At the same time however, he operated as the Domino Killer, killing members of the Black Glove one by one. Dick Grayson, who had taken up the Batman mantle, confronted Oberon about all the Domino killings actually being a set routine of jokes. Oberon removed his mask to reveal the Joker grinning at his old foe, the bullet wound to the head seemingly healed.
After the Joker was arrested once more, he underestimated the newest Robin, Damian Wayne, by trying to win the Boy Wonder's pity. He received a beating with a crowbar from Robin who he realized was the son of his old foe after noting the resemblance between the child and the original Batman. The officers at GCPD ignored the Joker's pleas for help after they concluded that Robin could handle the villain easily.
However, the Joker's apparent helplessness was yet another ruse. Feigning injuries from Robin's assault, he scratched Robin with a paralyzing toxin painted onto his fingernails and revealed that he had once again manipulated events toward his own ends, mocking Robin for going so far as to provide his own crowbar. Appropriating Robin's utility belt, the Joker escaped 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 had Robin bound and gagged and possessed a nuclear weapon. Help arrived in the form of the original Batman who aided his successor and his son in their battle against the Black Glove and the Clown Prince of Crime at Wayne Manor and the Batcave. The Joker infected Dr. Hurt with Joker Toxin and buried him alive. The second Batman pursued and captured the Joker, while the original Dark Knight, Robin, and Alfred Pennyworth disarmed the Clown Prince of Crime's weapon and defeated the remaining Black Glove members.
Eventually the Joker escaped from Arkham again by ingesting a mixture of venom and alcohol which secreted through his pores, making him poisonous to the touch. Gordon's ex-wife Barbara was attacked with more toxin and Batman hunted the Joker down to an underground lair. They fought while Joker refused to acknowledge Dick Grayson as a worthy successor to "his" Batman, but in defeat, he insisted he never touched Gordon's wife. It was James Gordon, Jr. who broke the Joker out of Arkham and attacked his own mother with toxin, using her as a diversion while he kidnapped his sister, Oracle.
After Earth 2's Batman sacrificed himself to kill a large number of the New Earth Batman's villains, Joker approached Dick Grayson of Earth 2 and shot him, paralyzing him in a manner much like that of Barbara Gordon. Shortly after, he was executed by Telos by breaking his neck, Telos believing him to be repulsive no matter which universe he came from.
The Joker suggested many possible origins for how he came to be, though, due to his unreliable nature, many of the details are contradictory and thought to be untrue. He has said that he doesn't think of his past as multiple choice, but more "choose-your-own-adventure".
Even before becoming the Joker, his DNA was not available on any records to confirm or deny any of these stories.
However, despite the inconsistencies in his story, some parts of the Joker's backstory were apparently true.
Before becoming the Joker, he was a failed stand-up comedian with a wife named Jeannie. Jeannie was pregnant with their first child, but due to his difficult life he started becoming erratic and mentally imbalanced. Jeannie, fearing for both her life and the life of their unborn child, went to the police, who helped her fake her death and move to Alaska to escape her husband. The man who would become the Joker was informed that his wife and child had died, forcing him to experience "one bad day".
Many years later, Jeannie continued to live in Alaska in peace with her son, neither she nor the Joker knowing where they had landed in life. Bruce Wayne, who had encountered the comedian before he became the Joker, was aware of Jeannie's true fate and kept it a secret in order to protect her and her son. Because of this, he was also forced to keep Joker's true name, which he learned a week after meeting Joker for the first time, a secret.
The Joker began his criminal career as "Red Hood One," the leader of the Red Hood Gang, comprised of blackmailed individuals from the middle and upper classes of Gotham that the Red Hood kept under his sway. With the ideology of pointless violence, the gang dared the authorities to try and catch them all. He first faced off against Bruce Wayne when the returned billionaire-turned-vigilante rescued some hostages from the madman.
Having been tipped off by Edward Nygma, the Red Hood sent his gang to kill Bruce Wayne, catching the billionaire in an explosion in his brownstone. Taunting Wayne as he lay dying, Red Hood One added insult to injury by shooting two bullets through a portrait of Wayne's deceased parents before leaving the future vigilante to his injuries.
As the tales of the urban legend known as the Batman rose in the wake of Wayne's attempted assassination, the ranks of the Red Hood Gang began to slowly dwindle bit by bit, each member caught one by one. Having discovered Red Hood One's plan, Wayne blew the gang's cover at Ace Chemical Processing Plant where the criminals were planning to steal flesh-eating chemicals. Realizing the jig was up, the Red Hood Gang led an assault there against the Batman and the GCPD.
Though Red Hood One attempted to escape in a helicopter, Batman fired his grappling line around his enemy's ankle, yanking him from the aircraft and sending them both plummeting through the weakened roof of the chemical plant. Almost falling into a vat of chemicals, Red Hood One was caught by Batman, who attempted to save the criminal's life. Claiming this moment to only be the beginning, the gang leader broke free of his savior's grasp and plummeted into the chemicals below.
Despite Batman's prediction that the chemicals were enough to kill him, the man's body was not recovered.
Soon after Red Hood One's disappearance, the body of a man named William Distal was found discarded and covered in lye. Though the GCPD were aware that Distal had at one point acted as Red Hood One, the lye made it impossible to tell when he had been murdered - as early as Batman's first appearance, as late as the fight within ACE Chemicals, or any time in between. Thus, the man who fell in the acid could have been Red Hood One for an indiscriminate amount of time.
The man who fell in the acid did survive, having had his skin turned pale white and his hair green. The man reappeared sometime later, unhinged with criminal insanity, calling himself the Joker.
The Joker claimed, not long after this transformation, he hatched a plan to create more people like him, to spread his chaos farther than he could do alone.
Using the same chemicals that transformed him, the Joker infected multiple other people, also turning them into Jokers, too. However, of his experiments, only two survived. Unclear on who was the original, there were now three near-identical men calling themselves the Joker.
Allegedly, the three Jokers, delineating between themselves with their nicknames: the Criminal, the Clown, and the Comedian, would alternate their positions, terrorizing Batman for years. They kept their origin a secret, never making it clear that the Joker's inconsistent personality and seeming omnipotence was because the mantle was shared by three separate people.
The Criminal, cold and calculated, tended to target Batman the most early in his career.
The Clown seemed most active a few years into Batman's career.
And the Comedian apparently was more prominent later in Batman's career.
Not long after "the Zero Year", the Joker resurfaced and quickly made a name for himself in the city; his first attempted crime was trying to poison the Gotham Reservoir, an act that Batman successfully stopped.
According to Batman himself, despite the lack of confirmed information on the Batcomputer, he had pieced together the Joker's true identity within a week of his first attack.
According to the Joker, after Batman took on an apprentice with his first Robin, Joker began thinking several steps ahead and orchestrated events he believed would lead to Grayson's replacement. Setting his sights on the young Jason Todd, the Joker faked Jason's parents' deaths to force the boy to believe he was an orphan and follow a path that would lead him to becoming Batman's next sidekick. However, the Joker is an unreliable narrator, and this may have been a lie to manipulate Jason.
Near the conclusion of Batman's second year as a vigilante, Joker found himself with the unique inability to laugh, thought to be caused by his continued inability to beat the Bat. Going on a chaotic killing spree of comedians, the Joker was tracked down by the Riddler, who had broken free after a year in prison, to offer that the two work together to fight Batman. Joker didn't find this offer funny though and shot the Riddler in the stomach, instigating what would later be known as "the War of Jokes and Riddles".
The Joker and Riddler both recruited every villain in Gotham they could to fight in their war, which raged through Gotham for weeks, accumulating numerous civilian casualties. Batman, unable to simultaneously stop both sides, was forced to focus on one and chose to defeat Joker's side first. With Riddler and Batman's combined efforts, Joker's army was picked off until only Kite-Man remained, who they knew they could use to find Joker and end the war.
In the final confrontation, the Riddler revealed that the entire plot of the war was orchestrated by him as a means to make Joker laugh, and Batman, unable to control his rage over how many deaths were caused in service of such a ridiculous motive, attempted to stab Riddler with a knife. In a surprise twist, the knife was stopped only by Joker, saving two of his enemies and regaining his ability to laugh.
The Joker's notoriety continued to grow to the point that he operated his own gang of henchmen in Gotham. At some indiscriminate point early in the Joker's criminal career, he and his gang terrorized the Gotham Zoo, killing its employees. While there, a baby gorilla caught the Joker's attention, and the clown killed its mother to raise it as his new sidekick. Naming the gorilla Jackanapes, Joker and his "son" terrorized Gotham until, on a mission to kill a Gotham City councilwoman for trying to close the Gotham Zoo, Jackanapes fells into a river and seemingly drowned. The Joker was unfazed at the death of his son, instead insisting he get a refund for the swimming lessons he purchased.
Meanwhile, the Joker was in and out of Arkham Asylum constantly. In one of his stays at the asylum, the madman actually managed to seduce his psychiatrist into letting him escape and join him as his criminal accomplice Harley Quinn.
One of Joker's early plans drew the attention of the Gotham Gazette and, in particular, one of their journalists Tommy Blackcrow. Trying to investigate the clown that he clearly underestimated, Blackcrow was captured by Joker and, still undaunted, proceeded to tell the madman that he's probably the way he is because he doesn't have any friends, a comment that Blackcrow later regretted when Joker took it upon himself to make the journalist his best friend.
At some point, Joker, as well as Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman, was contacted by the Designer - a new criminal in Gotham who volunteered to make their wildest schemes a reality. Though the other criminals bought into it, the Joker, however, caused the whole deal to fall apart and seemingly killed the Designer, and the villains burned down his base to leave no trace.
As years passed, Joker's crimes became more violent and personal, such as torturing and paralyzing Barbara Gordon and even killing the second Robin. Again and again, Batman defeated Joker and sent him to Arkham, but his crimes had now hit much closer to home.
Years later, the Joker is a homicidal killer being hunted by Gotham's police force. After a skirmish with Batman, the Joker is caught and taken to Arkham Asylum. There, the Dollmaker pays him a visit, which the Joker seems to have been expecting. The two have cordially arranged this meeting, and the Joker has assigned his visitor with a special task: he has the Dollmaker cut off his face and pin it to the wall.
Afterward, 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 Joker's face to be returned to them, and Batman's head too. Soon afterward Harley Quinn learns of her Puddin's "death" and betrays the Suicide Squad by orchestrating a mass prison break at Belle Reve Penitentiary. Afterward, she travels back to Gotham City, turning herself in at Gotham City Police Headquarters all in the hopes of stealing back the Joker's face.
The Joker made his return to Gotham City a year after his disappearance. He infiltrated the GCPD headquarters, killing the lights, slaughtering several cops and making his presence known to Gordon. In the following days, he reenacted some of his earliest crimes such as publicly announcing his intention to poison the mayor, with each crime having some morbid twist to it.
After using Harley Quinn to distract Batman, the Joker went after anyone who has a connection to Batman. In order, he vanquished Batgirl, Catwoman, Robin, Nightwing, Red Robin and Red Hood. Joker brought them all to Arkham Asylum.
By the time Batman came, Joker had his defenses ready and lured the Dark Knight into his trap. Batman complied, hoping to learn more of his adversary's plans. Joker placed the entire Bat-Family on a large table, with bandages around their faces. He claimed he had removed their faces as Dollmaker had removed his. He also explained that he had instructed Dollmaker to remove his face to show that under his grin, there was only more grin. He left them and set the scene on fire.
Batman broke free. He liberated his allies and discovered their faces were still intact. He caught up with Joker, and the fight was short. Batman taunted him, claiming to have discovered who the Joker was before his chemical bath. Not wanting to hear it, Joker jumped off the cliff.
In the pit, Batman would later learn, was a pool of the element Dionesium, which had the supernatural ability to heal the Joker's dismembered face skin and grant him superhuman healing, which he would later incorporate into his next plot against the Bat. Also in the cave, Joker discovered the cave painting of a bat that he wouldn't realize the significance of until even later.
Soon after his supposed death off the cliff, Joker reappeared, but disguised as a new orderly at Arkham Asylum. Using pigmentation to conceal the pale skin on his new face and muscle relaxant pills to suppress his constant smile, Joker adopted the name "Eric Border" - "Eric" being a combination pun of the Norse and Gothic words "Eternal" and "Prince" respectively, and "Border", which is a homophone of the archaic word "bourder" meaning "jester".
Befriending Dr. Mahreen Zaheer, Joker worked in Arkham, formulating his plan for return. In his new identity, the criminal kept to his roots by playing a dark prank on his new friend Dr. Zaheer by encouraging her to write a book about the "true" origin of the Joker. The clown falsified documents and paid people off in order to construct another origin story that could only potentially be true.As part of his dark prank, the Joker gave each of four inmates a different origin for himself (a demon, a robot, a man from another time,and a soldier who was the first in an army of Batmen created by the government,) with a path through Gotham that eventually leads to the publisher of Dr. Zaheer's book where the fifth inmate has Dr. Zaheer tell them her story.
Shedding his Eric Border identity almost a year after adopting it, Joker came back with an endgame in mind for Batman. Unlike his last dastardly plot, the clown made clear that he was no longer playing; he intended to make this his final dance with the Bat.
Drugging the Justice League using a new and extremely potent Joker Venom, the madman sent Batman's superhero allies after the vigilante, forcing Batman to single-handedly fend off the entire Justice League. Wasting no time, Joker infected the entire city with the same virus, turning them all into laughing homicidal maniacs. Revealing that he knew Batman's secret identity, Joker then singled out some of Batman's closest allies, putting a hatchet into Commissioner Gordon's chest and cutting off Alfred's right hand with a meat cleaver. After a gruesome parade in the middle of Gotham, Joker made his way down into the depths of Gotham to his Dionesium pit, where he fought Batman in a duel to the death. With both eventually severely wounded and Joker's own supply of Dionesium neutralized, Batman and the Joker died together, side by side, under the streets of Gotham.
The Dionesium, despite having thought to been destroyed in the cave's collapse, managed to still revive both Bruce and the Joker, healing the scars on their bodies but also robbing them of their memories. The man who was once the Joker—his skin and hair turned back to normal—returned to society and started a new life at a butcher shop. Months later, Bruce, also living a normal life without the knowledge that he was once the Batman, met the former Joker in the park, who had intended to kill himself that night but eventually backed down.
A short time later, after Bruce used a machine in the Batcave to return all his memories of being Batman, the insanity of his former life seeped back into the reformed Joker's mind, causing him to return to his normal Joker self.
During the Darkseid War between Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor, Batman was forced to sit in the Mobius Chair and become the God of Knowledge to aid in the crisis. There, with access to all the information in the universe, he asked for the Joker's real name - of which it responded, "There are three." Unsure of what it meant, after the conflict was resolved and Wally West was freed from the Speed Force, Batman discovered that, for years, there had been three separate Jokers terrorizing Gotham, all pretending to be the same man.
The three Jokers planned a coordinated attack with one another, finally dropping the ruse. By simultaneously committing a series of murders to distract the police long enough to hijack a truck of chemicals, the Jokers planned to experiment with the chemical to create one, perfect Joker.
Batman's investigation into the Joker led him to the Gotham Aquarium with his partners Batgirl and Red Hood - two former sidekicks who had been previously paralyzed and killed by the Joker respectively. There, the heroes captured the Joker known informally as "the Clown" and held him for questioning. The Clown, claiming to be the Joker that was responsible for killing Red Hood when he was Robin, taunted the anti-hero until Todd lost composure and murdered him, leaving two Jokers remaining.
Red Hood hunted for the other two Jokers, planning to kill them too, but was ambushed by them when he had stumbled upon their failed experiments to create another Joker. Holding him hostage, the two remaining Jokers decided that Jason was the ideal candidate to become their newest Joker, although they came to the conclusion he could not live up to their standards. During the beating and laughing that it was more fun than the first time, "the Comedian" claimed he was the Joker who had killed Jason. The "Criminal" also spoke about Jason's murder. Luckily, Batman and Batgirl found Jason's location in time, stopping the chemical process but unfortunately allowing the Jokers to escape.
In the Jokers' final plan, they kidnapped Joe Chill - the man who killed the Waynes - from Blackgate Penitentiary and brought him to the location of his famous murders Monarch Theater. Batman, Batgirl, and Red Hood arrived at the theater and discovered that the Jokers' plan was to then make Joe Chill the ultimate Joker. The clowns knew Batman's secret identity and believed that the thing that would hurt him the most would be to make the man who killed his parents his arch-nemesis as well. However, before the clowns could drop Chill in the chemicals, Batman saved him, avoiding the transformation.
With their plan having failed, the Joker known as 'the Comedian' killed the one known as 'the Criminal', returning to the status quo of there being only one Joker. The Comedian surrendered to the Dark Knight and offered to be escorted to Arkham Asylum.
On the way to Arkham, though Batman suspected the Comedian was the original Joker all along, the clown himself couldn't remember, casting doubt on his past once again. He also revealed that Jokerizing Joe Chill was never his master plan; instead, he wanted Batman to save him, therefore forgiving his parents' murderer and allowing Joker to be the source of all Bruce's future trauma.
At some point, the Joker began investigating a conspiracy behind a cave painting he had found when he was first revived by the pool of Dionesium. Batman, following the same mystery and thinking the Joker might hold a clue, captured him and detained the clown for weeks in a secret wing secluded in the Batcave.
When Hal Jordan and Duke Thomas began following the clues to Bruce's investigation, they accidentally released the Joker from his Batcave prison. The Joker, ranting about the conspiracy he had stumbled upon and not wanting the mystery to be solved, tried to smash Batman's progress before escaping into the night.
However, despite the Joker's effort, Batman continued his investigation, which lead to the invasion of the Dark Multiverse. Batman accidentally played right into a trap set for him and released the evil deity Barbatos and the Dark Knights.
In the final confrontation against the Batman Who Laughs, Batman and Joker teamed up together, with the rationale being the only thing the evil Batman couldn't anticipate was his counterpart teaming up with his greatest foe. They were successful; the invasion was stopped and the Batman Who Laughs was incarcerated in the Hall of Justice.
Batman, weary from all his adventures, proposed to Catwoman, who accepted. However, after months of anticipation for the event, the wedding was crashed by the Joker, who convinced Catwoman not to marry Batman because happiness is Batman's greatest weakness.He nearly died after Catwoman slit his throat, but was saved by Thomas Wayne at the last minute.
Joker would later join the Legion of Doom and torment the Justice League with the rest of the team's greatest rogues. However, he would eventually leave the team on bad terms: Joker made a deal with Lex about him joining the Legion, with Luthor promising to stay away from the Batman who Laughs. Luthor though broke the pact, accepting an alliance with the deranged version of Batman from the Dark Multiverse. This led Joker to the decision of leaving the team.
At one point, Joker, revealing that he actually did learn the location of the Batcave years ago, snuck into the hero's lair and shot himself in the heart to activate the same toxin in his system that Jokerized the Batman Who Laughs on his world. Alfred successfully resuscitated the Joker, saving him from the brink of death - though he admitted he didn't necessarily want to. Batman was temporarily infected and began transforming into a monster just like the Batman Who Laughs, but he managed to cure himself before the toxin could take hold.
After the Source Wall was destroyed when the Justice League saved the universe from the Omega Titans, Lex Luthor, having returned to being a supervillain once he discovered his life's goal was to spread doom throughout the world, hatched a plan to gain control over a piece of the Source Wall that was scheduled to crash land on Earth called the Totality. Luthor organized a supervillain team to help him, called the Legion of Doom, and reached out to reputable criminals to join him.
Luthor invited the Joker to join him while the clown was planning to poison Gotham's water supply with a new strain of Joker Venom. When offered the immeasurable power of the Totality, the Joker agreed to join the Legion with only condition - the Batman Who Laughs was not to be involved in any of their plans. Luthor agreed.
The Justice League simultaneously learned of the power of the Totality and clashed with the Legion of Doom for control of it. With none of the Legion's members invulnerable enough to reach the unstable power of the Totality themselves, Luthor and Joker worked together to mind control Superman and Martian Manhunter to reach the object for them. Though their plan almost worked, the Totality ultimately landed in the hands of the League.
Needing to alter his plans, Luthor reached out to the Batman Who Laughs behind the Joker's back for information; the evil Batman was well versed in magical multiversal artifacts and was familiar with the lore behind the Totality and the power of Perpetua. Luthor ordered the Legion to set the Triumvirate of Sea Gods free, allowing them to temporarily drown the Earth to distract the League long enough to steal the Totality back from the Hall of Justice. The mission was a success - though the Sea Gods were stopped, the Legion was once again in possession of the Totality.
Joker however, at the mission's conclusion, betrayed the Legion of Doom, having found out that Luthor went behind his back and allied them with the Batman Who Laughs. Drugging the Legion with Joker Venom, the Joker revealed to the villains that killing them all and leaving evidence of their murders for Batman and Superman to find would have been his masterpiece, but he abandoned his plans with the Batman Who Laughs involved. Setting them free, Joker returned to Gotham, severing ties with the Legion to continue their mission for control of the universe without him.
When heroes and villains from an alternate universe came to this Earth searching for Doctor Manhattan, the two criminals Marionette and Mime caught the attention of the Joker - whose henchmen believed the two were intruding on their boss' clown schtick and were, in turn, slaughtered by the visitors. The Joker, however, was pleased by his multiversial guests and escorted them through Gotham as the city erupted in riots.
Joker brought the villains to the Riddler's secret League of Villainy, a group of criminals meant to team up and discuss the supposed "Super Theory", a conspiracy about the US government's involvement in the creation of superheroes.
However, Marionette and Mime were captured by the Comedian, who was also searching for Doctor Manhattan. Though the Comedian threatened to kill one of them, the Joker shocked the man unconscious with his joy buzzer, exclaiming his intention to find Doctor Manhattan as well.
The clowns tortured the Comedian for information on Doctor Manhattan, but he didn't have much evidence to offer. Their paths crossed over with that of Batman, Rorschach and Ozymandias, with Joker even getting caught in the fight between the latter two as tensions escalated.
Once Manhattan was found, the man was convinced by Superman's unwavering goodness to fix the damage he had caused to both universes. History was altered once again.
Joker, once again with the knowledge that Batman was Bruce Wayne, initiated another endgame plot against the hero. At this time, Joker took on a new sidekick to help him with his plans - a woman he called Punchline.
Together, the clowns imitated plans concocted by a villain known as the Designer from earlier in Batman's career by pretending the master criminal was still alive, using a chemical that temporarily reanimated corpses. Batman was distracted defending the city as the Joker's real plan was set into motion. By the time that Batman had uncovered that the real Designer had been dead the whole time, Joker had connivingly stolen Bruce Wayne's entire fortune and company and planned to use it against him in a final gambit for the city.
Joker organized a mass riot of his cronies throughout Gotham to further distract Batman while he himself wasted Bruce's fortune on things like jokerized limos and gold chain necklaces. The Bat-Family came together and organized a counter-assault to get the city under control, even teaming up with Harley Quinn, eager for revenge against the Joker.
Joker, to further hurt Batman, tried to brainwash Dick Grayson into becoming his sidekick. Dick, who was still suffering from amnesia at the time and was more vulnerable to persuasion, temporarily worked with the Joker as Dicky-Boy. However, Dick's full memories returned to him, and he abandoned the Joker to once again become Nightwing.
When Batman finally confronted the Joker at his headquarters at ACE Chemicals, the hero found that the Joker had revived Alfred Pennyworth's corpse using the zombie formula. The Joker was disappointed that Bane had wasted the opportunity to kill Alfred in front of Bruce and sought a do-over. Joker, wearing his own version of the Batsuit, used Batman's extensive (and expensive) gadgets against him in the climactic fight, but, as soon as he got the upper hand, the villain was surprised by a bullet to the eye from Harley Quinn.
Quinn went rogue and attached bomb vests to both herself and the Joker, and Batman was forced to decide who he had time to save. Though the Joker was positive Batman would pick him, the Bat chose Harley, leaving the Joker to die in the scenario he had gotten himself into.
With the Joker's plan foiled and the city once again under control, Batman returned to the site of the battle and found that the Joker's bomb vest had been defused. He assumed the villain had used his gadgets to get out at the last minute and went into hiding.
In the Legacy of Chris Thorndyke,
And he is reprised by Troy Baker in the English dub, due to the retirement of the role by Mark Hamill and Naoki Tatsuta in the Japanese dub, as tributes for Takeshi Aono and Keiji Fujiwara.