In one corner we have the cosmic horror, born from the space between spaces, and stalking
the multiverse for countless eons, always seeking its next meal- Pennywise, the Dancing
Clown.
In the other corner, we have the Clown Prince of Crime, The Ace of Knaves, or Mistah J if
you're nasty- the Joker.
Today on another special episode of The Infographics Who Would Win we have a colossal clash of
clowns, a beastly battle of buffoons, a merry madcap massacre, as we pit Pennywise the Dancing
Clown versus Gotham City's Joker, and find out who would win in a battle to the death!
They call it 'it' for a lack of a better name, for Pennywise's true form is incomprehensible
to the human mind.
Born in the early moments of creation, It exists in the space between worlds, the home
plane of existence for all matter of eldritch horrors- though once every few millennia it
finds a world in the vast ocean of nothingness that separates the stars, and descends to
feed.
Hundreds of years ago, It chose our world as its new feeding ground, and descended into
what would become Derry, Maine.
There It slumbered beneath the earth until It awoke and consumed three hundred English
settlers.
Returning to It's long sleep, in the modern age It took on the identity of Pennywise,
the Dancing Clown, in order to lure children to their doom.
A sadistic butcher, Pennywise feeds on human flesh but prefers to eat victims who are seasoned
by fear, and thus engages in a lengthy ritual of terrifying it's prey.
Though many believe that Pennywise's real form is that of a giant spider, the truth
is that no mortal mind can comprehend the true form of Pennywise, and a giant spider
is the closest that the human mind can come to understanding the predatory nature of this
eons-old killer.
It seems that Pennywise's preferred form here on earth is that of a clown, but has the power
to shapeshift into anything or anyone it desires.
Pennywise is also very fast, though not supernaturally fast, and extremely agile.
Add to that formidable, though again, not superhero-levels of strength, and you have
quite a challenge for The Joker to deal with.
For all his strengths though, Pennywise has one glaring weakness- deep down inside, Pennywise
is a coward.
Unless it's prey is terrified, Pennywise cannot defeat it, and in fact is very easily driven
off by individuals who learn to master their fear of Pennywise and it's illusions.
While physically able to overpower any human being, Pennywise has such a crippling weakness
to courage that it can't even bring its superior strength to bear on any individual that stands
up to it.
This has twice now seen Pennywise defeated by nothing more than children.
It's said that no man knows the true identity of The Joker- not even The Joker himself.
When asked about his past by his archenemy, Batman, The Joker remarked, “Sometimes I
remember it one way, sometimes another.
If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple-choice!”
Whatever his origin, The Joker is certifiably insane, and qualifies for every mental illness
he was ever tested for during his brief stay at Arkham Asylum.
Nobody knows where he came from or what truly led to his unique look and twisted personality,
but everybody knows about his modern exploits.
One of the most accomplished criminals of all time, The Joker oversees a vast criminal
empire- and yet is not content to simply rule from above, often taking to the streets alongside
his henchmen out of sheer enjoyment for 'the dirty work'.
A complete madman, The Joker is utterly unpredictable, and can one day be a completely harmless prankster,
and the other a homicidal maniac who doesn't hesitate to kill even children.
Yet it seems The Joker has at least some morality, and like the rest of the world hates Nazis,
even going so far as to get into a fight with Red Skull during the final stages of their
criminal plot when he realized that the latter's swastika wasn't worn as a joke, but as part
of his actual uniform.
Even The Joker knows that Nazis are bad.
For all his infamy though, The Joker possesses no super powers- he isn't super fast, super
strong, or super tough.
He can't use telekinetic powers or summon bolts of lightning from out of the blue- The
Joker is in every way just a normal human being, and yet he is one of the most feared
of all super villains.
What he lacks in superpowers, The Joker makes up for in a keen intellect- which thanks to
his fractured mind works in ways that other people simply can't predict.
He is routinely outmaneuvering the mightiest of superheroes, and leaving other supervillains
completely stumped as they try and get a handle of how the Joker thinks.
And that's the thing- nobody can think the way the Joker can, as it takes a severely
broken mind to even come close, and this leaves him with his greatest strength: the constant
element of surprise.
So in one corner we've got the interdimensional flesh-eating monster that's existed for as
long as time, and in the other a criminal mastermind who's so crazy he is just as likely
as pull of the world's greatest heist as he is to turn himself in for littering.
Who would win in this battle to the death?
Pennywise is clever, but it's cleverness relies on the ability to observe a victim and learn
their fears.
With some low-level psychic power, Pennywise is even able to delve into the mind of a victim
and tease out the most painful and terrifying memories, then use them as inspiration to
create horrifying illusions, or force a victim to relive their most emotionally traumatic
moments.
In battle, Pennywise really only has one strategy: overwhelm an opponent's mental defenses through
horror and deep emotional pain, because if they ever get a chance to recover and gather
their courage, Pennywise is done for and left helpless as a baby.
In this scenario, delving into The Joker's mind is going to leave Pennywise reeling from
the backlash of extreme insanity.
Pennywise will find itself flooded by hundreds of psychopathic thoughts, trying to find a
way through a mind that has been broken for decades.
If Pennywise tries hard enough to focus its powers, it may find a few fleeting memories
of emotional trauma, but even these are not guaranteed to be real, and forcing the Joker
to relive them could have completely unpredictable effects.
As The Joker himself said, he can't remember his own past, and he prefers to leave it having
multiple choices.
Pennywise's initial psychic attack is going to cripple it, as it's forced to confront
a thoroughly fractured psyche, a psychic land of illusions and misdirection, with paths
leading to nowhere before they curve back around and in on themselves.
Pennywise cannot make the Joker afraid, because diving into his mind will be like running
through a funhouse full of distorting mirrors, and in fact Pennywise might itself be lost
within the madness of The Joker's mind.
The Joker has a plan, he always has a plan- even if he doesn't remember it at the moment,
or if he doesn't even know he has a plan because the part of his brain that came up with the
plan hasn't communicated it to the part of his brain that knows it has a plan...
Yet in a one on one deathmatch, The Joker is at a disadvantage, because he's been denied
the most important part of his genius: the time to actually plan.
Yet as he confronts a Pennywise that is reeling from its peek into pure insanity, the Joker
is going to realize that he doesn't need a plan.
Pennywise needs it's prey to be afraid of it, or else they can easily overpower it.
Yet because Pennywise cannot dive into The Joker's brain due to his extreme insanity,
Pennywise will never realize that there is only one single thing that The Joker is truly
afraid of: not being taken seriously.
Pennywise is thus defenseless, because no scary form that it can assume will ever scare
The Joker.
For the Joker, defeating this ageless cosmic evil in the shape of a clown will be as easy
as picking up a baseball bat and giving it a few good whacks.
With his true fear shielded by a mind far too broken to read, the Joker will easily
defeat Pennywise, and send the eldritch horror skittering back into the dark places between
reality to lick its wounds.
Think The Joker would really win this fight?
Why or why not?
What other epic matchup do you want to see in our Who Would Win?
Series?
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