Greetings comic lovers and welcome back to casually comics the channel where we chat
all things comics from reviews of comics new and old to history to anecdotes to really
wherever our whims take us. I’m Sasha and Today it is old nay golden we’re going back
to the golden age to meet the clown prince of crime for the first time we won;t be focusing
on the behind the scenes of his origin but rather the story itself because reading it,
it’s a really interesting experience.
If you love taking a look at character’s histories and evolution's hit that like button.
So the Joker first appears in Batman #1 in 1940 which was not Baman’s first appearance
that was in detective comics #27 in 1939 a comics which featured multiple stories and
multiple characters Batman would prove so popular he would warrant his own book.
Hence the text on this cover All Brand new adventures of the batman and robin the boy
wonder, Sidenote in between 1939 and 1940 we dropped the hyphen that was in batman’s
name and I for one am glad that bat dash man was short lived look at spider-man people
spell his name all kinds of ways now two works one word hyphenated it’s madness.
Batman opens with a a couple of pages detailing the legend of the batman how he came to be
and so little of this has changed it’s kind of eerie. He even still says criminals are
a superstitious and cowardly lot but we’ve mostly dropped the he became batman cause
a bat flew in his window which has led to many what if he saw some other animal jokes.
But this isn’t about Batman not everything's about you bruce. Let’s get to the Joker.
Introduced on page 5 the joker already has hallmarks that will remain with him to this
day. The joker playing card as a calling card and announcing his crimes vis broadcast in
this case a radio broadcast in which he proclaims that he will kill henry claridge owner of
the claridge diamond at midnight and steal the diamond.
The police take this very seriously so a group of them guard xclaridge at his house and they
all just stand in his living room around the grandfather clock while he panics. This is
top tier Gotham protection.
But as the clock strikes twelve with nobody entering the room Claridge collapses dying
and when the police look down he’d dead a horrible grin stuck in a rictus on his face.
The diamond is gone replaced with a fake and in the case a joker calling card. The Joker
sits in his lair listening to the police report his crime monologuing how he injected claridge
hours before timing his death for midnight and had stolen the diamond the day before
as well.
Meanwhile Bruce is at home chilling with dick asking him like shouldn’t they go be batman
and robin or something but Bruce is all no wait we need him to kill again to be worth
my time. Seriously he says the time isn’t ripe.
The joker announces another victim over the radio and another jewel to steal and just
like before the victim dies when promised and he gets the jewel. So Batman decides he
guesses he should do something and leaves to investigate where he figures joker’s
next stop and victim will be. But my favourite part is possessive dick being saying where
are you going alone. We’re the dynamic duo Bruce duo!
Batman and Joker arrive at the next targets house at pretty much the same time only this
is golden age batman so he still makes sounds when he moves and the like so he has to engage
the thugs the potential victim had waiting and then go after the joker.
Oh and here it is their first fight look at it, the start of a beautiful archnemesiship
Batgman loses this fight too kicked right off the bridge.
I bet he got home and dck was just waiting there in the dark and turned on the light
to be like I bet this wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t gone alone.
The joker announces his next victim judge drake and this, this was the moment where
I went I’m not just projecting who the joker became and what he now means onto this story
this panel as old as it and the art style is is chilling. It’s the reveal that commisioner
gorden is the joker in disguise. You can’t win anyway you see I’m holding the winning
card. Which is of course a joker, that’s chilling stuff. And so the judge dies killed
and left in his chair a giant grin on his face.
Robin who was left to guard the house on the outside tails the joker and quickly finds
himself captured.
Batman follow his trail using his infrared lamp and did he just use robin as bait or
did that just happen. You decide!
He bursts in to the house where the joker has robin koolaid man style and he makes a
joke, You may be the joker but I’m the king of clubs, cause he’s clubbing him with his
punch...this is why we don’t let batman joke anymore.
The joker escapes after their fight started a fire cause of course it did these two are
too hot to handle. I’m so sorry except i’m not and that's what i’m really sorry about
send help.
Batman and Robin escape and battle the joker on the roof of a museum cause he was going
to go right back to robbing he’s also wearing his trademark trench and hat.
Robin nearly kills him sending him off the roof but batman catches him and says you played
your last hand joker, awful just awful someone tell him he can’t quip.
So the last panel is f the joker declaring that he will have the last laugh from prison.
There’s something here even from the start there’s something special about the joker
and it shows in how much of his lore stayed the same, the purple suit, the grin, the laughing
gas, the playing cards. He’s a strong antagonist for Batman though they’re not exactly polar
opposites yet and he almost didn’t make it.. Bill finger co creator of both batman
and the joker felt that recurring villains were a bad idea that to have a villain come
back would make batman look inept like a bat crime fighter. They were planning to stab
him through the heart the golden age didn’t play.
But the editor at the time Whitney Ellsworth overruled them so they had to add new panels
so that he didn’t die and he would then appear in 9 of the first twelve issues now
you may be going nine yeesh talk about overkill but golden age batman comics had like 4 stories
in them so it would have felt more spread out but his frequent appearances would mark
him as batman’s arch nemesis.
There’s something here trust me of the foes Batman normally fights the ones who stuck
around all had something special about them and he certainly is the most striking visually
for the time. He is a ruthless killer in the golden age too, he’s not watered down til
the silver age after the cca the comics code forced changes to his depiction.
So that was the first appearance of the clown prince of crime what was the first joker story
you ever read or if it wasn’t a story just your first joker encounter. That phrasing
makes it sound like we all live in Gotham. Who should we meet next?
I’m Sasha thanks so much for watching Casually comics please do all of the YouTube things
ike share comment subscribe and hit that bell notification so that you never miss a vid.
I’ll see you all again soon bye bye.