Greetings nerdy list aficionados and welcome back to top 10 nerd and today we’re chatting
joker and origins two words that for some don’t go together but despite the accepted
creed being that the joker is an unreliable narrator he’s had a decent amount of origins
some more celebrated and remembered than others we’re going to take a look at a bunch here
today.
I’m Sasha and these are the top 10 joker origin stories.
Let’s get started.
Number 10 - Batman 1989 – Batman 1989 is an important moment in Batman history of years
of campy silver age batman it showed the world that you could have a more serious batman
yes at the time this was considered a more serious batman.
So in it we had Batman going up against his arch nemesis the Joker but this joker had
a complete origin and a name so in this film he is jack napier who is second in command
to a mob boss but having an affair with his girl which is always a big no no so he gets
a quick dip into a vat of acid when a plan to have him killed goes awry and batman is
just a little too slow to save him.
This transforms him into the joker and gives us the famous give me a mirror scene – clip
– so he decides to take revenge on gotham city takes control of the mob and starts killing
people with smylex.
Also there’s a really horrible in my opinion bit of canon added where The Joker was the
criminal who killed his parents…just cause take that joe chill/court of owls depending
upon when it is.
Number 9 – Gotham – Let’s just put Gotham on here now so Gotham was a pre batman series
so like a series before bruce was batman that proceeded to introduce every single villain
guving us their answer to whether batman caused supervilalins to appear in gotham hard no
in the gotham verse.
So what was interesting about this is that what the show’s canon was going to be changed
overtime so in season one we were introduced to Jerome Valeska who wasn’t the joker because
of copyright reasons he was instead supposed to be an inspiration for the joker.
He was a circus kid who killed his abusive parents.
He would then proceed to do many joker things like killing sarah essen but they would still
insist he’s not the joker his laugh was suppose to herald the coming of the joker
well most fans were just like so he’s the joker.
Then it got even messier they brought Jerome back to life and then introduced his twin
brother Jerimiah then jerome would die again
jerimiah was a civil engineer who was sprayed with his brother’s chemical hence the beginning
of his transformation.
So these are proto jokers but we would get performances and actions reminiscent of the
joker but the showrunners say that what’s exciting is that they’re not the joker.
Look if it looks like the joker laughs like the joker… it’s the joker.
Number 8 - Killing Joke – So this a comic written by Alan Moore a one shot graphic novel
with nebulous ties to continuity written in 1988.
This story would feature extensive flashbacks to the joker’s origin and present him with
a tragic backstory that of a failed comedian just trying to get by and not making ends
meet so he turned to crime to support his wife and unborn child only for him to get
that organized and then his wife and unborn child die due to a faulty water heater but
he can’t get out of the caper and he’s put under the red hood a mask he can barely
see and when the confrontation begins with batman he falls right into that vat of chemicals
and emerges the joker batman unaware of the monster he has created.
Both the result of one bad day.
This one comes up the most and when people think of a backstory for the joker, but it’s
not the origin of the red hood.
Number 7 - Detective Comics #168 – This is The man behind the red hood and it’s
the first joker origin story in it Batman and Robin are tying to solve the mystery of
whatever happened to the criminal mastermind the red hood who they had been pursuing who
had jumped into a vat of chemicals to escape them.
After the case is reopened by a university the red hood comes out of retirement and eventually
it is revealed that the joker was the red hood he was a lab tech who was tired of the
daily grind so he decided to steal a million dollars and retire this was 1951 go with the
amount.
However after he dove into the vat of chemicals and came out changed he realized his new appearance
was horrifying and he could become a master criminal so he went with it.
When life gives you lemons.
Number 6 - Batman #450 – This story is from 1990 and is called wildcard and is notable
as it is one of those canon stories that acknowledges killing joke as joker’s origin the status
that story occupies is interesting it’s almost like some people felt it was too good
not to be canon.
The way it acknowledges it is pretty hard core commissioner Gordon has a full on breakdown
when he learns the joker is on the loose this because of his torture In the killing joke
as well as what happened to Barbara.
This story is actually interesting and involves an imposter joker an bad jokes and intentional
bad ones at that.
It even gets the joker to have one of those life is horrible laughs you know his favourite
kind.
Number 5 – Pushback this tale comes from Batman: Gotham Knights a monthly series that
ran from 2000 to 2006 about the exploits of the bat family and the extended batfamily
it had 74 issues this is where war games comes from.
Pushback would take the framework of the pre established killing joke canon and tweak and
expand upon it now instead of dying an ironic death the joker’s wife was killed by a mob
boss this was an interesting one and it seemed like it was more of a way to make him sympathetic
is your wife being murdered by the mob relatable.
Number 4 – Zero Year this was a yearlong event from 2013 to 2014 during the new 52
continuity this story was meant to redefine the origin of batman and so by proxy it tweaked
some of his villains as well you know taking maximum advantage of that soft reboot.
This origin would take us back to detective comics #168 with a twist so here it was said
that pre disfigurement he ran a gang of red hoods a whole red hood gang all these people
running around in this really inconvenient cumbersome masks.
Killing joke established these had poor visibility and I believe it just by looking at them,
so why would you have a whole gang they’d be taken out so easily even by cops.
Number 3 - Batman Confidential (#7–12) So Batman Confidential this was a series with
rotating writers and artists who would be depicting adventures of an early younger batman.
In issues 7 – 12 here we’re back to the name Jack which was first used in the story
payback which was part of the pushback arc.
So Jack is a career criminal who is bored he’s too good life is too easy what’s
a criminal to do.
In this Batman gives Joker the grin that splits his face after Jack escalates his crimes and
he hurts one of bruce’s love interests.
So he takes a batarang and ends up slashing his face a disfigurement that Jack finds he
likes them stating it’s nice to feel something he’s later taken to a chemical plant by
some mobster and dropped into an empty vat a fall he’s disappointed to survive and
the the goons aim a bullet at him but miss and hit a vat of anti psychotic which covers
him his last though is that he wishes he could see batman again.
He’s flushed down the drain surviving now with his traditional clown like appearance.
He changes his name to Joker and begins his reign of terror over Gotham.
This one didn’t really take off and in fact is often forgotten even batman confidential
is often forgotten which is too bad it actually has a really good riddler story A new dawn.
Number 2 – Telltale – This origin comes to us from the batman telltale games.
Now this is a game series where you play as a young up and coming batman but mostly Bruce
Wayne which is unique since it focuses on bruce and rejects the whole he is only Batman
and Bruce is the mask instead seeking a balance.
So the series is littered with emerging villains and you chart the course of how things turned
out.
The joker in this series is John Doe who depending upon your choices will either become the joker
or something different.
You first meet him as a patient in arkham but he really comes to the fore in the second
telltale game Batman the enemy within the game starts off with him discharged for good
behavior but he’s made some friends who turned out to be a criminal group.
This series is unique and the characterizations are interesting this one is a fan fave for
people who like shipping the two and your choices impact the relationship so much.
It also gives Harley a lot of agency it’s all interesting (clip) a more sweet joker
kinda a lost soul who is he no one knows which brings us to #1.
Number 1 - No Origin – So one of the things a company that has been going for as long
as dc comics has is how do you reconcile all these different origins these histories well
with a character like the joker is the idea that he is unreliable so he doesn’t know
himself this allows all these histories to coexist without rubbing off against each other.
Cause sometimes fans will battle over origins and who is right to the death or you know
at least until you’re not talking anymore which is always sad news bears.
The joker is a hard character to reconcile cause he’s had so many versions having been
around since the golden age he’s the first villain batman faces in his solo comic all
the way back in 1940.
There is an idea that the joker’s origin is multiple choice and that is the best way
to have him that no one knows who he is a good contrast to Batman who’s origin is
such an integral part of his origin it makes them even more opposite.
I’m a fan of him having no origin but what about you share your thoughts down below.
I’m Sasha and thanks so much for watching top 10 nerd don’t forget to like share comment
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