The Joker is perhaps the single most iconic comic book villain of all time and for years,
his identity has remained a secret.
In fact, all we’ve ever really known is that once upon a time, he was a petty criminal
called Red Hood whom Batman accidentally shoved into a vat of chemicals, turning him into
The Joker.
But because of some comic books that DC Comics recently put out and by recent, I mean at
the time of this recording, they came out TODAY, I want to throw my hat into the ring
and propose my own theory.
Is The Joker actually The Comedian from Watchmen?
I know it’s a weird thing to propose, but hear me out.
I think I have some good points.
Also, this is your spoiler warning.
If you don’t want to hear spoilers from Justice League #42 - #50 and DC Comics Rebirth,
turn off the video, go read ‘em, come back.
If you don’t care, keep watching.
We good?
Alright, let’s go!
In Justice League #42, Batman sits on the Mobius Chair, a special seat that contains
all of the knowledge of the powerful New Gods.
Yeah, good luck finding that at like a Target or something.
Batman asks the throne for the true identity of the Joker, but it gave a strange answer.
It wasn’t a name, but instead a fact.
There are THREE Jokers.
That’s right, it turns out that the clown prince of crime isn’t a single person which…
actually lines up pretty well with the Batman series for quite a while.
Remember this iconic panel from The Killing Joke?
“Something like that happened to me.
You know I…
I’m not exactly sure what it was.
Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another.
If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!”
Plus, if we look at Countdown #31, there’s a couple pages about the origin of the Joker.
Now, what’s that he holding in his hand?
It’s not one, not two, but THREE Joker cards.
Though considering that Countdown came out years before the New 52 and ESPECIALLY the
Mobius Chair revelation, this could just be a coincidence albeit a fun one.
Still, the three Jokers actually frees things up rather nicely.
The former Red Hood who was accidentally dropped into chemicals by Batman?
That was just ONE of the Jokers out there.
So let’s move onto fact number two.
When announcing DC Rebirth, they made a HUGE DEAL about the fact that they were going to
finally reveal the true identity of The Joker, but let’s face the facts.
Unless it’s an already established character, that revelation wouldn’t be all that impactful.
Heck, that’s why in Scooby-Doo, the bad guy is almost always someone the gang met
earlier in the episode.
Imagine how lame it would be if the Joker’s identity was revealed to be someone like…
Cole C. Coleman who works in a coal mine or like… a Kohl’s.
Finally, that brings me to DC Rebirth.
Bruce’s story opens on him trying to wrap his mind around these three Jokers and after
a brief run in with the Kid Flash, Wally West, he does something quite odd.
Get this.
Batman looks up at a Joker card in his trophy room and notices something in the corner of
his eye.
Almost instinctively, Bruce carves into the wall of the Batcave and what does he find?
The Comedian’s badge.
Yup.
It’s revealed that The Watchmen played a HUGE role in creating the New 52.
In fact, it’s also revealed that the New 52 wasn’t even a reboot!
The next few pages even go to Mars where Dr. Manhattan is talking to Ozymandias and DC
is really trying to make a big deal out of it.
You know, JUST LIKE the Joker identity reveal.
What if that big plot twist is really something that nobody could have predicted?
That one of the Jokers is in fact…
The Comedian.
The man who finds society to be one big joke.
Who better to be the embodiment of chaos?
And umm… joker and comedian are synonyms and they basically mean the same thing.
“But Drake!”, many of you guys might be commenting right now.
“The Comedian is dead.
Didn’t you even READ Watchmen?!”
Well first off, these are comics.
Nobody stays dead and two, the recent Batman storyline, Endgame, features one of the Jokers
coming back from the dead only to die… again...
It doesn’t matter if it’s through chemicals like Dionysium in the New 52 or overwriting
DNA like in Batman Beyond because The Joker will never EVER stay dead.
Personally, I think a lot of this theory makes a whole lot of sense, but I’ll be the first
one to admit that I’m probably overthinking this just a little bit, but I want to know
what you guys think.
Do you think that these two laughing mad men are one in the same?
Let me know in the comments.
And if you’re new to the channel then hi.
I’m Comic Drake.
I talk about comic books and my name is Drake.
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