Joker in the DC Comics animated universe
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[edit] Origin
Before the infamous incident that turned the Joker into his current form, The Joker was described by Jack Ryder as being a hitman with no-name that worked for the Valestra family. In the Beware the Creeper episode, several photos of him were seen, all of them depicing the madman before he actually fell into the chemical bath at Ace Chemical Plant The Joker notably assassinated the father of Andrea' Beaumont (Batman's old fianceé from the animated film Mask of the Phantasm) which led to her turning into the persona of the Phantasm in a lust for vengeance. .
[edit] During Batman TAS and the new Batman Adventures
During Batman TAS the Joker received no character development in these shows but they depicted his character perfectly and many fans of Batman believe the Joker of the DCAU to be the best incarnation of the Joker. The main reason being Mark Hamill's voiceover of the Joker. During these shows the Joker received millions in heritage, proved himself to be the archnemesis of Batman to the other villains in Batman TAS and was aided by Harley Quinn. Into is notable that during these shows that Joker drove people insane by the effects of the Smilex poison, or Joker Toxin, and there were heavy implications of him committing mass murder, which was very dark considering that the show had been commissioned for children.
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The DCAU's first appearance of the Joker was in the episode Christmas with the Joker, in which he kidnapped Summer Gleeson, Harvey Bullock and Police Commissioner James Gordon. Threatening to kill them at Christmas Eve, he was stopped and put into Arkham Asylum for the first time in animation. Later, in The Last Laugh, he employed his trademark laughing toxin for the first time (although this was not the lethal variant of the gas developed by him in comics, it caused deep-seated insanity if breathed for an extended period).
Later, he pulled different schemes for various reasons: in revenge against Mayor Hamilton Hill for putting him and Batman at the same level, he almost blasted his son's birthday party and used the child later to try and kill Batman. In revenge against Commissioner Gordon for his job, he tried to introduce a bomb into a party given to honor him using a nondescript man, Charlie Collins, who, from the Joker's point of view, was indebted to him, and, for the first of many times, with the invaluable help of the mad psychologist Harleen Quinzel, by then Harley Quinn. To gain a vast fortune, he poisoned all the fish in Gotham with a variant of the Smilex poison, and tried to copyright the grinning fish. In order to get the copyright, he attacked the bureaucrats of Gotham's Copyright Office, until his plan was foiled.
In several of these, he also exhibied one trait that deviated from his comic counterpart: he was not immune to the effects of his own toxin. He did, nevertheless, pull several death-defying stunts, during which he was considered to have been killed.
Some time later after the Laughing Fish fiasco, he was contacted by Dr. Hugo Strange, who summoned him, Two-Face and the Penguin to auction inquestionable proof of Batman's identity. Although Joker did assist to the auction and actually bid, he later decided Strange was a phony, and tried to attack him before he was stopped. Later, offended by the fact a man named Cameron Kaiser had build a casino in Gotham bearing his likeness, he nearly demolished the whole building, but after discovering Kaiser was counting on him to destroy the casino to pull an insurance scam, he decided to kidnap Kaiser and become the ringleader of the casino. After their transport was brought down, both Joker and Kaiser were arrested.
In Almost Got 'Im, Joker robbed a bank and ran into Batman. Capturing him, he appeared into a TV studio the following night. Having strapped Batman to a "laugh-powered electric chair", he doused the audience in Smilex toxin, causing the electric current of the chair to rise steadily until Batman was saved by Catwoman. Fleeing, he captured Catwoman with the aid of Harley Quinn, and the next evening, he left to the criminal-exclusive Stacked Deck Club to boast his achievement before the Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and Killer Croc. Shamefully for the Clown Prince of Crime, Killer Croc was actually Batman in disguise, and used the Stacked Deck Club as a trap to capture most of his deadliest enemies at once. He then used the information Joker had unwittingly given him to attack the Pussykins Catfood Factory and rescue Catwoman and capture Harley.
His next apparition was in "The Man Who Killed Batman", where he had Sydney DeBris, the man who had apparently killed Batman, and questioned him on the feat he had apparently consummated. He then attacked a jewelry store, just to check if Batman really appeared or not. Disappointed with the fact his nemesis had been killed by a hand other than his, he dragged Sydney to the Ace Chemical Plant, the place where he had been created, and forced him to attend a funeral he held for Batman before Harley and a group of henchmen. After the Joker' moving (and quite scary) eulogy (which showed how badly he wanted to be the one to kill Batman), he then threw Sydney into the coffin that held Batman's cape and cowl (with a "Kick me" note attached, courtesy of Joker) and pused the coffin itself into the vat of chemicals. After watching how it apparently dissolved into nothingness, he then cheerfully asked who was in for Chinese food that night.
Later, in Harley and Ivy he kicked out Harley Quinn after he thought she was useless. Nevertheless, after a few days, he realized he had uses for Harley, who essentially served as his housekeeper and partner-in-crime. It's not difficult to imagine why, then, he almost had a fit when he knew of Harley and Poison Ivy's crime assault on Gotham, he tried to draw Harley (and her share of the loot) back to him, only to be trapped in Ivy's lair in a toxic waste dump, which was set off by his shots.
In Trial, he was the judge at the deranged trial held at Arkham Asylum agaunst Batman, but his plan to kill him wiht the justice of the insane was foiled when Janet Van Dorn, Gotham's new District Attorney, got him off by playing against them with their own statements. He tried to kill Batman anyway, but was stopped short of doing it. In Harlequinade, he attacked a mob auction and stole an atomic bomb, planning to blow up Gotham-and Arkham Asylum, where Harley and most of the people she considered friends were held, with it. Harley, ignoring Joker's direct orders, attacked him and helped to deactivate the bomb. His last appearance in B:TAS was in Make 'Em Laugh, where he stole some of the Mad Hatter's brain control chips and used them to control three comedians that were to be the judges of a comedy contest he had been kicked out of the previous year in one of his civilian disguises. He made it out to the contest's next edition in the same disguise, and revealed himself to the audience. He tried to escape with the trophy and the title of the greatest comedian in Gotham, but was stopped and sent to Arkham Asylum.
His next appearance in the DCAU would be one of the greatest, in the animated movie Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Here, much of his history and origin as Joker were revealed, as well as the fact he was the original killer of Carl Beaumont and one of Gotham's deadliest gangsters. Here, his laughing gas reached complete toxicity and became completely lethal. As well, he appeared to be dragged by the unmasked Phantasm into the core of an explosion. Both, however, survived the blast.
[edit] The Joker in Justice League
The Joker made few appearances in the Justice League. Justice League/ JLU uses the same character design as Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker's flashback scene, during this he joins the Injustice Gang initiated by Lex Luthor. Capturing Batman practically instantly, he was amazed to see that Luthor had no intentions to kill Batman, and subsequently, he left the Gang.
His next appearance was in the A Better World episode, in another Earth, where he appears as the lobotomized receptionist of Arkham Asylum.
[edit] The Joker in Batman Beyond
The Joker did not appear in the show despite references to him but was a title character in the Batman Beyond film, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. In the film the Joker re-appears during a Wayne tech party much to an aged Bruce Wayne's horror and shock. The Joker is in a physical state of a young man despite time dictating that he should be in his late 70s/80s. It also appears that Joker has seized control of a gang of Jokerz. Terry Mcginnis (the new Batman) attempts to stop Joker but fails, not before the Joker criticizes the new costume and runs off. The Joker soon launches a solo-attack on the Batcave and Bruce. The Joker attacks him with his infamous Laughing gas and runs off. Terry soon arrives at the Batcave and rescues Bruce, Terry notices that the Joker damaged nothing in the Batcave except for the old Robin costume that Tim Drake wore. Terry goes to Barbara Gordon for an explanation. She tells Terry about what happened forty years ago. The Joker had kidnapped Tim Drake and Batman and her searched furiously for him for 30 days until Joker sent them a message, it leads the duo to the old and demolished Arkham asylum and they find the Joker with Harley Quinn acting like stereotypical parents. Batgirl hides but Joker binds Batman together with a trap and opens a pair of curtains. Behind the curtains lie a child bound on an operating table draped in shadows and then he laughs, laughs like the Joker and reveals himself, a replica of the Joker evidently insane who Joker then reveals that he has affectionately called J.J. Batman loses control with rages and rips his binds apart with sheer strength and throws a batarang and Joker's head which the Joker dodges easily and laughs. Joker runs off on the operating table which is remote controlled and Batman chases him while Batgirl attempts to help Tim but has to fight Harley Quinn as well. Joker then shows and narrates a movie he made of the time he spent with Robin, the film depicts him shocking and torturing Robin and saying "he peeled back layers of the Boys mind. Joker then calmly reveals how he tortured all the
secrets out of Robin and now knows everything about Batman and says "Bruce". He then mocks Batman saying that the discovery of his identity is anti-climatic and that Batman was nothing more than "a child in a playsuit crying out for mommy and daddy." Batman loses control again catches Joker by the throat and threatens to kill Joker, but before Batman can carry out his threat Joker slices his with a lightning quick strike with a small knife concealed in his cuff and stabs Batan in the leg sending him crashing to the ground wounded and weak. Joker then cruelly decided to give the honour of killing to Robin. Robin points the gun at Batman but at the last moment pulls the trigger on the Joker and kills him and ends the nightmare. (It's notable that Joker was electrocuted in the edited version of the film.)
.After this Terry takes the resurrected Joker on in a 1-1 battle and Joker believes Terry has no chance because he is a punk and the fact that he now knows all of Batman and Robin's fighting techniques, but Terry warns Joker that he works differently to the original duo and manages to defeat the Joker by getting under his skin and deducing him easily, saying that he "got his skin bleached and decided to become a supervillain" Joker becomes enraged and attacks Terry furiously with grenades and brings Terry down to the ground and keeps him down by smashing a table on him, ripping his mask off and demanding that he laughs. Terry doesn't and Joker screams "I can't hear you!" To which Terry then coughs "ha-ha" and places a buzzer on Joker's neck shocking him out of the body he had stolen by manifesting his DNA in a mole on Tim drakes neck 40 years ago and thus killing Joker and bring back Tim Drake. The Joker is now dead forever in the DCAU.
[edit] Murders
Although due to the censorship of violence in the animated Batman series the Joker is usually not allowed to commit murder, he has many times tried to kill innocent victims, not to mention Batman, and there have been many heavy implications that he has killed before. In the animated film 'Mask of the Phantasm', the Joker kills for the first time, killing Sal Valestra with laughing gas to use as bait for the Phantasm. It is possible that he killed councilman Arthur Reeves, also with laughing gas. In a flashback it is shown that he killed Andrea Beaumont's father, before he was transformed into the Joker.
The Joker did not kill again after this, until the Batman Beyond movie Return of the Joker. In this he kills a member of the Jokerz gang, who are at that time working for him, named Bonk. Bonk believes that the Joker is a fake who has them doing pointless things, and arrogantly challenges the Joker, telling him that he wants to quit. The Joker responds by pulling out a gun, then pulling the trigger, a BANG! flag coming out. He then fires it again, and Bonk is speared on the flag, which is soaked in Joker Venom, putting a dead smile on his face. In the edited version of the film, this scene was modified to make it less violent. As before, the Joker does pull a gun out and a BANG! flag comes out, but when he fires it again, Bonk is not impaled on the flag. Instead, laughing gas comes out, strong enough to send Bonk flying across the room, as before. Bonk erupts into hysterical laughter, and dies off-screen, when his laughter stops. As well as changing Bonk's death, a new scene is added where the Joker tosses the gun over his shoulder, and it lands on Bonk's laughing body.
As Bonk's death via spear-gun was changed, so was the Joker's. The Joker was originally shot by the insane Tim Drake with the very same gun in the flashback scene. In the modified version of the film, the Joker gives a gun to Tim Drake that is intended to change Batman's DNA into the Joker's, so Batman will become like Tim Drake. Tim Drake tosses the gun away, and attacks the Joker, pushing him into a water container. The Joker is soaked and slips, pulling a lever as he falls, electrocuting him fatally.
