| “ | They all said I was sick in the head. They said I needed help. Well, maybe I am a bit... batty! Blame it on the bats in my belfry! (maniacal laugh) | „ |
| ~ The Joker swearing revenge on Batman. |
| “ | All it takes is one too many orders to make the coo-coo call! All it takes is one rotten day to transform a normal man into a MONSTER! Well, in my case, a rotten day and a chemical bath. (laughs maniacally) | „ |
| ~ Joker on his origins and his most famous line. |
| “ | Destroying you is my game, and I won't have anyone stealing my fun! (maniacal laugh) | „ |
| ~ The Joker in The End of the Batman after infecting Wrath and Scorn with laughing gas to prevent them from revealing Batman's identity; his final quote and lines in the series. |
The Joker is the main antagonist of the 2004-2008 animated superhero television series The Batman and a major antagonist in its 2005 direct-to-video tie-in film The Batman vs. Dracula.
He is a notorious clown-like criminal who becomes the archenemy of Batman, the local hero of Gotham City, just as Batman starts his third year of his crime-fighting career. In his search to make all Gothamites "laugh" at his comedy, the Joker targets several people close to Batman, especially Detective Ethan Bennett, whom he transforms into the shapeshifting monstrosity known as Clayface.
He was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, who also voiced Chairman Drek in Ratchet & Clank, the Imperium in Justice League, Trigon in Teen Titans, General Aguila in TMNT, Malefor in Spyro: The Eternal Night and the Shadow King in Wolverine and the X-Men.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- Although he is comedic at times (like most versions of the character), it doesn’t detract from his heinousness. More often than not, it just highlights his sadism.
- Freeing the Arkham inmates and flying over Gotham in a hot air balloon filled with laughing gas with the intent to pop the balloon, exposing the citizens to the gas.
- Blackmailing an Arkham orderly into impersonating him so he can get revenge on those he blamed for his arrest. The plan was to trap them in giant playing cards while only having their eyes moving so he could dump them into the river.
- Torturing Detective Ethan Bennett for hours in an attempt to send him insane, in order to prove that he was the ultimate criminal in Gotham, just out of sheer annoyance over the fact that Chief Rojas considered Batman a bigger threat than him. When Detective Ellen Yin came to Bennett's aid, Joker threatened to spray his Joker Putty on Bennett to get Yin to drop her weapon, only for Joker to try to spray Bennett anyway, being stopped at the last second by Batman with a batarang. The fumes from the putty would infect Ethan, turning him into Clayface and causing his fall into villainy, and while Joker never intended this, once he learns of the results, he is utterly delighted, even pushing Ethan into embracing his Clayface identity and the villain life when he was trying to go straight. Yin is shown in the series still being haunted by what Joker did to Bennett, indicating mild psychological trauma. This makes Joker responsible for all of Ethan's crimes such as when he became Soloman Grundy to steal loot, or his attack on Chief Rojas for his poor treatment of him. as well as turning into Catwoman to frame her for her robberies.
- The consequences of this particular deed are actually much dire, even with the combined efforts of Batman, Robin, and the repentant Bennett to undo it; a failing actor named Basil Karlo catches a wind of Wayne Tech's attempt to cure Bennett and subsequently steals a piece of the very mutagenic putty which mutated him in the first place which was overall made by Joker. This in turn, leads to him becoming a new Clayface who proved more ruthless and destructive than his predecessor, much to Bennett's horror to the point that he joins forces with Batman and Robin in order to defeat the monster he and Joker had created. Although Bennett and Karlo are exposed to the cure at the end of the fight, it fails to undo the latter's own mutation because he consumed greater quantity of the putty than the former did, leading to him remaining a criminal and subsequently becoming Lex Luthor's ally against Superman as well as joining Joker's own group called the League of Laughs.
- Impersonating Batman, gassing multiple people for minor crimes which led to them having a permanent facial expression an expression of a massive dark grin, and infecting Batman with Joker venom, intending to drive him insane and turn him into the new Joker.
- Attacked Mayor Grange and Yin's new partner, Detective Cash Tankinson, causing both men to become infected with Joker Gas, while both recovered, it was still a horrible thing to endure. He also briefly gassed the entire city and planned to make the city die of laughter, fortunately Batman stopped this from happening, when the gas was stopped, he attempted to murder The Mayor and Cash just out of spite towards Batman.
- Trapped Detective Ellen Yin in a giant Jack-in-the-Box rigged with dynamite and attempted to murder her as the dynamite was about to explode in 8 hours, Yin barely survived only serving due to Batman coming at the last second.
- Yin was also dressed in a jester outfit against her will, which implies Joker may have changed her clothes.
- Tried to turn Batman insane while he was in his mind attempting to find where Joker was keeping Yin captive.
- Destroyed the only remnant of his old self in his mind for helping Batman find Yin.
- Stealing Bane’s venom and going on a rampage while nearly killing Batman. It was only due to Batgirl piloting the Batbot that Batman managed to win and revert Joker back to normal.
- Knocks out Penguin with his joy buzzer when the latter tries to form a partnership with him to seek the treasure an Arkham Asylum inmate had told the two about.
- When Batman tried to save him from falling into a deep Gotham river, the Joker refused his help, even revealing his shock buzzer to Batman and admitting he was trying to prank him.
- He attacks a blood bank once he is turned into a vampire by Dracula, apparently either infecting or killing the bank's receptionist to do so and drinking lots of the donated liquid, essentially wasting countless amounts of blood that were donated with the intention of being used to help people. Unlike other victims of Dracula, he remained in complete control of his actions.
- Recruits a young boy named Donnie to be his new "teenage sidekick," and then tries to throw him in that vat of chemicals that he himself had fell in before when he grew reluctant to kill, as he just wanted to be funny, not murderous.
- While he does get along with the kid at first and even hugging him, he immediately subverts it after Donnie refuses to kill Batgirl.
- Tries to kill Catwoman by dropping her in a giant biting machine shaped like teeth which was the only time in the series Catwoman showed genuine fear.
- Betraying Killgore Steed and using his maze to try to kill Batman, Batgirl, and Catwoman.
- He tried to gas all the dogs, leaving them laughing freaks. Since Joker’s Smylex inflicts what’s essentially a FWTD, this is also an exceptional display of animal cruelty.
- While he is terrified when he is escaping from Ethan after he corners him in his factory, utterly convinced Ethan will kill him and trying to beg for mercy, this is not redeeming or mitigating as it shows that Joker is a horrible coward, not to mention Ethan coming after him is completely justified given that Joker was the one to turn Ethan into Clayface.
- Abandoning his henchmen, Punch and Judy, to be arrested so he doesn’t miss his favorite show starring pop psychologist, Dr. Harleen Quinzel. After she was fired, he corrupted her into Harley Quinn, and together they caused tons of chaos on their first date while Batman tried to redeem Harley. After Harley suggested the idea they both bombed her former studio. Later, when Harley is trapped by the flames, Joker leaves her behind to avoid getting caught by Batman and gets away with his crimes while Harley gets arrested making him a karma houdini for that episode.
- Is responsible for Rumor being a threat to his fellow villains. When the villains all voice their frustration with Joker for creating Rumor, he shows no remorse over the fact that he created a dangerous vigilante trying to kill all his allies.
- Even before that he is shown watching a show called world's deadliest disasters which shows that he loves the thought of natural disasters coming to Gotham.
- Despite Batman and Robin saving him from Rumor, he fights them and never thanks them.
- In the Batman Strikes issue 9, he fakes being free from his insanity to trick Gotham.
- Pirating the air waves so people will view his crimes as "sitcoms," and releasing his gas all over the city.
- Filling the abandoned tunnels and mine shafts beneath Gotham with miles of dynamite will collapse the city to oblivion.
- Tries to have Marty fed to hyenas for not doing his job, and he threatens him with violence even when Marty is obeying him. While Joker does have a point in calling Marty out for accidentally creating a digital Joker that nearly took over Gotham, it wouldn't have happened in the first place if Joker had not threatened Marty.
- He betrays Wrath and Scorn, leaving them laughing freaks even though the two helped him with his crimes.
- It would seem that he prevented them from revealing the secret identities of Batman and Robin to protect them, but he only did it to fulfill his goal of being the only villain to destroy Batman.
- He only helps the police in fighting The Joining because he views Gotham as his town to terrorize and not out of care for Gotham.
Trivia[]
- He is only PE version of the Joker not to have any confirmed kills. It's possible he's killed people off-screen, but this is never stated.
- Joker is one of the three PE villains in The Batman, along with Hugo Strange and the Joining.
- This version of Joker shares a resemblance with his version interpreted by the late Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight: both have kidnapped a law official (Ethan Bennett in The Batman, Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight) and corrupted them into becoming criminals.
External Links[]
- Joker on the Villains Wiki
- Joker on the DC Database Wiki
- Joker on the Batman Wiki
- Joker on the Batman (2004) Wiki
