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WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
The Joker is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Lex Luthor) of the DC Animated Universe.
He is a psychotic criminal with a warped sense of humor, who seeks to cause chaos, destruction and misery wherever and whenever he can. As in all other media in which the Joker appears, he is Batman's arch-nemesis.
He is voiced by Mark Hamill who also voiced him in the Arkhamverse as well as Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
His Qualities[]
What Makes Him Entertaining?[]
- Mark Hamill's iconic preformance, which to this day is considered by many to be the definitive voice for the Joker, even having him reprise the role for many other projects, such as the Arkham series and many other actors using his preformance as inspiration for the character.
- He is a genius who is able to plan out many schemes which is difficult for even other highly intelligent characters such as Lex Luthor or Batman to figure out, even outsmarting them both on several occations, even almost being successful in killing Superman one time.
- In the beginning of his run, he is more of a troublemaking prankster rather than a darker supervillain, however as the shows progressed, Joker also became a more darker figure overtime.
- His Joker was the very first that has introduced the character of Harley Quinn, leading the creation of the iconic storyline of "Mad Love" in the New Batman Adventures, with Harley even becoming a canonical character of her own in the main DC comics universe.
- Some of his earlier plans lead to a joke, for example when he kidnapped various people during Christmas just to throw a pie into Batman's face.
- Despite his ever growing vileness throughout the DCAU, he never loses his comedic moments and is always Laughably Evil.
- Despite being a narcissistic psychopath, he NEVER underestimates Batman, even having some form of respect for his enemy, even snapping at Lex Luthor for calling him a mere mortal.
What Makes Him Detestable?[]
- Despite only starting out as a troublemaker, this Joker eventually became one of the darkest incarnations of the character, with one particular deed being mentioned as one of the worst things the Joker has ever done ever, across all interpretations.
- His whole motivation for committing crimes is "for the evulz": Joker commits several heinous crimes just for the sake of it, which includes trying to blow up Gotham and poisioning people with his "Joker gas".
- He frequently abuses his girlfriend Harley Quinn, and is proven to have lied to her about his origins in order to corrupt her to his side and use her as nothing more than a pawn.
- This version of Joker is also notably cruel to Harley, constantly berating and even physically assaulting her, sometimes right in front of others. This is further shown when he knocked her out of a closed aquarium window out of anger for capturing Batman on her own, not caring that she could have died as a result. Afterwards, he wrote her a half-assed apology note as means of keeping her under his thumb.
- He Refuses to listen to Hugo Strange’s Begging after he saw the fake tape of him planning to Scam him Two-face and The Penguin of Batman’s Secret identity
- Although they did not start off this way, his own minions start to get more afraid of him as time goes on. Even Poison Ivy dislikes him mainly due to his treatment of Harley.
- Even though he did seem to have a form of respect for Batman as an adversary (even crying during Batman's supposed death), it's clearly only genuine respect for him as his archenemy as it is a parasitic dependance on him in order for his actions and life to have a meaning. Either way, such shallow respect he had for Batman is made clear in Batman Beyond, wherein he tells Bruce he “always hated his guts”.
- Despite being Laughably Evil, he is taken so seriously even people born decades after his death become frozen in terror at the mere mention of his name.
- Even before becoming the Joker, he was shown to be a horrible person working for the Valestra mob killing people out of both sadism and greed.
- Although he consistently has many comedic moments, they are never exclusive from his cruelty. More often than not, they actually emphasize it as well as his sadism.
- He also unintentionally admits his cruel comedic edge comes mostly from a place of pride, as he describes himself as the “funniest man” and “greatest comedian” in the world. He also demonstrates on Terry McGinnis his willingness to brutally kill anyone who disagrees with such claims.
- He kidnapped Tim Drake when he was Robin and tortured him for weeks, both physically and psychologically eventually turning him into Joker Jr. so he could gain information about Batman's true identity and later have Tim try to kill Batman out one last act of spite. This was so bad that it made Batman almost break his "No Kill" rule after Joker taunted him over this and the death of his parents, and although Tim killed Joker, this event destroyed the Bat-family entirely and forced Bruce to live alone as a bitter old man for many years. To make matters worse, Joker implanted a chip in Tim Drake so he could possess his body later.
External Links[]
- Joker on the Villains Wiki
- Joker on the Pure Evil Wiki
- Joker on the Moral Ranking Wiki
- Joker on the DC Animated Universe Wiki
- Joker on the DC Wiki
- Joker on the Batman Wiki
- Joker on the VS Battles Wiki