The Joker is one of the most popular villains in fiction, but there’s a problems with that: his schtick does get old after a while. There is no denying that the Clown Prince of Crime is one of the most storied villains ever. His grudge with Batman is one of the simplest, most elegant rivalries in comics and there are some amazing stories from just about every era of the characters. Every creator has a Joker story, and that’s both amazing and a huge problem. The character is too big to change and too many of his stories go in the same directions. There are some excellent Joker stories out there, but it’s rare we get any bold takes with the character. However, we were about to get one from the most maligned era in current DC Comics history that was derailed when it ended.
DC’s New 52 failed miserably after starting out well. However, there was one place in the New 52 where fans could go and always get a good story: Batman (Vol. 2), from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo (with fill-in stories from James Tynion IV and Jock). The two of them tackled the Joker in “Death in the Family”, teasing something greater in the wings and we got that from “Endgame”. This story is the culmination of the Joker plots introduced at the New 52, and seemed like it was taking him in an all-new direction. However, the end of the era killed this idea, and relegated us to more years of the same kinds of Joker stories we always got.
“Endgame” Felt Like It Was Taking Joker Into a More Horror-Oriented Direction
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
So, to understand the direction the story was going to take the Joker, you have to understand what came before. In Detective Comics (Vol. 2) #1, the book revealed that the Joker had his face peeled off, and it was taken to the Gotham City Police Department. “Death in the Family” would see an even more formidable and unhinged Joker take it back, staple it to his face, and attack the Bat-Family, soloing all of them before trying to murder them. He’d lose and disappear, which led into “Endgame”.
That story started with the villain taking control of the Justice League with his Joker toxin and sending them at Batman, and things get stranger from there. To being with, his face is fine. The Caped Crusader finds evidence that his longtime enemy may just be the latest incarnation of a pale-faced killer that had been menacing the city for centuries. It was revealed that there was a river of dynosium under the city, which healed and resurrected anyone who went in it, like Lazarus Pit juice. Batman and Joker killed each other and fell in, coming out without their memories, leading to “Superheavy”, which introduced Jim Gordon as mecha Batman and Mr. Bloom.
Eventually, the villain would show up in the book as a memory-less version of himself and readers would get teases that the monster would return. It honestly felt like Snyder was building the character into something new, making him an almost cosmic horror-level part of Gotham, something that had been hinted at for years by many creators in different ways. It was somewhat similar to a Joker story done by Grant Morrison in Batman and Robin (Vol. 1) before the New 52, but it was just different enough to be interesting.
The New 52 ended, though, and this plot was completely forgotten. Snyder did use the villain in Dark Days: The Forge, Dark Days: The Casting, Dark Knights: Metal, and to a lesser extent Dark Knights: Death Metal, as well as his run on Justice League, but this idea of the Joker as a deathless monster, using the dynosium to menace the city for centuries went away completely. It would have been a definite change of pace for the character, though, and if anyone wanted to pick it up, could have taken the villain in new directions.
A Change to the Joker Is Always a Good Thing
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
The Joker can get pretty old, pretty fast. Everyone who has ever read Batman comics over any long period have read so many of his stories. They’ve seen him show up a hundred times, and while his best stories are worthy of legend, there are plenty of stories that copy the past too much, playing the character too similar to what we’ve seen before and not bringing any interesting changes to the villain, something that is crucial for characters as popular and integral as the Clown Prince of Crime. That’s one of the reasons that changes to the character, like the one in February 206’s Batman #7, get so much hype; fans want new kinds of stories with the villain.
DC seemed to know that at the beginning of the New 52 and it looked like they were going to do something different. Would it all have gotten retconned eventually? There’s a very good chance it would have, but it still would have been different Snyder wrote an amazing Joker and is a great horror writer. He was taking the villain in a direction that played to his strengths, and it would have been amazing if this plot wasn’t forgotten when DC Rebirth rolled around and Three Jokers started getting teased.
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