DC Animated Universe Joker
ORIGIN:[]
The Joker was originally an unnamed criminal with a checkered past that started out as a young enforcer working for the mob triad of Sal Valestra, Buzz Bronski and Chuckie Sol. At one point early on, before his life changing accident, he and Bruce Wayne caught a glimpse of each other. One of his last jobs took place in Europe on the Mediterranean Coast. His target was businessman Carl Beaumont after the mob bosses discovered he had embezzled a fortune. He successfully completed his mission and brutally murdered Beaumont in cold blood.
BATMAN TAS Pre-Joker
Years later, he formed his own gang and staged a robbery at the Ace Chemical Plant. It was during this heist that he first encountered Batman. It is unknown whether he was pushed or simply fell, but he did fall off a catwalk and into a drainage vat of chemical waste that washed him out into the river. The chemicals had an adverse effect on him: they dyed his hair green, his skin was bleached white, his lips were permanently stained red and his clothes were dyed purple giving him the appearance of a clown. All this snapped the crook's already twisted mind and sadistic nature, giving birth to the Joker. Vowing to show the world the triumph of his comic genius, the career of one of history's most dangerous and intelligent psychopaths began.
ENDEAVORS:[]
A frequent inmate of Arkham Asylum, the Joker was often psycho-analyzed at one point by Dr. Harleen
Joker Family
Quinzel. After one session, Joker fooled Dr. Quinzel as he painted himself as a misunderstood soul crying out for the world to accept him. Quinzel soon found herself in love with the Joker, and broke him out of Arkham. However, a combination of Joker's ego and Harley Quinn's lack of humor tends to push Joker's buttons. More often than not, Joker abuses and throws Quinn onto the streets until he decides he wants her again.
The Joker's plans have little prejudice. Although he has shown particular delight in playing his jokes on the most ordinary, innocent victims, like mild-mannered salaryman Charlie Collins, he is just as dangerous to Gotham's highest level official Commissioner Gordon, or Mayor Hill. But the Joker has had his share of provocations. Joker was one of three villains to travel to Yucca Springs on an invite from Hugo Strange claiming to know the identity of Batman. Ex-businessman Cameron Kaiser deliberately made his casino resemble Joker's look to draw the villain out as a means to trick Joker into wrecking the casino so he'd get away with the insurance, although this plan ultimately backfired when Joker, thanks to information revealed by Batman on the plot, decided to instead kill Kaiser and then manage the casino from behind the scenes.
Depending on the joke, his plans can range from small-scale to global. On one occasion, the Joker tried to con his way to a local comedy trophy by using the Mad Hatter's mind control chips on the event's judges. Another time, Joker stole a nuclear warhead and almost successfully set it off on Mayor Hill's residence. One of his most (in)famous schemes involved infecting all the fish in Gotham Harbor with his Joker Venom, then demanding a copyright for them. When refused this, he went on a killing spree, murdering several bureaucrats of the Gotham Copyright Office with his Joker Venom.
Batman shuts down the Joker's Gotham operations on a routine basis. But on a few occasions, Joker really did go bankrupt. One such instance caused him to travel to Metropolis, where he briefly allied himself with Lex Luthor to kill Superman for one billion dollars. Joker planned to use the statuette 'Laughing Dragon' actually made of Kryptonite. The Joker's plans fell apart when Batman deduced what the antique was made of and headed to Metropolis, reluctantly cooperating with Superman to defeat him. Fearing Joker's failures were exposing him, Luthor called the deal off. Consolidating his losses, the Ace of Knaves kidnapped Luthor and hijacked his experimental LexWing assault vehicle, planning to destroy everything Luthor had built (as Luthor had a hand in building half of Metropolis) for fun. The plan backfired when, in a engagement with Batman, Joker's exploding marbles fell across the plane. While Batman and Superman rescued Luthor and Harley, Joker was helpless on the crashing plane, laughing manically as it exploded in the river.
The Joker returned to Gotham a month later, still bankrupt. He unwittingly received a $250 million inheritance from his former gangland rival Edward "King" Barlowe. Joker immediately spent the first million on various pursuits, such as hiring a defense team to wipe his criminal record clean. However, Joker was duped. The majority of the money was counterfeit and the IRS was claiming its dues. Desperate, Joker tried to steal a routine money dispersal from the Gotham Mint without using any of his trademarks. Batman intervened again, and Joker returned to Arkham.
During the seven-year anniversary of his transformation into the Joker, the Gotham Insider made a live report from Ace Chemical Plant. The Clown Prince of Crime made an appearance and attacked the news crew. Jack Ryder was doused with Joker's venom, then shoved into a drainage vat. Ryder transformed as well, but the combination of the chemicals and the laughing gas pushed Ryder further, giving him an energetically maniac, but still basically conscientious, personality. Fashioning himself into the crazed vigilante known as the Creeper, he went on a rampage to get revenge on the Joker. As a result, the Joker found himself in the bizarrely terrifying situation of being relentlessly pursued by this new insane superhero of his own inadvertent creation until he practically begged Batman to arrest him.
OTHER SCHEMES:[]
In another routine shut out, the Joker was forced to move his enterprises outside of Gotham. This time he chose the midwestern town of Dakota. The Joker planned on forming a metahuman gang. Batman, Robin, and Dakota's own resident hero Static teamed up and escaped Joker's death trap, arresting the Clown Prince of Crime in the process. Years later, Joker wound up in Metropolis. He was just in time to meet Lex Luthor's Injustice Gang, which he conned his way into staying by providing his expertise on Batman. His one condition was this: After the Justice League was successfully destroyed, Joker was promised Batman. However, the League survived and defeated the Gang. Joker cut his losses and attempted to kill Batman, but it seemed Batman had manipulated the situation throughout the entire endeavor. Batman easily knocked out Joker to end the conflict.
The Joker tried to form a metahuman gang once more. He discovered and entered a secret government compound dubbed Section 12. At the time, it was under the supervision of a federal initiative to procure defenses against the Justice League. Joker freed their captives and fashioned them as a card deck hand, dubbing them his 'Royal Flush Gang'. He then purchased air time on several networks under the moniker of "Gwynplaine Entertainment" and broadcast a live feed of Las Vegas. Joker secretly planted several dozen high explosives all throughout the city. Though the Justice League manage to disarm the bombs, the bomb stunt was merely to attract viewers throughout the world. The real plan was to use the powers of the Gang's fifth member Ace. Joker transmitted Ace's thought waves across the air to render everyone under a mass psychosis. Batman confronted Joker alone, and managed to reveal to Ace that Joker held on to a special headband used to nullify Ace's powers. Ace, in turn, used her power on Joker and temporarily incapacitated him.
FINAL JOKE[]
Years later, as he was deciding that the game between him and his nemesis was growing old, the Joker devised one last scheme, directed at Batman and his "family". Joker and Harley Quinn kidnapped Robin while the Boy Wonder was alone on patrol. For three weeks, in the former partially destroyed Arkham Asylum, Joker systematically pressured Robin. After several serum injections and shock torture, Robin revealed all his secrets to the Joker, including the fact that Batman was really Bruce Wayne. Joker then completed the "makeover" by splicing their DNA together through stolen cutting-edge genetics technology, resulting in his victim's face contorting into a Joker like smile and then dressed as a crude version of himself named "Joker Junior" or "J.J." for short, much to the horror of Batman and Batgirl. Joker even went far enough to document Robin's torture to show in the operating theater to Batman as the "Our Family Memories" video. While succeeding in enraging Batman, Joker delivered a knife to Batman's knee, crippling him. However, not even Joker could fully turn Robin, and rather than shoot Batman and "deliver the punchline", Robin shot and killed Joker. Joker's last words were "That's not funny... That's not..." before gasping in his last breath and collapsing from the mortal wound, dead.
LEGACY[]
Though buried deep beneath Arkham Asylum, the villain's last bid tainted the trio and engineered the end of the Bat-team.22Despite his death, the Joker's legacy as a criminal mastermind and homicidal maniac would live on for years. Whilst the people of Gotham were relieved at Joker's final and ultimate defeat, several street gangs were formed to honor the Clown Prince of Crime's destructive legacy.==BATMAN BEYOND== While Robin was in his possession, the Joker subjected the Boy Wonder to another experiment of using stolen nanotechnology to encode his own DNA into a microchip that was implanted at the top of his victim's spinal cord. Over the course of forty years, Joker's subconscious awakened and began to assume control of Tim Drake's body and plotted a return. If his family ever got worried, he'd simply call his wife in Tim's voice saying he'd be working late. Using Drake's knowledge of communications, Joker staged a series of corporate thefts utilizing a sub-group of Jokerz. During this time, he also had the Jokerz raid Bruce Wayne's Welcoming Back party, both to steal the final necessary piece of equipment: a systems scanner, and to expose to all of Gotham, including Wayne, that he's "back in town". Joker later dispatched the Jokerz to kill Terry McGinnis while Joker himself personally broke into Wayne Manor and dosed Wayne with Joker Venom, also kicking the dog Ace in the process, nearly killing Wayne had Terry not supplied Wayne with an antidote that Wayne had earlier hidden. With the technology, Joker created a satellite jammer and hijacked control of a Hyperion class defense satellite orbiting the planet, so he can impose his will on Gotham. His first target was the yacht belonging to his Wayne Enterprises ally Jordan Pryce after dispatching his Jokerz to "tie up a loose end" by trapping him aboard. After Terry deduced that Drake was likely involved in Joker's scheme, Joker had anticipating that Terry had deduced the connection and set up a trap involving a hologram of Drake, as well as a recording that activated after Terry touched the holographic representation of Tim that "confirmed" that Tim had indeed joined with Joker, as well as unveil that he planned to use the hijacked satellite to cause wanton acts of destruction on Gotham. Eventually, he used the hijacked satellite to attack Terry, although not before Terry uncovered his hideout: Jolly Jack Candy Factory. Joker then regressed to the original form of his new body's owner before trapping Terry with an electronic restrainer and then demonstrating his transforming into Joker to both Terry and Wayne. Having revealed the mystery of how he was able to return, Joker planned to crush Terry's spirit by destroying Wayne Manor with Bruce inside, then Terry's family and girlfriend. It was at that moment, after the jamming system accidentally redirected the satellite's laser straight to Joker's hideout, a skirmish ensued between Terry and Joker. Although knew every trick the original Batman and Robin knew, although this new Batman warned Joker that this didn't mean he knew his fighting style. Trying an idea that his predecessor had never attempted based on advice about Joker being "someone who likes to talk", Terry was "fighting dirty" by kneeing Joker in the groin and jumped up into the rafters to evade Joker’s attacks, beginning to taunt and laugh at him. By insulting his supposed poor attempt at jokes, gags and his sense of humor in general, he knew that his predecessor had never insulted Joker’s ego in such a manner, preferring to fight one-on-one in stoic silence. This act so infuriated Joker that he began throwing everything he had, including mini-pocket bombs. Within moments of the satellite's beam hitting the building, Terry used Joker's own lethal joy buzzer against him; electrocuting him, and incinerating the microchip encoding his DNA on Drake’s body. With the microchip burnt to ashes, Tim was restored and Joker's threat was ended once and for all.