If you’ve only seen the Batman movies, you’re probably wondering what on earth we’re talking about. Batman against one Joker, as it’s been since Adam West did the series in the 60s, right? Well… not exactly. We have to go back to 2020 when Geoff Johns planted a seed in DC that no one had picked up until now: What if it turns out that the Joker, actually… is three different people?
The joker bad luck
Three Jokers: the Criminal, in the early days of the character, much more serious and methodical than the others; the Clown, who came up with very strange plans in the DC comics of the 50s and 60s; and the Trickster, the most current and malicious, apparently the original Joker. The original story had much more to it, of course: the killer of Bruce Wayne’s parents died in a hospital bed, the Joker’s wife was pregnant in a witness protection program, and the Jokers kill each other until only the Trickster is left alive. Quite a story.
In the following years, doubts persisted about the continuity of this crazy idea, despite the writer’s insistence that it was canon in the comics and had nothing to do with parallel realities or alternate worlds. Now, instead of letting the story be forgotten like many others, DC has decided to double down on their efforts.
It was in issue 125 of ‘Batman,’ which marked the beginning of Chip Zdarsky as the series’ writer, where the return of this wild idea was hinted at: in a dream, the trio of Jokers is waiting for him, alive and well, confirming that the original story did indeed happen. However, there are not just three Jokers; at least two more have appeared in the series ‘The Man Who Laughed’ and ‘Harley Quinn.’ Instead of sweeping their failed storylines under the rug, DC has decided to step on the gas and see where it takes us. We recently saw a battle involving 13 Joker clones, so everything is yet to be decided. Let the bat-madness begin!
