History of The Joker

By: Derek Yollin

“If I'm Going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice” Words from a maniac and one of the biggest notorious villains in all of comic history. The Joker. I wanted to do this because the new Joker movie comes out October 4th. This is the history of the Joker. The words in the beginning are very vague just like him. Sometimes he is a failed comedian gone crazy. Sometimes he Just always was the Joker. And sometimes he became a gangster...We don’t talk about that last one.

He literally has multiple stories because some say the writer looked at a Joker playing card and was like “I can work with this.” Others think it is based on an old play by the name of “The Man who Laughs” Which is the name of a Joker Centric comic.

He first appeared in Batman #1 on May of 1939 and he died. Not right when he was introduced but soon after. He was meant to be a one off villain. In the last two panels of the comic we see he wakes up in a hospital to be in later comics. People loved it and he clearly was fun to write about because there is a whole movie about him!

Next came Adam West's batman series in 1966 just titled “Batman”. In which Cesar Romero played the joker. In a tv show to with the same cast and everything. This was the first live adaptation of the batman and joker. He had only appeared in the comics till than.

Next. Batman. Also just the name. Very creative. This movie was very popular and for a good reason. Michael Keaton (who played beetlejuice) plays batman against the joker jack nicholson. This was one of the first times joker got an origin. His name was Jack Napier and he was the criminal who killed Batman’s parents. He fell into chemicals that put him into a permanent smile and became the joker. This was directed by Tim Burton.

The next movie really set the bar for the character. Every joker after was basically trying to recreate the crazy of this one. Yes. I am talking about the movie “The Dark Knight” joker was played by Heath Ledger and he did a lot for this. He actually killed himself right after the movie from overdose. He put himself in the joker's body and he was the best. He may not have had an origin, but he was great and just perfect as the joker.

Next came “Suicide squad”. Remember what I said earlier “And sometimes he became a gangster...We don’t talk about that last one.” Yeah. That. He was played by Jared Leto and he was in the movie for 7 minutes. Look it up it's true. He was not good and hopefully won't reprise the role ever again.

The joker had a non speaking appearance in titans in which he was dead on a car. And the show powerless which is about people stopping superheroes from destroying the city. Joker appears when he is being arrested. Still better than Leto.

Mark Hamill plays a character on “The Flash” named the trickster which is a direct copy of the joker.

This one shouldn’t count. But it’s too good not to talk about. In the show “Gotham” Cameron Monaghan plays Jerome and Jeremiah Valaska. Twin psychopaths. Jerome was made as a plot device. The creators make you think this crazy guy is joker. It all is put together he is crazy, Bruce Wayne’s enemy, and has his face cut off. But his brother is really joker. His brother looks and sounds like joker He falls into the chemicals and is the joker. Jerome is like the dark knight joker though. The two brothers stories put together is what people say is the origin.

The joker movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck. That's all we know. This should be what is the true joker origin story. See it October 4, 2019.

That was all the live action appearances of the joker throughout history. All the animated ones are voiced by Troy Baker and Mark Hamill. Go watch them all they are all very good.