Friday, August 10, 2012

The Joker – New 52 | Comics

Always a homicidal maniac and an agent of chaos, The Joker is the most dangerous villain with a mysterious past that ever walked on Gotham. No one truly knows what made him into this murderous monster but his transformation was a result of sinking into a vat of chemicals at Ace Chemical, which left him with chalk white skin, green hair and a double glasgow grin on his face. Even Batman's superior detective skills failed to discover his identity over years and the lunatic himself never cleared anything about it.

As he prefers to have a multiple origin story for self to keep it interesting, sometime he claims that he was in care of an abusive aunt, who used to wash his skin with bleach which explains his skin color and it even affected his brain in some way to damage. However, given his twisted nature, it is very much possible that he just made that up. Whatever the reason was for him to become a maniacal clown, the Caped Crusader learns that his DNA trace is non-existent in any records when he managed to take a sample of his blood for ID.

Red Hood Gang
Long before he officially debuted as the Clown Prince of Crime, he used to terrorize Gotham City with his Red Hood Gang on anonymous thugs as their mysterious leader "Red Hood One". He used to blackmail civilians from middle and upper classes in a cult of faceless goons to do his bidding. Focusing only on senseless violence throughout the city to bring it to its knees, this gang drew attention from Bruce Wayne, who was thought dead for a time being and is recently resurfaced to wage war against all sorts of crime.

joker new 52
The Joker – New 52 | Comics

These two has crossed paths when the maniac decided to kill a group of hostages and the vigilante intervened to rescue them. Next time the cross paths when Red Hood Gang raided a blimp to steal high-tech weaponry stolen from Wayne Enterprises. Later, with tip from Edward Nygma, he intended to kill Bruce by invading into his home after catching him off guard in a small explosion. He and his entire gang savagely beat him up with all they had, shot him twice and then left him for dead after setting his home ablaze in fire.

Despite being heavily wounded, Bruce survived only to return back as Batman to foil his master-plan to take over entire Gotham. As Red Hood One and his gang members were grouping at Ace Chemical Processing Plant, they are flashed out in front of the world. Then all of his goons are systematically taken down with superior tactics by The Dark Knight and forced their leader into fleeing from scene. During his attempt of escaping in a helicopter, they fell through the roof and although his enemy offered to save him, Red Hood One dropped into a massive vat of chemical down below.

Zero Year
Seeing his enemy drowning into that vat, the vigilante believed him to be dead but he in fact had transformed both mentally and physically into something more twisted only to start wrecking havoc and taunting Batman again. He joined the Gotham City Police Department to keep an eye on him and even managed to lure the hero into a trap to end his reign of vigilantism forever. While his men cornered The Bat by open firing on him, Bruce barely survived the barrage of bullets with help from his future ally Jim Gordon.

The War of Jokes and Riddles
When he made a comeback after a while looking like a clown with chalk white skin, green hair and an extended grin, Batman was on second year of his crime-fighting. However, he was unable to laugh which he thought was because of him not being able to defeat his foe. So, he started a killing spree of comedians. At the very same time, Edward Nygma broke out of prison to offer The Joker for a team-up against their common enemy only to get shot by the maniac. This action has sparked a huge conflict between two parties that lasted for weeks and every known super-villain in Gotham took sides.

Despite his best efforts to stop the war, The Dark Knight witnessed much civilian causality that enraged him. So, he decided to side with Riddler and using Kite-Man as a way to reach The Joker, he finally confronted the killer clown. When Nygma revealed that he orchestrated the entire conflict among both parties in an attempt to make Joker laugh and hearing this, Batman loses control, trying to stab him with a knife. Surprisingly, the knife was stopped in the nick of time by none other than the pale man as he starts to laugh again.

In Arkham Asylum, he made a reputation of an infamous criminal that every other inmate feared and respected. During his stay there, he eventually seduced his psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel into fall for him and she became his girlfriend after being transformed by falling into chemical vats, becoming Harley Quinn just as he did once. With passing years, he became more violent and to hurt his enemy, he once shot and paralyzed Barbara Gordon. Then he managed to capture the second Robin, Jason Todd through trickery and blew him up after repeatedly beating the boy to death with a crowbar.

Faces of Death
Gotham has seen many shades of the clown but he never really had any pattern in years. The Joker suddenly starts killing off his accomplice and allies, leading Batman on a chase for him. He finds the madman stabbing his latest victim and then throws a bag full of explosives before escaping. Then GCPD was led to a trap by him and blew off to hell. As he tries to run, The Dark Knight gives chase and sent him to Arkham after stopping him. There, he asked the serial killer, Dollmaker to carve his face off and pinned it to the wall.

Death of the Family
After this event, no one saw him or heard for him, leading people to believe that he is finally dead. One year later, he suddenly showed up at GCPD headquarters and goes on a killing spree of the cops present by snapping their necks while telling them jokes after killing off the lights. Batman showed up only moments later to find a terrified Jim Gordon in the midst of his dead colleagues and the murderer was gone by then with his peeled off face. The Joker has returned once again in Gotham to torment Batman and his allies.

The Bat-Family has come together to help their mentor but they were targeted by the maniac as well. He raids the Suicide Squad to pick up Harley from Deadshot's funeral and sends her dressed as Red Hood in to Ace Chemicals, where he lured his enemy in while he sneaks into Wayne Manor and kidnaps Alfred Pennyworth. For a grand celebration he planned for his nemesis, he needs a butler and then he poisoned Jim Gordon though some old photos. Joker even managed to enlist Penguin, Riddler and Two-Face in his cause.

Nightwing was injured when he was trying to foil his plan of poisoning a reservoir, Batman and Robin went through some traps, he personally went to pick up Batgirl by threatening to hurt her mother and then gases Red Hood before abducting him. Catwoman too is confronted by the pale man but he got bored with her too soon. In a final climax, Joker brings the Caped Crusader in Batcave after having him go through trials in Arkham. The vigilante eventually broke free to confront the Clown Prince claiming he finally figured out who he really was before but jumped off the cliff not wanting to hear that.

For more information on The Joker – New 52 comics series, you can check out the link below.

The Joker – The New 52 (Comics) DC Wikia

the killing joke
That Murderous Clown

Here is your links to buy "The Joker – The New 52" comics from DC Comics on Amazon.

Batman – Zero Year – Secret City (Softcover)

Batman – Zero Year – Secret City (Hardcover)

Batman – Zero Year – Dark City (Softcover)

Batman – Zero Year – Dark City (Hardcover)

Batman V2 23.1 – The Joker

DC Comics – Zero Year (Softcover)

DC Comics – Zero Year (Hardcover)

Batman – Detective Comics Vol 01 – Faces of Death (Softcover)

Batman – Detective Comics Vol 01 – Faces of Death (Hardcover)

Batman Vol 03 – Death of the Family (Softcover)

Batman Vol 03 – Death of the Family (Hardcover)

The Joker – Death of the Family (Softcover)

The Joker – Death of the Family (Hardcover)

Batman Vol 07 – Endgame (Softcover)

Batman Vol 07 – Endgame (Hardcover)

Batman Vol 08 – Superheavy

DC Universe – Rebirth

As the legendary enemy of The Dark Knight, The Joker was originally a concept work by Jerry Robinson, Bill Finger and Bob Kane in 1940 for DC Comics, which is most popular for New Earth continuity. When "Flashpoint" crossover-event introduced a newly rebooted timeline, Joker is born anew on the pages of second ongoing volume of Detective Comics by writer/artist Tony Daniel (Adrenalynn – Weapon of War, Superman/Wonder Woman). Later popular Batman storyteller duo of writer Scott Snyder (Flashpoint – Project Superman, Superman Unchained) and artist Greg Capullo (Angela, Haunt) worked on this character in Gotham to develop his redefined legacy.

death of the family
Worse Than A Joke

Aspects like the idea of him being an immortal, his antagonizing attitude towards one of Suicide Squad member Deadshot because of his girlfriend Harley Quinn flirting with him, menacing the Teen Titans, disguise as a mere civilian and the sheer unwillingness to know Batman's secret identity were interesting. His infamous act in "The Killing Joke" and "A Death in The Family" also took place in The New 52, only with a different result. The Joker's most recent live-action portrayal in the 2016's superhero movie Suicide Squad by actor Jared Leto resembled a lot after his Prime Earth counterpart.
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