The Joker (DC Animated Universe)

The Joker


Alias(es)	Mr. J
Appeared in	Batman: Mask of the Phantasm The Batman/Superman Movie Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker Batman and Harley Quinn
Status	Deceased
Actor	Mark Hamill

The Joker is a supervillain, whose base of operation was Gotham City and was Batman's most famous enemy.

Biography[]

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm[]

The Joker was originally an unnamed criminal with a checkered past. He 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 Carl Beaumont, a businessman who had fled the states after the mob bosses discovered he had embezzled a fortune. He was paid by Beaumont to leave him and his daughter alone, but he still completed his mission and brutally murdered Carl Beaumont in cold blood.

The Batman/Superman Movie[]

Batman shuts down the Joker's Gotham operations on a routine basis. But on a few occasions, the 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. The Joker planned to use the 'Laughing Dragon,' a statuette actually made of Kryptonite. The Joker's plans fell apart when Batman deduced what the antique was made of and headed to Metropolis, reluctantly teaming up with Superman to stop 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 for fun (Luthor had a hand in building half of Metropolis). The plan backfired when, in a scuffle with Batman, Joker's exploding marbles fell across the plane. While Batman and Superman saved Luthor and Harley, Joker was helpless on the crashing plane, laughing manically as it exploded in the river.

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker[]

Decades before the events of Batman Beyond, the Joker had kidnapped Tim Drake and experimented on him, altering Drake's DNA to his own and tortured him to Insanity. Turning Drake into Joker Jr., the Joker ordered him to kill Batman, but Tim refused and instead killed the Joker by shooting him in the chest with his flag gun.

Thirty-five years later, Joker mysteriously returned from the grave almost as young as he was since his death and took over the gang Jokerz, having them do his bidding in terrorizing Gotham once more by having them steal high-tech communications equipment and eventually constructs a satellite hijacking system. Eventually he would even break into Wayne Manor to injected his famous Joker Toxin into Bruce Wayne in order to prevent him from discerning his true identity, though this poison was soon cured by an antidote made by Terry McGinnis, the new Batman.

Later, Joker fought Terry in the abandoned Jolly Jack Candy Factory where it's revealed that Joker was actually a transformed Tim Drake. Though Tim was eventually cured his insanity and his condition afflicted by the Joker after the incident, he unknowingly had a micro chip placed inside him during the experiments, which contained the Joker's DNA, inside his neck. Eventually the chip activated and the Joker would periodically take over Tim Drake's being into a complete clone of the Joker, to the point of having the same physique and voice.

The Joker prepares to fire a satellite using the hijacking system, created with Tim's expertise as a communications engineer, to kill Terry's girlfriend, Dana Tan, his family and Bruce before destroying the city, but Terry sets Bruce's dog, Ace, on him. Terry knocks the Joker's joy buzzer into the controls, destroying the beam's guidance system and causing it to head to the factory. The Joker attempts to escape, but Terry seals the factory. The two fight, with the Joker gaining the upper hand thanks to Tim's trained body. Terry improvises by taunting the Joker's obsession with Bruce, sending the villain into fury to put him off balance. The fight ends when Terry, having covertly retrieved the Joker's joy buzzer, delivers a shock to the Joker's neck, destroying the chip and reverting Tim to his old self, destroying the Joker forever.