The Joker (Elseworlds)

COMING SOON In an attempt to separate what is known and what is the officially accurate, this article contains unconfirmed information on upcoming video games or other material that may or may not be completely accurate upon their release. This does not include baseless speculation.

The Joker is an Elseworlds variant of the more well-known villain who has plagued Batman throughout the Arkham series. This Joker originates from an Elseworld where Metropolis has been transformed into a Joker themed city by Brainiac

Incident Reports

Before Kill the Justice League

In the early stages of his criminal career, the Joker was at some point recruited to be a part of the Suicide Squad in his Elseworld, however when Brainiac launched an invasion in Metropolis on his Earth Joker would end up killing everyone in Task Force X, believing he was keeping them safe from the hands of the alien invader and leaving him as the sole surviving member of the team. Because of what would happen if Brainiac's invasion were to be successful on this Earth, this forced both heroes and villains to unite and fight together in Metropolis and try to defeat Brainiac's forces, among humanity's last defenders fighting against Brainiac's invasion was the Joker, something he thought was both funny and ironic. Coming up with a plan that no one else wanted to go with, the Joker intended to kill all of Brainiac's troops at the Hall of Justice by detonating a large number of explosives, however, the plan ultimately failed, resulting in the Hall of Justice being completely destroyed and the Joker losing his left leg above the knee, and because of his injury he was easily captured by Brainiac's forces and brought to the alien invader himself. Brainiac would conduct experiments on the Joker while keeping him captive, eventually Joker decided to try and escape the Skull Ship in a variety of ways, some loud and obvious while one attempt saw Joker creating a crude dummy and dressing it up in his clothes, before attempting to escape he also created a prosthetic leg to allow him to move as he had before. As he was making his latest attempt to escape the Skull Ship, Joker discovered that Brainiac had started transforming his Earth, in particular he had caused most of the intact parts of Metropolis to have a Joker themed look to the city, and this causes him to become distracted to the point that he was soon found, recaptured and placed back into status.

Kill the Justice League

After discovering the second Brainiac variation, and parts of the Jokerized Elseworld being seen throughout their Metropolis, the Earth-1 Suicide Squad were informed by Amanda Waller of the existence of the Elseworld Joker being kept captive by Brainiac, and tasked the team with finding and recruiting him into the Suicide Squad of Earth-1, much to the displeasure of Deadshot. In order to get to and kill Brainiac's second body, and retrieve the alternate Joker, the Suicide Squad would venture into the Joker's Elseworld in order to undermine Brainiac's forces as they had done during visits to Earth-2. After defeating Brainiac in their second fight against him, and using the mind probe to kill his second body, his death causes part of the Skull Ship in the Jokerized Elseworld to explode, the resulting explosion teleports the Joker out of the Skull Ship with a Terranaut stuck on his face. The Joker proceeds to rip it off him and stomp it to death, making a crude joke afterwards.

After being rescued the Joker is brought back to Earth-1 and brought to the Hall of Justice, where he would suddenly and unexpectedly start shooting at the A.R.G.U.S. soldiers and manages to injure a good number of them, laughing manically and believing they were supposed to kill them before he is stopped by an angry Deadshot. When he meets Amanda Waller he's initially overjoyed to recognize and see a version of Waller alive again until he's interrupted by the annoyed Waller, who claims that it was a gamble recruiting Joker into their Suicide Squad, and she was already sick of his "bullshit", though says because of this he'll fit right in with the team. Just before Captain Boomerang is about to inject Joker with the nano bombs, Joker makes a suggestive joke and tells Boomerang to "put it in me", making Boomerang uncomfortable to the point that it puts him off injecting the Joker. As Boomerang fails to get the others to inject the nano bombs, from Harley Quinn declining, explaining because she had time to re-evaluate her relationship with her Joker, she now wasn't into people like him anymore to King Shark claiming his hands were too big to do it himself, Rick Flag expresses his concerns about letting the Joker be a part of the team, Joker soon claims everything going on reminds him of his Suicide Squad, only for him to reveal he had actually killed his team, and given the chance to do it again he'd do it cleaner, while also revealing he had stolen the nano bomb injector from Boomerang without him realizing. As Waller sarcastically congratulates the team for losing control over Joker in just twenty seconds, the Joker tells her not to misunderstand what's going on as he willingly injects himself with the nano bombs, claiming he only killed his Suicide Squad because he "cared" about them, and even though he's only known the Earth-1 team briefly, he "cares" about them just as much, implying he might end up killing all of them as well. He is then locked up in a specially prepared cell by Flag, and when requested lends his aid to the Suicide Squad by joining them in the field.

Codex

From the Files of Lex Luthor

I have no idea. This Joker is as baffling as the one from my world and frankly any Joker that seems to exist. The non-sequitors, ye Gods, the non-sequitors! I must make a note to invest in headphones before his next visit to the lab.

Of course, that would involve leaving the Joker somewhat unobserved. An unsettling thought for such a dangerous subject. By his telling, he single-handedly slaughtered his own Task Force X in some misguided effort to keep them from Brainiac’s clutches. The whys and wherefores of this strategy escape me, but it was enough to attract the Coluan tyrant’s attention.

The Joker thrives on chaos but unlike Dr. Quinzel, he’s not out to harness it for some strategic purpose - he just likes the fire. As an asset it makes him unpredictable. But as a tool to be wielded against the carefully-laid plans of Brainiac the Joker is…well, let’s just hope we amuse Joker long enough for him to help us defeat our ultimate foe, yes?

[Also, Joker, if you’re reading this, it’s all meant in the utmost respect. -LL]

Gallery

Trivia

• Joker is a part of the free Season One DLC and has unique traversal abilities and weaponry, including Penguin's rocket-powered umbrella that he uses to launch himself high into the air and glide with through the open world of Metropolis.
• According to Rocksteady when talking about this Joker, they explained that they based the new Joker on the Golden Age Joker of the comics, feeling that they brought the character back to his vaudeville roots. The developer also revealed that, unlike most versions of the Joker, including the main Arkhamverse Joker, that this version uses the typical Joker behaviour to mask his insecurities, implying this version might act the same way as the Joker had in the comics before his transformation, in particular in the flashbacks shown in The Killing Joke, which showed a pre-accident Joker in a more insecure manner.
• Unlike most versions of the Joker, this version is said to still be in the early stages of his criminal career, and as such is less hostile to the point he's able to work with other people, as demonstrated by the fact he was a member of the Suicide Squad in his world, and was able to fight alongside both heroes and villains during his world's invasion by Brainiac. However, though he's able to be part of a team, this Joker is still shown to be just as unpredictable as his Arkhamverse counterpart, having opted to detonate multiple explosives in order to kill Brainiac's troops despite no one going along with the plan and with it ultimately costing him his left leg, as well as shooting at the A.R.G.U.S soldiers out of nowhere as soon as he arrives at Earth-1's Hall of Justice.
• As he was revealed by Rocksteady to have been a member of the Suicide Squad in his world, it was assumed the Joker also had nano bombs injected into him in order to secure his commitment to his world's Waller. However, after being recruited into the team he's shown willingly injecting himself with the nano bombs, something he would have no need of doing if he already had them as part of his original team, suggesting that on his Earth his Suicide Squad apparently didn't have nano bombs injected into them.
  • This also makes Joker the only known member of the Earth-1 Suicide Squad thus far to willingly inject himself with the nano bombs, though he ends up doing this after making a suggestive joke that put Captain Boomerang off from doing it himself.
• Unlike his Arkhamverse counterpart, this version of the Joker sports a small freckle near his left eye and right temple, along with having slight black make-up on the bottom of his eyes.
• This version of the Joker sports many differences between himself and his Arkhamverse counterpart:
  • While sharing a similar facial structure this Joker appears to be much younger than his counterpart had been before his death in Arkham City; sporting a fuller head of hair much like Joker had as a younger man, though the Elseworld Joker is notably a lot younger in appearance than the Arkhamverse Joker had been in Arkham Origins.
    • The Joker himself is heard reacting in horror in his first audio log when seeing a picture of his Earth-1 counterpart at the time of his death, given to him by Waller through the coroner's report of the dead Joker. The Elseworld Joker's reaction however isn't due to the effects of the Titan Disease on his Earth-1 counterpart's face, but more to do with how "old" he considered the dead Joker to have looked.
  • While the Arkhamverse Joker was known for his colorful attire, looking more like a ringleader in a circus, the Elseworld's Joker's attire is shown to be more over the top, befitting his appearance as a clown.
  • A major difference between the two Jokers is the fact the Elseworld Joker is actually an amputee, having lost his left leg during the invasion of the Metropolis in his world, and replacing it with a prosthetic leg that allows him to continue moving with no problem.
• This Joker indirectly states he is bisexual in his audio tapes. Due to implying he finds both Harley Quinn and Rick Flag attractive.
• Whenever Joker is part of the team, the character he replaces in the playable line up will be shown resting in his cell and can be interacted with.