2022 redefines the Joker's place in the DC Universe...as a force for good
The Joker has been through a lot in his nearly 100-year comic career, but in 2022, he has to be the hero he's never been before.
The DC Universe is filled with hundreds of unique heroes and villains, and sometimes those characters turn over a new page, for better or worse, like when Hal Jordan became the villain Paragon, but one of the most shocking things DC has ever done A 2022 has the potential to turn the page on the Joker as an antihero.
The Joker has been one of the most brutal villains in comics history for almost as long as he has been in the comic books. The Joker never really tries to be someone he's not. Even from his very first appearance, he was portrayed as a brutal serial killer, and he only got worse as time went on. While the Joker targets a variety of heroes, sometimes even going after Superman, the Joker is one of DC's darkest villains, but lately his targets have at least become more heroic.
Joker Helped Bring Down A Family Of Cannibals
The Joker has recently embarked on an even more heroic move after his final confrontation with Batman in the James Tynion IV and Jorge Jimenez Joker War, in which the Joker attempted to steal Bruce Wayne's fortune and Escaped Gotham City after destroying half of Gotham. after the clown escapes Gotham City, he's on the run from the authorities, especially James Gordon who starts hunting him. While the Joker is on the road fighting DC's version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Sampsons are an evil bunch who used to kill, but when they found oil on their property, they were able to commit the crime of cannibalism Buy everyone off. Just because the Joker got involved, the family ended up being ruined.
Because the Joker got involved with the Sampsons, even though it wasn't necessarily his choice, he ended up taking down a group of cannibals who used their wealth to get away with some truly horrific crimes. It wasn't the only thing he did, either, the Joker has done seemingly heroic things on a number of occasions over the past year. In Matthew Rosenberg and Carmine Di Giandomenico Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing, while hiding in the hospital, the Joker decides to comfort an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer's by pretending to be her dead husband. These changes could make the Joker a better hero than Batman if the Joker continues down DC's path Seems to have fooled him.
Joker Could Have Easily Killed Six, But Chose Not To
In John Carpenter, Anthony Birch, and Philip Tan's Year of the Villain: The Joker, readers see the Joker terrorizing Gotham City, which is currently under Bane's control. Along the way there was a young man who worked for the Joker, codenamed Six Hearts, this guy had deep mental issues that made it hard for him to determine what was real and what wasn't, with that in mind he locked on to boot on the Joker He goes through life thinking that since the Joker can drive the doctor mad, he must know exactly what he's doing. The two, dressed as Batman and Robin, travel across Gotham to "fight" crime in ways only the Joker can, like shooting an innocent man walking his dog because the Joker insists the dog has a gun. The Joker ends up killing a lot of people in this story, some of them his own henchmen, but he never directly puts the Hearts of Six in danger.
Six was estranged from his mother, whom he told the Joker, and eventually, Six was reunited with his mother, all because of the wild night he had with the Joker. although It's unlikely that the Joker deliberately manipulated events for this, the fact remains that the Joker did go out of his way to protect Six, and even when Six attacked the Joker, the Joker kept Six alive and left him with his mother. It's an undeniable act of kindness for someone like the Joker, and it shows that the Joker could be a superhero capable of acts of kindness and heroism.
Joker's Turn to Anti-Hero Has Been a Long Time Coming
While the Joker has always been one of the darkest villains in the comics, there have been times throughout his history when he sided with the heroes for the greater good. So while DC's current effort to push the Joker in a new direction may seem surprising, its foundations have actually been there for years. In Scott Snyder and Greg Caprow's Dark Knight Metal, it was the Joker who teamed up with Batman for a final confrontation with the Laughing Batman, making the Joker integral to saving the entire multiverse. Back in 1975, the Joker even impersonated Batman to protect Gotham from Two-Face, and while that may have been for selfish reasons, the end result was that he prevented crime, which Batman was unable to do.
The clown even helps Take down many secret societies planning to do more harm than he usually does, such as in James Tynion IV, Sam John, Mirka Andorph and Gilliam March's Joker (2021), the Joker helps bring down a criminal organization that seeks to clone Supervillains and sell them to the highest bidder. All of these events point to a long history of the Joker, stretching back more than a decade, proving that the Joker does have what it takes to be a hero if he chooses to. It's not impossible for him, the Joker is not like Darkseid, he's not the literal embodiment of evil, and despite the absolutely horrible things he's done, he's still a human being, and thus has the ability to change.
While it's unlikely that Batman, or even the superhero community in general, will welcome the Joker with open arms anytime soon, the fact remains that the Joker's current role in the DC Universe for the past year or so is not fighting heroes, but other villains. If DC continues down this path, the Joker will likely turn over a new page, not as a full-fledged hero, but at least as an anti-hero, which will It's an incredible change for the man known as the Clown Prince of Crime.
