The Joker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
inmateincharge) wrote2012-11-10 08:35 am
inmateincharge) wrote2012-11-10 08:35 am
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luceti application
Mun
Name: Mega
Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username: n/a
E-mail: megadoomer45250@hotmail.com
AIM: megadoomer4525
Current Characters at Luceti: Erza Scarlet (redhairedknight), Son Goku (4starsavior)
Character
Name:Joseph Kerr Jack White Jack Napier Jerry Robinson The Joker
Fandom: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Gender: male
Age: unknown (somewhere in his thirties or forties)
Time Period: towards the end of Arkham City – right before the final boss battle
Wing Color: a pale sickly green, fading into white
History: the Joker was not always the homicidal maniac that he is today. Once, he was nothing more than a lowly stand-up comedian, living in poverty with his pregnant wife. Desperate for money, he turned to the local mob for financial support, and in return, they had him wear an elaborate disguise in order to break into the chemical plant that he was working in. However, security managed to catch them, and it wasn’t long before the mysterious vigilante only known as Batman arrived on the scene…
…Or maybe he was a mob enforcer from the beginning, and the disguise was simply to prevent any witnesses from testifying against him if he was spotted. Maybe he had an abusive father, or a drunken mother. Maybe his dad was an cop, two days from retirement when he was fatally shot in the line of duty, or his mother worked at the circus until a tragic accident cut her life short. No one really knows what the Joker’s past was, and he prefers to keep it that way, making up new backstories for himself as he goes along.
The only thing that’s certain about his life before he became a grinning spectre looming over Gotham is that during an encounter with Batman, the man who would become the Joker came into contact with a vat of chemicals (though whether he fell in or jumped in depends on how he remembers it), which bleached his skin white, turned his hair green, and – combined with whatever else had happened to him previously – turned him completely insane. Despite lacking any super-powers of his own, this turned him into one of Gotham’s first super-villains – kicking off a long list of quirky psychopaths that Gotham had to deal with instead of mobsters and common criminals. Very little of what happened between then and his Titan-based scheme have been detailed, though a few events are clear. At some point during his incarceration in Arkham Asylum, he gradually managed to convert a psychiatrist to his way of thinking, playing off her interest in him and turning it into an infatuation by claiming that she was the only person to ever understand him. That psychiatrist, Harleen Quinzel took on the pseudonym of Harley Quinn, becoming the Joker’s most prominent ally – and, though he doesn’t act like it, his girlfriend and (it’s implied) his wife.
In addition, the Joker committed some deeds which clearly established himself as one of the biggest personal threats to Batman: not only did he paralyze Barbara Gordon, the police commissioner’s daughter, but it was implied that he murdered the second Robin, Jason Todd, as well (going by his comments when Robin is in the Joker’s Funhouse DLC mission for Arkham City, along with Nightwing being Dick Grayson and Robin being Tim Drake – Todd would fall between those two).
Though the Joker tends to have big plans for the destruction of Gotham, he is not above committing random acts of cruelty – in fact, he relishes in it. Visiting the Penguin’s nightclub, the Iceberg Lounge, upon its opening, he murdered one of the workers simply because they spilled a drink on his suit, and he had Harley track down and recruit a pair of Siberian conjoined twins because they were renowned for their violent nature. He blackmailed or bribed several Arkham guards and doctors into working for him, making any escape attempts significantly easier, and threatened to murder them or their families if they decided to oppose him.
After a routine attempt on the mayor’s life, the Joker was sent to Arkham Asylum, almost without a fight on his part. Quickly breaking free, he managed to escape with the help of Harley, who took over the asylum’s security systems. Refusing to allow the Joker to run rampant through the island, Batman pursues him, following a trail of dead bodies to find that the Joker had a massive humanoid creature under his command. These monsters were once ordinary humans until the Joker injected them with a super-steroid known as Titan. Originally intended to make inmates more durable so they could survive any tests that the asylum’s staff ran on them, the Joker secretly funded the project so that he could have a personal army of monsters to set loose on Gotham. On top of that, a large number of prisoners had been transferred to the island after a fire – a fire that the Joker had arranged. Now in control of the island, the Joker set free the various psychopaths, ranging from criminals as "mundane" as serial killer Victor Zsasz to super-powered threats like Poison Ivy, to stand in Batman’s way.
After spending all night fighting his way through the Joker’s army, Batman encountered the Clown Prince of Crime himself. Furious that his plans had been derailed to this extent, the Joker injected himself with Titan for one final showdown with the Dark Knight. While in his Titan transformation, the Joker remained fully conscious and capable of speech, unlike every other person subject to the disease; no explanation was given, but perhaps his mind was so warped that even Titan could not twist it any further. His transformation was far more extreme, with his bones sprouting out of his skin – as his Titan-fuelled goons had proven unsuccessful time and time again, he gave himself a much more concentrated dose. This too proved to be a failure, however, as Batman managed to defeat him, inject him with an antidote, and ensure that he was put in his cell in Arkham.
Six months after the incident, it became abundantly clear to the Joker that something had gone horribly wrong. As a result of his Titan injection, he became deathly ill. Not wanting to appear weak before his rivals, he had himself put into solitary confinement by brutally murdering another inmate, and arranged for Harley to break him out when he was to be transferred to Arkham City. She pulled that off, though in the ensuing police chase, the psychotic pair wound up fleeing into Arkham City by accident. Hugo Strange, the psychiatrist in charge of the massive prison, desired to meet with the Clown Prince of Crime, seeking to learn more about him. The two made a deal – Strange would give the Joker access to high-grade government weapons and try to find a cure for the Joker’s illness, while Strange got the opportunity to study the Joker. This was a disguise for Strange’s true motives – he planned to use the chaos that the Joker would inevitably cause as an excuse for putting Protocol Ten, a plan to kill all of Gotham’s criminals, into action.
After his deal with Strange, Joker was thrown into Arkham City, and quickly set up a base in the Sionis Steel Mill. It did not take long, however, for the Joker to wind up embroiled in a gang war; the Penguin still held a grudge against the Joker, and Two Face also sought to gain power over Arkham City. However, the Joker could not afford to appear weak at a time like this, and ordering his troops around through Harley would only work for so long before someone got curious. Thankfully, he managed to get into contact with Basil Karlo, also known as the shapeshifter Clayface. Clayface had broken out of Arkham Asylum by impersonating Warden Sharp and waiting for an unknowing police officer to find him, and his abilities allowed him to be virtually anonymous. As such, he was reluctant to work for someone as unstable as the Joker, until he found out that the Joker wanted the mudman to act as his body double. Wanting to take on “the role of a lifetime”, Clayface accepted, acting as the Joker to help him keep up appearances. As well, in an attempt to increase the chances of being cured, the Joker arranged to have the wife of Mr. Freeze, Nora, kidnapped –with Strange’s help – in order to motivate Freeze to work on a cure. However, this was simply to further Strange’s own ends; the professor also gave the Penguin some advanced weaponry and handed Mr. Freeze over to the diminutive megalomaniac, which prompted the Joker to retaliate with all-out gang warfare.
By the time that Batman enters Arkham City and catches up with him, the Joker appears to be dead – however, this is another ruse on the villainous harlequin’s part, as it is simply a trap to knock Batman out, strap him to a chair, and inject him with the Joker’s own blood. Now, with the madman’s poisoned blood racing through him, and having found out that the Joker has sent bags of his blood to every hospital in Gotham, Batman is forced to race against time to find a cure for Joker’s disease, before he dies as well.
Batman manages to free Mister Freeze from the Penguin’s clutches – however, despite Batman’s help, Freeze is still unable to complete the Joker’s cure without a particular enzyme. That enzyme, unknown to Freeze, can be found in the Lazarus Pits – the method that the terrorist Ra’s al-Ghul uses to render himself immortal. An encounter with one of Ra’s’ henchmen leads him to Talia al-Ghul – Batman’s former lover, and Ra’s’ daughter – and Ra’s himself, and he quickly returns to Freeze. However, Freeze prioritizes saving his wife before anything else, forcing Batman to fight him. In the confusion, Harley steals the cure, forcing Batman to head back to the Steel Mill for any hope of salvation.
Now apparently cured, the Joker feels that Batman betrayed him by taking so long to deliver the cure to him, and wants him dead. During Batman’s trek through the Steel Mill, Strange puts Protocol Ten into place – with the increasingly aggressive nature of the Joker’s gang, manipulated by Strange himself, Professor Strange convinces the city council that all of Arkham City needs to be destroyed – wiping out Gotham’s criminal element, the political prisoners who he had thrown into Arkham City for knowing too much, and Batman, all in one fell swoop. In this backdrop, the Joker and Batman fight, with the Joker calling forth an army of goons and Titan-infected henchmen to assist him. Though Batman overcomes all of this, the bombing caused by Protocol Ten buries Batman in rubble and leaves him barely conscious. The Joker is about to kill Batman when Talia, who had followed Batman, appears, and makes a deal with the Joker. If he spares Batman, she will bring him to the Lazarus Pit, granting him immortality. The Joker is hesitant at first, but Batman telling Talia to not do it convinces him that there is some truth to what she’s saying.
Though Batman wants to save Talia, stopping Protocol Ten proves to be the more pressing matter. It isn’t until after Batman gets to Strange, defeats him, and calls off the bombardment that the Joker contacts Batman again, telling him to come to the Monarch Theater. Though the Joker doesn’t know it, this is the same place where Batman’s parents were shot, making it especially significant for the Dark Knight. Once Batman has entered the theater, however, the Joker demands his cure, in spite of appearing healthy. In the confusion, Talia stabs the Joker and reveals the truth – she had intercepted Harley Quinn and took the cure so that, when the opportunity presented itself, she could give it to Batman.
Moments later, a gunshot rings through the theater, as Talia is shot in the back. The Joker, appearing sicker than ever, his entire body one giant rash, is sitting in the balcony, having followed Talia, the other Joker, and Batman to the theater. He then reveals his ruse – he had Clayface imitate him during the entire time that he appeared to be cured. Now that he knows that the Lazarus Pit will prolong his life, he plans to take a dip in it, and then march into Gotham with an army made up of basically every criminal within Arkham City, armed with the weapons given to him by Strange, along more Titan-infected monsters and the virtually-invulnerable Clayface, and absolutely destroy everything that gets in his way.
…And it’s at that point that he’ll be brought to Luceti. Fun stuff, huh?
As a side note, since the topic will probably come up eventually: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are unclear as to whether or not other DC superheroes exist. Hugo Strange mentions that once Arkham City is successful, he will set up similar facilities in Metropolis and Keystone City. On one hand, such facilities would be pointless if Superman and the Flash were in these cities to prevent crimes. On the other hand, this could simply be another sign of Strange’s arrogance. Though any further sequels could disprove whatever speculation I could make, I’ll assume that other heroes do exist, but they usually stick to their own cities, and that the Joker would have heard of the major ones that call Earth home (people like Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and maybe Green Lantern), if only vaguely.
Personality: if there is one word that sums up the Joker, it’s “insane”. Though what kind of insanity seems to change like the wind. The Joker constantly reinvents himself – his goals can range from rigging a comedy competition or hitting Batman in the face with a pie, to the complete and total destruction of Gotham City. One minute, he could let someone live because he likes their shoes, and the next minute, he could shoot someone because he likes their shoes. The only thing that remains constant in his schemes is his motivation for them: his own amusement. As long as something will make him laugh, he’ll go through with it, and as that doesn’t take much, he remains one of Batman’s most unpredictable rogues. Even for robberies and the like, he just wants the money so that he can carry out whatever insane plan he has in mind. He is a complete sociopath, uncaring of what others think of him, and he tells lies as easily as breathing.
The Joker lacks empathy, and fails to see the value of human life – whether it’s police officers trying to stop his mad schemes, civilians who were simply passing by, or his own henchmen, nothing is sacred. When it comes to his henchmen, he won’t even stop with threatening them – he’ll threaten to paralyze or kill their families, and he will make good on these threats if it will motivate them (or if he thinks that it would be funny). He is also incredibly petty, once murdering a waitress for spilling a drink on him, or shooting a doorman because he wasn’t allowed into a club. The only person spared from his murderous wrath is Harley Quinn, his girlfriend (who later became his wife), though given his history of physically and psychologically abusing her, all while making it seem (to her, at least) like they’re a loving couple, it’s hard to say which is worse. Still, Quinn is one of the only people that he consistently trusts; during the events in Arkham City, she is one of the few people privy to his condition.
The Clown Prince of Crime tends to be highly mercurial – it’s one of the few reasons that people are willing to work for him. He doesn’t care about money unless it’s being used to advance his schemes, so he’ll pay his henchmen handsomely for their work, even if their role is relatively minor. However, he’s just as likely to shoot them without a second thought, so working for the Joker tends to be more of a gamble than most employment opportunities. Compared to other crime bosses in Gotham, he’s arguably the worst employer – while the Penguin is needlessly sadistic, the Riddler is arrogant and belittling, and Two-Face has a fifty-fifty chance of murdering someone for failure, the Joker is completely random and unpredictable.
The Joker’s relationship with his arch-nemesis, Batman, is an odd one – it’s sort of a one-sided love-hate relationship. The Joker sees Batman as a symbol set against the corruption of Gotham City, and he wants to either drag Batman down to his level (by forcing Batman to break his only rule and kill the Joker) or break Batman’s spirit (as time has proved that breaking Batman’s body is meaningless). He has little interest in discovering who Batman really is behind the mask, feeling that it would reduce his greatest foe to a normal man, and that something like that, the punchline to that particular joke, should only be revealed once he’s finally defeated Batman. He feels that the two of them are the only ones who understand each other, a sentiment that Batman decidedly does not share. The Joker sees them as two sides of the same coin, and he thinks that Batman is just as crazy as he is, even if the Caped Crusader won’t admit it. Despite his desire to see Batman break his one rule, the Joker has no problem with exploiting it – knowing that Batman won’t kill a criminal or, through inaction, let them die, he forces Batman to create a cure for his illness by injecting him with it, knowing that Batman would give the cure to him as well.
However, Batman’s really the only superhero that he shows a significant amount of interest in. He acts as though he has no idea who Nightwing is, sometimes isn’t sure whether he’s killed Robin before or not, and only tries to kill Catwoman in order to get Batman’s attention. When setting up his plans, he even goes out of his way to make sure that Batman is the only one who will interfere – during his takeover of Arkham Asylum, he set up fake bombs all around the city, and threatened to detonate them if any other hero tried to get to the island that the Asylum is on. As for other villains, he considers them to be little more than sideshows leading up to the main event – his final confrontation with Batman. He’ll try to get along with them if he needs something from them, but his habit of backstabbing people for a laugh has resulted in just about every member of Batman’s rogues gallery wanting him dead.
Strengths:
Physical: the Joker may be scrawny and untrained, but he is still a dangerous foe. He’s capable of beating guards in fights, mainly due to his sheer unpredictability and vicious nature, and he has beaten a crimefighter trained by Batman to death before (admittedly, there’s no indication as to how old Jason Todd was at the time, or what the circumstances were, but it’s still fairly impressive given the boy’s training). As well, the Joker seems to be immune to his own Joker Venom, presumably from years of being exposed to it.
Mental: despite his appearance, the Joker can be quite cunning – this is someone who can outsmart Batman from time to time, after all. He also has quite a skill in chemistry – demonstrated by his Joker Venom, a mixture of laughing gas and lethal injection that leaves corpses with unnatural smiles on their faces - and is able to turn comedic props into deadly weapons. He seems to have an almost MacGyver-like skill at turning random objects to his advantage – anything from common chemicals found in a janitor’s closet to silverware could be a potential weapon in his hands. Though he would not be able to make a large amount of Joker Venom with the supplies that he could get in Luceti, even a small amount is still dangerous.
Emotional: the Joker is a master manipulator – he tells people what they want to hear, and makes them believe every word that he says. He is capable of changing his attitude like if it were putting on a mask, painting himself as an abandoned child-like figure crying out for acceptance, a harmless prankster, or an oblivious buffoon – whatever the situation requires. As well, he has no shortage of self-esteem – despite numerous failures, he still believes that one day, he will kill Batman.
Weaknesses:
Physical: the Joker is a scrawny man with a glass jaw - though he can beat up your standard rank-and-file police officer, a person with any sort of martial arts training would annihilate him in a fair fight. This tends to mean that he doesn’t fight fair - using guns in fistfights, calling in goons to back him up, and so on - but he won’t have a whole lot of options in a place like Luceti. The Joker has no superpowers, and though coming to Luceti will cure him of his Titan sickness, he’ll still be a great deal weaker than usual, given that he’s had one foot in the grave for months now.
Mental: the Joker’s pride often gets in the way of his own victories – in his mind, he is the only one who can beat Batman, and will kill anyone who might kill Batman to prove it. It doesn’t help that Batman needs to be broken, physically and mentally, before the Joker considers him beaten, meaning that he tends to avoid simpler solutions in favour of grandiose and impractical deathtraps. The Joker is also very volatile – he’ll kill people if they fail him, if they succeed at their task, or simply if it would be funny. Fittingly, as the polar opposite of Batman, he virtually craves the spotlight, openly bragging about his plans to anyone who will listen and putting on grand televised demonstrations when a more subtle approach would work out much better.
Emotional: the Joker is incapable of considering basic human decency. He assumes that, deep down, all people are as twisted and psychotic as he is, and all it takes is one bad day to create another person like him in the world. Because of this, many of his schemes tend to fail because he underestimates the human spirit. He is also quite childish at times, treating his minions, or people around him, as though they were toys, and breaking them if he doesn’t get his way. As well, he can be overconfident to nearly-suicidal levels, assuming that he’ll survive whatever life (or, at least, Batman) throws at him.
Samples
First Person:
1. What is your greatest ambition?
To see Batman's spirit break as Gotham City finally gives in and descends into madness! ...Or to get an autographed photo of the original Three Stooges - either one will do, really.
2. What is your greatest regret?
If you asked me a year ago, I'd have said "nothing". But as it turns out, pumping yourself full of a highly-concentrated dose of experimental super-steroids is a terrible idea, so I'd have to go with that.
3. How do you think you will benefit Luceti?
I think I'd really be able to lighten the mood in this town - after all, I always manage to put a smile on people's faces! I'm sure there are some people who don't like being shoved into a dome against their will - don't know why, but I'll do the best I can to cheer 'em up!
4. Name three of your most favorite memories.
Ooh, a tough one! Let's see... Number one would definitely have to be introducing the Boy Blunder to my good friends, Mr. Crowbar and Mrs. Dynamite! They've separated since then - the missus always had a tendency of blowing up unexpectedly! I'd probably say number two would be shooting what's-her-name, that woman who kept babbling about some immortality pit, just 'cause of the look on Batsy's face after I did it! Oh, I wish I had a camera to capture that moment!
As for a third one, it's so hard to choose - I've had so much fun over the years! It's like picking which child I hate the least. But if I had to pick out just one happy memory, I'd go all the way back to my childhood. My father may not have been "Father of the Year" material, but one thing that always made him happy was taking me out to go fishing on the lake. Just seeing that contented smile on his face when he caught a whopper of a fish made me feel like my miserable little life could get better, you know?
5. Do you have any fears? What are they? Why are you scared of them?
I normally don't tell anybody this, but you seem like the sort of person who can keep a secret. Sometimes, late at night, I hear the fluttering of wings and high-pitched screeching, and I just get this feeling that he's out there, watching me, waiting for his chance to strike...
...
Bahahahahaha!! No, really, why would I be afraid of anything? I laugh in the face of fear!
Third Person: To say that it had been a long night for the Joker would be an understatement. Over the course of a few hours, he felt so close to death that when he closed his eyes, he could smell the brimstone. Then again, maybe it had just been the steel mill that he had holed himself up in – he probably could have picked a better base, but all of those furnaces and smelters were absolutely perfect for dunking henchmen into. Now, however, was different. For starters, he could breathe again. Since doing so had been difficult for the past several months, this was quite a welcome change.
Still, his surroundings certainly didn’t look familiar. The last thing he remembered, he was sitting back to watch Batman duke it out with Clayface. Maybe he should have gotten some popcorn, or a drink, before the show started… No, there’s no point in thinking about that now – the important thing is that he appears to be cured. But how was that possible? Clayface still had that all-important vial, last time he checked, and he doesn’tremember taking a dip in that Lazarus Pit. “Maybe those pit things mess with your memories? …Oh, who cares?” Not caring how crazy he sounds by talking out loud to himself (after all, it only takes a short conversation with him to find out that little tidbit of information), the Clown Prince of Crime wanders around the strange room.
“And what happened to my wonderful suit?!” In its place, there was only a pair of white cottony pants. The Joker absolutely hated these from the start. Not only did they have absolutely no stylistic value, but when put up against his chalky white skin, they practically made him look naked! At least when he was dressed like this, he could tell that the sores were gone – another welcome change.
Strolling over to a window, the Joker grimaces at what he sees. “Well, wherever I am, it’s certainly not Gotham – there are far too many trees out there! Unless Ivy went bonkers again, I suppose – wouldn’t put it past her.” As well, there’s not much smoke on the horizon, so there probably won’t be many abandoned factories for him to set up shop in, and people are walking the streets without a care in the world, not even looking the slightest bit nervous. Well, things won’t stay that way for long – not if the Joker has anything to say about it…
Name: Mega
Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username: n/a
E-mail: megadoomer45250@hotmail.com
AIM: megadoomer4525
Current Characters at Luceti: Erza Scarlet (
redhairedknight), Son Goku (4starsavior)Character
Name:
Fandom: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Gender: male
Age: unknown (somewhere in his thirties or forties)
Time Period: towards the end of Arkham City – right before the final boss battle
Wing Color: a pale sickly green, fading into white
History: the Joker was not always the homicidal maniac that he is today. Once, he was nothing more than a lowly stand-up comedian, living in poverty with his pregnant wife. Desperate for money, he turned to the local mob for financial support, and in return, they had him wear an elaborate disguise in order to break into the chemical plant that he was working in. However, security managed to catch them, and it wasn’t long before the mysterious vigilante only known as Batman arrived on the scene…
…Or maybe he was a mob enforcer from the beginning, and the disguise was simply to prevent any witnesses from testifying against him if he was spotted. Maybe he had an abusive father, or a drunken mother. Maybe his dad was an cop, two days from retirement when he was fatally shot in the line of duty, or his mother worked at the circus until a tragic accident cut her life short. No one really knows what the Joker’s past was, and he prefers to keep it that way, making up new backstories for himself as he goes along.
The only thing that’s certain about his life before he became a grinning spectre looming over Gotham is that during an encounter with Batman, the man who would become the Joker came into contact with a vat of chemicals (though whether he fell in or jumped in depends on how he remembers it), which bleached his skin white, turned his hair green, and – combined with whatever else had happened to him previously – turned him completely insane. Despite lacking any super-powers of his own, this turned him into one of Gotham’s first super-villains – kicking off a long list of quirky psychopaths that Gotham had to deal with instead of mobsters and common criminals. Very little of what happened between then and his Titan-based scheme have been detailed, though a few events are clear. At some point during his incarceration in Arkham Asylum, he gradually managed to convert a psychiatrist to his way of thinking, playing off her interest in him and turning it into an infatuation by claiming that she was the only person to ever understand him. That psychiatrist, Harleen Quinzel took on the pseudonym of Harley Quinn, becoming the Joker’s most prominent ally – and, though he doesn’t act like it, his girlfriend and (it’s implied) his wife.
In addition, the Joker committed some deeds which clearly established himself as one of the biggest personal threats to Batman: not only did he paralyze Barbara Gordon, the police commissioner’s daughter, but it was implied that he murdered the second Robin, Jason Todd, as well (going by his comments when Robin is in the Joker’s Funhouse DLC mission for Arkham City, along with Nightwing being Dick Grayson and Robin being Tim Drake – Todd would fall between those two).
Though the Joker tends to have big plans for the destruction of Gotham, he is not above committing random acts of cruelty – in fact, he relishes in it. Visiting the Penguin’s nightclub, the Iceberg Lounge, upon its opening, he murdered one of the workers simply because they spilled a drink on his suit, and he had Harley track down and recruit a pair of Siberian conjoined twins because they were renowned for their violent nature. He blackmailed or bribed several Arkham guards and doctors into working for him, making any escape attempts significantly easier, and threatened to murder them or their families if they decided to oppose him.
After a routine attempt on the mayor’s life, the Joker was sent to Arkham Asylum, almost without a fight on his part. Quickly breaking free, he managed to escape with the help of Harley, who took over the asylum’s security systems. Refusing to allow the Joker to run rampant through the island, Batman pursues him, following a trail of dead bodies to find that the Joker had a massive humanoid creature under his command. These monsters were once ordinary humans until the Joker injected them with a super-steroid known as Titan. Originally intended to make inmates more durable so they could survive any tests that the asylum’s staff ran on them, the Joker secretly funded the project so that he could have a personal army of monsters to set loose on Gotham. On top of that, a large number of prisoners had been transferred to the island after a fire – a fire that the Joker had arranged. Now in control of the island, the Joker set free the various psychopaths, ranging from criminals as "mundane" as serial killer Victor Zsasz to super-powered threats like Poison Ivy, to stand in Batman’s way.
After spending all night fighting his way through the Joker’s army, Batman encountered the Clown Prince of Crime himself. Furious that his plans had been derailed to this extent, the Joker injected himself with Titan for one final showdown with the Dark Knight. While in his Titan transformation, the Joker remained fully conscious and capable of speech, unlike every other person subject to the disease; no explanation was given, but perhaps his mind was so warped that even Titan could not twist it any further. His transformation was far more extreme, with his bones sprouting out of his skin – as his Titan-fuelled goons had proven unsuccessful time and time again, he gave himself a much more concentrated dose. This too proved to be a failure, however, as Batman managed to defeat him, inject him with an antidote, and ensure that he was put in his cell in Arkham.
Six months after the incident, it became abundantly clear to the Joker that something had gone horribly wrong. As a result of his Titan injection, he became deathly ill. Not wanting to appear weak before his rivals, he had himself put into solitary confinement by brutally murdering another inmate, and arranged for Harley to break him out when he was to be transferred to Arkham City. She pulled that off, though in the ensuing police chase, the psychotic pair wound up fleeing into Arkham City by accident. Hugo Strange, the psychiatrist in charge of the massive prison, desired to meet with the Clown Prince of Crime, seeking to learn more about him. The two made a deal – Strange would give the Joker access to high-grade government weapons and try to find a cure for the Joker’s illness, while Strange got the opportunity to study the Joker. This was a disguise for Strange’s true motives – he planned to use the chaos that the Joker would inevitably cause as an excuse for putting Protocol Ten, a plan to kill all of Gotham’s criminals, into action.
After his deal with Strange, Joker was thrown into Arkham City, and quickly set up a base in the Sionis Steel Mill. It did not take long, however, for the Joker to wind up embroiled in a gang war; the Penguin still held a grudge against the Joker, and Two Face also sought to gain power over Arkham City. However, the Joker could not afford to appear weak at a time like this, and ordering his troops around through Harley would only work for so long before someone got curious. Thankfully, he managed to get into contact with Basil Karlo, also known as the shapeshifter Clayface. Clayface had broken out of Arkham Asylum by impersonating Warden Sharp and waiting for an unknowing police officer to find him, and his abilities allowed him to be virtually anonymous. As such, he was reluctant to work for someone as unstable as the Joker, until he found out that the Joker wanted the mudman to act as his body double. Wanting to take on “the role of a lifetime”, Clayface accepted, acting as the Joker to help him keep up appearances. As well, in an attempt to increase the chances of being cured, the Joker arranged to have the wife of Mr. Freeze, Nora, kidnapped –with Strange’s help – in order to motivate Freeze to work on a cure. However, this was simply to further Strange’s own ends; the professor also gave the Penguin some advanced weaponry and handed Mr. Freeze over to the diminutive megalomaniac, which prompted the Joker to retaliate with all-out gang warfare.
By the time that Batman enters Arkham City and catches up with him, the Joker appears to be dead – however, this is another ruse on the villainous harlequin’s part, as it is simply a trap to knock Batman out, strap him to a chair, and inject him with the Joker’s own blood. Now, with the madman’s poisoned blood racing through him, and having found out that the Joker has sent bags of his blood to every hospital in Gotham, Batman is forced to race against time to find a cure for Joker’s disease, before he dies as well.
Batman manages to free Mister Freeze from the Penguin’s clutches – however, despite Batman’s help, Freeze is still unable to complete the Joker’s cure without a particular enzyme. That enzyme, unknown to Freeze, can be found in the Lazarus Pits – the method that the terrorist Ra’s al-Ghul uses to render himself immortal. An encounter with one of Ra’s’ henchmen leads him to Talia al-Ghul – Batman’s former lover, and Ra’s’ daughter – and Ra’s himself, and he quickly returns to Freeze. However, Freeze prioritizes saving his wife before anything else, forcing Batman to fight him. In the confusion, Harley steals the cure, forcing Batman to head back to the Steel Mill for any hope of salvation.
Now apparently cured, the Joker feels that Batman betrayed him by taking so long to deliver the cure to him, and wants him dead. During Batman’s trek through the Steel Mill, Strange puts Protocol Ten into place – with the increasingly aggressive nature of the Joker’s gang, manipulated by Strange himself, Professor Strange convinces the city council that all of Arkham City needs to be destroyed – wiping out Gotham’s criminal element, the political prisoners who he had thrown into Arkham City for knowing too much, and Batman, all in one fell swoop. In this backdrop, the Joker and Batman fight, with the Joker calling forth an army of goons and Titan-infected henchmen to assist him. Though Batman overcomes all of this, the bombing caused by Protocol Ten buries Batman in rubble and leaves him barely conscious. The Joker is about to kill Batman when Talia, who had followed Batman, appears, and makes a deal with the Joker. If he spares Batman, she will bring him to the Lazarus Pit, granting him immortality. The Joker is hesitant at first, but Batman telling Talia to not do it convinces him that there is some truth to what she’s saying.
Though Batman wants to save Talia, stopping Protocol Ten proves to be the more pressing matter. It isn’t until after Batman gets to Strange, defeats him, and calls off the bombardment that the Joker contacts Batman again, telling him to come to the Monarch Theater. Though the Joker doesn’t know it, this is the same place where Batman’s parents were shot, making it especially significant for the Dark Knight. Once Batman has entered the theater, however, the Joker demands his cure, in spite of appearing healthy. In the confusion, Talia stabs the Joker and reveals the truth – she had intercepted Harley Quinn and took the cure so that, when the opportunity presented itself, she could give it to Batman.
Moments later, a gunshot rings through the theater, as Talia is shot in the back. The Joker, appearing sicker than ever, his entire body one giant rash, is sitting in the balcony, having followed Talia, the other Joker, and Batman to the theater. He then reveals his ruse – he had Clayface imitate him during the entire time that he appeared to be cured. Now that he knows that the Lazarus Pit will prolong his life, he plans to take a dip in it, and then march into Gotham with an army made up of basically every criminal within Arkham City, armed with the weapons given to him by Strange, along more Titan-infected monsters and the virtually-invulnerable Clayface, and absolutely destroy everything that gets in his way.
…And it’s at that point that he’ll be brought to Luceti. Fun stuff, huh?
As a side note, since the topic will probably come up eventually: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are unclear as to whether or not other DC superheroes exist. Hugo Strange mentions that once Arkham City is successful, he will set up similar facilities in Metropolis and Keystone City. On one hand, such facilities would be pointless if Superman and the Flash were in these cities to prevent crimes. On the other hand, this could simply be another sign of Strange’s arrogance. Though any further sequels could disprove whatever speculation I could make, I’ll assume that other heroes do exist, but they usually stick to their own cities, and that the Joker would have heard of the major ones that call Earth home (people like Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and maybe Green Lantern), if only vaguely.
Personality: if there is one word that sums up the Joker, it’s “insane”. Though what kind of insanity seems to change like the wind. The Joker constantly reinvents himself – his goals can range from rigging a comedy competition or hitting Batman in the face with a pie, to the complete and total destruction of Gotham City. One minute, he could let someone live because he likes their shoes, and the next minute, he could shoot someone because he likes their shoes. The only thing that remains constant in his schemes is his motivation for them: his own amusement. As long as something will make him laugh, he’ll go through with it, and as that doesn’t take much, he remains one of Batman’s most unpredictable rogues. Even for robberies and the like, he just wants the money so that he can carry out whatever insane plan he has in mind. He is a complete sociopath, uncaring of what others think of him, and he tells lies as easily as breathing.
The Joker lacks empathy, and fails to see the value of human life – whether it’s police officers trying to stop his mad schemes, civilians who were simply passing by, or his own henchmen, nothing is sacred. When it comes to his henchmen, he won’t even stop with threatening them – he’ll threaten to paralyze or kill their families, and he will make good on these threats if it will motivate them (or if he thinks that it would be funny). He is also incredibly petty, once murdering a waitress for spilling a drink on him, or shooting a doorman because he wasn’t allowed into a club. The only person spared from his murderous wrath is Harley Quinn, his girlfriend (who later became his wife), though given his history of physically and psychologically abusing her, all while making it seem (to her, at least) like they’re a loving couple, it’s hard to say which is worse. Still, Quinn is one of the only people that he consistently trusts; during the events in Arkham City, she is one of the few people privy to his condition.
The Clown Prince of Crime tends to be highly mercurial – it’s one of the few reasons that people are willing to work for him. He doesn’t care about money unless it’s being used to advance his schemes, so he’ll pay his henchmen handsomely for their work, even if their role is relatively minor. However, he’s just as likely to shoot them without a second thought, so working for the Joker tends to be more of a gamble than most employment opportunities. Compared to other crime bosses in Gotham, he’s arguably the worst employer – while the Penguin is needlessly sadistic, the Riddler is arrogant and belittling, and Two-Face has a fifty-fifty chance of murdering someone for failure, the Joker is completely random and unpredictable.
The Joker’s relationship with his arch-nemesis, Batman, is an odd one – it’s sort of a one-sided love-hate relationship. The Joker sees Batman as a symbol set against the corruption of Gotham City, and he wants to either drag Batman down to his level (by forcing Batman to break his only rule and kill the Joker) or break Batman’s spirit (as time has proved that breaking Batman’s body is meaningless). He has little interest in discovering who Batman really is behind the mask, feeling that it would reduce his greatest foe to a normal man, and that something like that, the punchline to that particular joke, should only be revealed once he’s finally defeated Batman. He feels that the two of them are the only ones who understand each other, a sentiment that Batman decidedly does not share. The Joker sees them as two sides of the same coin, and he thinks that Batman is just as crazy as he is, even if the Caped Crusader won’t admit it. Despite his desire to see Batman break his one rule, the Joker has no problem with exploiting it – knowing that Batman won’t kill a criminal or, through inaction, let them die, he forces Batman to create a cure for his illness by injecting him with it, knowing that Batman would give the cure to him as well.
However, Batman’s really the only superhero that he shows a significant amount of interest in. He acts as though he has no idea who Nightwing is, sometimes isn’t sure whether he’s killed Robin before or not, and only tries to kill Catwoman in order to get Batman’s attention. When setting up his plans, he even goes out of his way to make sure that Batman is the only one who will interfere – during his takeover of Arkham Asylum, he set up fake bombs all around the city, and threatened to detonate them if any other hero tried to get to the island that the Asylum is on. As for other villains, he considers them to be little more than sideshows leading up to the main event – his final confrontation with Batman. He’ll try to get along with them if he needs something from them, but his habit of backstabbing people for a laugh has resulted in just about every member of Batman’s rogues gallery wanting him dead.
Strengths:
Physical: the Joker may be scrawny and untrained, but he is still a dangerous foe. He’s capable of beating guards in fights, mainly due to his sheer unpredictability and vicious nature, and he has beaten a crimefighter trained by Batman to death before (admittedly, there’s no indication as to how old Jason Todd was at the time, or what the circumstances were, but it’s still fairly impressive given the boy’s training). As well, the Joker seems to be immune to his own Joker Venom, presumably from years of being exposed to it.
Mental: despite his appearance, the Joker can be quite cunning – this is someone who can outsmart Batman from time to time, after all. He also has quite a skill in chemistry – demonstrated by his Joker Venom, a mixture of laughing gas and lethal injection that leaves corpses with unnatural smiles on their faces - and is able to turn comedic props into deadly weapons. He seems to have an almost MacGyver-like skill at turning random objects to his advantage – anything from common chemicals found in a janitor’s closet to silverware could be a potential weapon in his hands. Though he would not be able to make a large amount of Joker Venom with the supplies that he could get in Luceti, even a small amount is still dangerous.
Emotional: the Joker is a master manipulator – he tells people what they want to hear, and makes them believe every word that he says. He is capable of changing his attitude like if it were putting on a mask, painting himself as an abandoned child-like figure crying out for acceptance, a harmless prankster, or an oblivious buffoon – whatever the situation requires. As well, he has no shortage of self-esteem – despite numerous failures, he still believes that one day, he will kill Batman.
Weaknesses:
Physical: the Joker is a scrawny man with a glass jaw - though he can beat up your standard rank-and-file police officer, a person with any sort of martial arts training would annihilate him in a fair fight. This tends to mean that he doesn’t fight fair - using guns in fistfights, calling in goons to back him up, and so on - but he won’t have a whole lot of options in a place like Luceti. The Joker has no superpowers, and though coming to Luceti will cure him of his Titan sickness, he’ll still be a great deal weaker than usual, given that he’s had one foot in the grave for months now.
Mental: the Joker’s pride often gets in the way of his own victories – in his mind, he is the only one who can beat Batman, and will kill anyone who might kill Batman to prove it. It doesn’t help that Batman needs to be broken, physically and mentally, before the Joker considers him beaten, meaning that he tends to avoid simpler solutions in favour of grandiose and impractical deathtraps. The Joker is also very volatile – he’ll kill people if they fail him, if they succeed at their task, or simply if it would be funny. Fittingly, as the polar opposite of Batman, he virtually craves the spotlight, openly bragging about his plans to anyone who will listen and putting on grand televised demonstrations when a more subtle approach would work out much better.
Emotional: the Joker is incapable of considering basic human decency. He assumes that, deep down, all people are as twisted and psychotic as he is, and all it takes is one bad day to create another person like him in the world. Because of this, many of his schemes tend to fail because he underestimates the human spirit. He is also quite childish at times, treating his minions, or people around him, as though they were toys, and breaking them if he doesn’t get his way. As well, he can be overconfident to nearly-suicidal levels, assuming that he’ll survive whatever life (or, at least, Batman) throws at him.
Samples
First Person:
1. What is your greatest ambition?
To see Batman's spirit break as Gotham City finally gives in and descends into madness! ...Or to get an autographed photo of the original Three Stooges - either one will do, really.
2. What is your greatest regret?
If you asked me a year ago, I'd have said "nothing". But as it turns out, pumping yourself full of a highly-concentrated dose of experimental super-steroids is a terrible idea, so I'd have to go with that.
3. How do you think you will benefit Luceti?
I think I'd really be able to lighten the mood in this town - after all, I always manage to put a smile on people's faces! I'm sure there are some people who don't like being shoved into a dome against their will - don't know why, but I'll do the best I can to cheer 'em up!
4. Name three of your most favorite memories.
Ooh, a tough one! Let's see... Number one would definitely have to be introducing the Boy Blunder to my good friends, Mr. Crowbar and Mrs. Dynamite! They've separated since then - the missus always had a tendency of blowing up unexpectedly! I'd probably say number two would be shooting what's-her-name, that woman who kept babbling about some immortality pit, just 'cause of the look on Batsy's face after I did it! Oh, I wish I had a camera to capture that moment!
As for a third one, it's so hard to choose - I've had so much fun over the years! It's like picking which child I hate the least. But if I had to pick out just one happy memory, I'd go all the way back to my childhood. My father may not have been "Father of the Year" material, but one thing that always made him happy was taking me out to go fishing on the lake. Just seeing that contented smile on his face when he caught a whopper of a fish made me feel like my miserable little life could get better, you know?
5. Do you have any fears? What are they? Why are you scared of them?
I normally don't tell anybody this, but you seem like the sort of person who can keep a secret. Sometimes, late at night, I hear the fluttering of wings and high-pitched screeching, and I just get this feeling that he's out there, watching me, waiting for his chance to strike...
...
Bahahahahaha!! No, really, why would I be afraid of anything? I laugh in the face of fear!
Third Person: To say that it had been a long night for the Joker would be an understatement. Over the course of a few hours, he felt so close to death that when he closed his eyes, he could smell the brimstone. Then again, maybe it had just been the steel mill that he had holed himself up in – he probably could have picked a better base, but all of those furnaces and smelters were absolutely perfect for dunking henchmen into. Now, however, was different. For starters, he could breathe again. Since doing so had been difficult for the past several months, this was quite a welcome change.
Still, his surroundings certainly didn’t look familiar. The last thing he remembered, he was sitting back to watch Batman duke it out with Clayface. Maybe he should have gotten some popcorn, or a drink, before the show started… No, there’s no point in thinking about that now – the important thing is that he appears to be cured. But how was that possible? Clayface still had that all-important vial, last time he checked, and he doesn’tremember taking a dip in that Lazarus Pit. “Maybe those pit things mess with your memories? …Oh, who cares?” Not caring how crazy he sounds by talking out loud to himself (after all, it only takes a short conversation with him to find out that little tidbit of information), the Clown Prince of Crime wanders around the strange room.
“And what happened to my wonderful suit?!” In its place, there was only a pair of white cottony pants. The Joker absolutely hated these from the start. Not only did they have absolutely no stylistic value, but when put up against his chalky white skin, they practically made him look naked! At least when he was dressed like this, he could tell that the sores were gone – another welcome change.
Strolling over to a window, the Joker grimaces at what he sees. “Well, wherever I am, it’s certainly not Gotham – there are far too many trees out there! Unless Ivy went bonkers again, I suppose – wouldn’t put it past her.” As well, there’s not much smoke on the horizon, so there probably won’t be many abandoned factories for him to set up shop in, and people are walking the streets without a care in the world, not even looking the slightest bit nervous. Well, things won’t stay that way for long – not if the Joker has anything to say about it…