Skip to main content

dc - Has anyone ever tried to execute the Joker?


Everyone knows the eternal question, "Why doesn't Batman just kill the Joker?" Writers and fans have debated it for decades, and plenty of answers (believable and not) have been established that now we at least can accept the idea that Batman won't be the one to do it.


But I was recently reading the Endgame arc, and an interesting scene occurs:



Gordon shoots the Joker in the chest. This ultimately doesn't kill him, but for a few panels Gordon believes he has killed the Joker. There are literally tears of joy in his eyes as he tells Batman what he did, and that the world is finally free of the Joker.



This led me to wonder, has anyone other than Batman ever tried to kill the Joker? There have been plenty of opportunities where someone could, or at least could make an attempt. We, as the audience, know it probably wouldn't work, but if I was a security guard at Arkham with a taser and a dead sister, and the Joker was strapped to a gurney in front of me, I might give it a yeoman's try...


The Joker is no stranger to straight jackets and prison cells, handcuffs and restraints, any one of which would be an opening for someone to try to take him out. Hell, he spends months or years at a time in a single cell in a known location, it wouldn't be hard to track him down for capital punishment, or just a little personal revenge.


Has this ever happened in the comics? To be clear, I'm less interested in self-defense during a fight (like in the spoilers above), and more in deliberate choices to rid the world of this utter psychopath.


Has anyone ever tried to execute the Joker?




Answer



This answer will, by necessity, contain spoilers for the mentioned story arcs:



In the comics, there were several attempts on the life of The Joker, usually unsuccessful ones planned by other DC villains. However, there were several cases (in various media) where The Joker was actually killed:


Comics


In the ground-breaking Kingdom Come series, The Joker traveled to Metropolis and used his poison gas to kill everyone in the Daily Planet (including Lois Lane). While he was later surrendering to the police, a vigilante named Magog rushed up to the scene and summarily executed The Joker on the spot in front of a shocked Superman. Magog's acquittal for the act was the event that caused Superman to leave Metropolis and enter a self-imposed exile at the Fortress of Solitude.


In the classic Detective Comics #42 story "The Joker Walks the Last Mile" (1942), the villain surrenders of his own accord and is actually executed for his crimes by the court system. He is later revived, however, so that one may not count. This story was later re-used in Batman #5.


Video Games


In the parallel Earth of Injustice: Gods Among Us, an enraged Superman killed The Joker with his bare hands after the villain taunted him about killing his wife and son. After crossing a line he swore he'd never again cross, Superman then gave up on his principles altogether and swore to make the world safe by killing ALL villains.


In Batman: Arkham City, Joker is revealed to be dying from his previous exposure to the Titan formula, and exposes Batman to the same disease. After obtaining and using the cure, Batman debated whether or not to cure Joker with it. The vial was destroyed when Joker attacked Batman, so technically it was his own actions that caused his death. However, the fact that Batman had the cure at hand and didn't use it could count as being implicit in the death. (Thanks to @MissouriSpartan for the update.)



Cartoons/Film


In the un-edited version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, it is revealed via flashback that The Joker was shot dead by Tim Drake. This was a direct result of the torture, brainwashing, and general horror that the villain had put him through during his capture days before the event. In the edited release of the film, young Drake instead pushes The Joker into an electrical panel, thus electrocuting him (thanks to @Axelrod for the update).


Executions by Batman


Also, in addition to the one you mentioned in your question, there are at least two other instances in which Batman himself decided to finally do something about The Joker:


In the Elseworlds arc JLA: The Nail, Batman himself finally decided to end the villain's career and savagely beat him to death before breaking his neck. This may have been a nod to the events of The Dark Knight Returns, in which Batman made the same decision, beat The Joker savagely, yet stopped himself after partially breaking the villain's neck. A spiteful Joker then finished twisting his own neck in order to frame Batman for the killing.


In the 1989 live-action film, The Joker plummeted to his death after Batman anchored his leg to a stone gargoyle using steel cable. It's debatable, however, whether or not Batman actually intended to kill him or simply sought to prevent him from escaping.


Conclusion


Obviously this list isn't exhaustive, as there are likely numerous other examples where the Joker was killed by the actions or inactions of someone in the name of justice. However, as you can see, such examples definitely DO exist.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...
1 comment
Read more

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...
Post a Comment
Read more

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...
Post a Comment
Read more