BATMAN #1 - "The Joker"
The Joker got off to a strong start with not one but two stories in the very first issue of Batman. No clown, he, but a psychopathic thief and serial killer from the very beginning whose murders were nothing short of inventive. The "Joker" playing card is introduced as his symbol. I first read this in "treasury edition" format was I was ten years old.
1st murder: Henry Claridge for the Claridge diamond. The Joker announced on the radio that the murder would happen at midnight. Despite a cordon of police, Claridge dropped dead at the stroke of midnight, his face distorted into a ghastly grin. Actually, the diamond had been stolen the night before and Claridge injected with a dose of "Joker venom" which was timed to act in exactly 24 hours.
2nd murder: Jay Wilde for the Ronker's ruby. Also announced in advance over the radio, this time the Joker hid inside a suit of armor, knocked out the police guards with a non-lethal version of Joker venom in gas form, and killed Wilde with a blow dart.
3rd murder: Brute Nelson, a rival crime boss. Joker walked into an obvious trap and simply shot him, but Batman was stalking the place as well. The Joker defeats Batman in hand-to-hand combat and escapes.
4th murder: Judge Drake for revenge. This time the Joker disguises himself as the chief of police and kills the judge while playing cards. Batman and Robin have the judge's house staked out, Robin in front and Batman in back, but the Joker leaves from the front and Robin follows him to his hideout. Batman trails Robin, confronts the Joker and is again defeated.
5th murder (thwarted): Otto Drexel for the Cleopatra necklace. Batman is the to meet him when he attempts to break into Drexel's penthouse. Joker empties his gun into Batman's bullet-proof vest, then jumps to an adjoining construction site where Robin is waiting. Robin kicks Joker off the scaffolding, but Batman catches him, knocks him out and turns him over to the police. In his cell, the Joker already plots his escape.
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BATMAN #7 - "Wanted: Practical Jokers!"
"Say, Bruce," asks Dick Grayson, "do you really think the Joker died when he fell from that lighthouse into the water?"
"That question has been bothering me, too," admits Bruce. "I wish I knew the answer! But one thing you can be certain of: if the Joker's alive, there's going to be more deviltry afoot!"
One "I. Rekoj" places a want ad seeking practical jokers. Once he has hired the most viscious of them, Rekoj has them each pick up a gun from the table. He then informs them that each of the gins has been used in the commission of a crime, and now they have their fingerprints on them. If they don't do exactly as he says, he will turn the guns over to the police. Then he removes his disguise revealing himself to be... aw, you guessed it! Over the course of the next several weeks, the Joker's men pull off a series of high profile practical jokes. The jiokes start off benign, but become increasingly viscious as his "jokers" become addicted to the thrill.
Murders 12 & 13: Eventually, the Joker tips off the police that he plans to rob Henry Verne of his great diamond. Commissionwer Gordon posts two guards, and Batman and Robin soon arrive on the scene as well. But by the time they arrive, the two police officers are dead. [NOTE: Robin says they are unconscious, but he's no M.D. Besides, they both have "Joker" grins on their faces, so I'm counting them on the tally.] Batman breaks in to find Joker still on the scene. As they fight, a second Joker enters and takes on Robin. Then a third Joker arrives, and I'm beginning to wonder if maybe Geoff Johns is on to somthing. But then several other "Jokers" show up and it soon becomes apparent that this whole set-up is just a diversion. The real Joker was committing the real crime across town.
Batman and Robin are overcome by sheer weight of numbers and knocked unconscious. They are awakend by the telephone. It is the Joker, gloating over the success of his scheme. He then gives them a riddle: "When is a Duke not a Duke?" While you're mulling it over, Dick Grayson notes an article in the newspaper about Duke Micheal, visiting Gotham City from a war-torn nation, who is in town to collect $10,000 in donated funds to feed the people of his starving nation. Bruce deduces that the "Duke" will actually be the Joker in disguise. At the Duke's hotel, the Joker gasses the Duke and his two aides. [NOTE: I will not tally these as kills because the victims do not display the "Joker" grin on their faces. Besides, the Joker says that they will "sleeps for a few hours."]
Batman and Robin arrive just as the money is being handed over to the "Duke." The Joker flees, stealing a car; Batman and Robin pursue, stealing another. Joker drive to the railroad station and hops a departing train. Batman and Robin pull alongside and jump aboard as well. The chase proceeds through the cars to the roof of the cars. Joker then goes to the undercarriage of one of the cars and loosens a coupling, leaving Batman and Robin stuck on the roof of the decoupled car. They leap across the gap between cars and only barely hang on. By this time, Joker is back on the roof of the car and moves to kick Batman loose, but Batman trips him. Then he pulls himself up and they fight.
Batman actually wins for a change (J6; B5), knocking Joker from the train as it passes over a cliff alongside a body of water. "I don't hink he'll cheat death this time! Do you, Batman?" asks the ever-optimistic Robin. "Maybe," replies Batman. "He's cheated death so often, you just can't trust that guy! at least we kow we had the last laugh on the Joker!" Did you, Batman? Did you really?
So you've read all these stories in a row. Any theories on why Joker is so formidable?
I chalk a lot of it up to what you said: "unintended consequences." Also, he falls into water quite often, and his body is not recovered, so it's at least plausible that he could survive. Intended or not, surviving "certain death" has become the Joker's schtick. The Red Skull was like that, too, to a certain extent, as was Doctor Doom in the early days.
Joker at his best is often the wild expression of careless impulsivity and chaos. That makes him an interesting contrast to the usually methodical Batman.
One perhaps unintended consequence is that he can't very well take pains to ensure his own safety and escape routes. See for instance how he exposes himself to unnecessary risks of radiation exposure in the lead-up to "A Death in the Family" (Batman #426, 1988). But there is demand for using him further, so he can't just die out of recklessness either. He is a Batman villain, not a Dick Tracy villain.
Today's "Jumble" included JOKER but I can recognize it any way it's spelled, thanks to Batman comics! That and Dracula! ;-)
In the early days of comics, villains were disposable and often quickly killed off. The Joker was obviously a big hit with readers so he became a recurring villain, used quite often along with Catwoman and the about to arrive Penguin.
Scarecrow appeared twice, Two-Face three times and the Cavalier four times!
BATMAN #8 - "The Cross-Country Crimes!"
At the behest of the President, FBI Director G. Henry Mover invites Batman and Robin to Washington, DC. They accept. The Joker attempts to assassinate Batman, but misses and wounds Mover instead. He escapes and soon takes over a "small radio station nearby." By the time Batman and Robin arrive, the Joker has fled the scene, leaving behind a clue: a joker playing card with the state of New Jersey on it. In "a small town somewhere in New Jersey," Joker plans to attend The Vandgilts ("Straight from Broadway"), a play about this city's first family. For opening night, the wealthy Vandgilt family allows the actors to wear the actual Vandgilt diamonds as a publicity stunt. Batman and Robin lose the trail and , coincidentally, decide to take in that very play in that very city.
When the Joker appears, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson become Batman and Robin and leap to the stage from the balcony. Up until this point, Robin usually holds his own against the Joker, but this time Joker clouts him on the head with the stock of his Tommy gun and becomes "Robin, Boy Hostage" for the first time. the Joker makes his getaway, but leaves behind the next clue: a joker card with the state of Ohio on it. "Two days later, in Ohio," the Joker and two of his "old cronies" plan to rob a jewler's convention "to be held about 200 miles away from here in a big city."
Murders 14-17: After the plans have been made, the Joker gives his henchmen two cigars laced with Joker venom. Then he proceeds to the route of the bus which has been specially-chartered for the jeweler's convention and, seven years before the first "Road Runner" cartoon, provides possible inspiration to Wile E. Coyote by painting a false center line leading off a cliffside road. His "joke" kills at least two people aboard. Coincidentally (again), Batman and Robin happen to be driving by. Joker disable Robin with a non-lethal version of his gas, then leaps aboard a nearby cable-car. Batman follows and they fight. Joker is getting the better of Batman (who is hanging from the car by his fingers) when Robin, recovered from the gas, reverses the direction of the cars. Joker leaps to a car moving past in the other direction and makes his escape. The next clue is a card with the state of Kansas.
NOTE: I'm not going to count Joker's escape at the theater against Batman because the fight itself was inconclusive, but I'm going to have to give the fight aboard the cable-car to the Joker because he was a split second away from killing Batman if not for Robin's intervention.
"The Batmobile rockets thru state after state on the trail of the elusive Joker" (which is possible, I guess, if they cut across the northwestern tip of Missouri and the southeastern tip of Nebraska). Tuning in to the police band, they overhear the following report report: "Calling all cars! The Joker has been seen entering a house on 2255 Concourse Ave." Proceeding to that address, Batman and Robin accompany the police into an apartment to find the Joker sitting in a chair reading and reading the newspaper. When they try to apprehend him, however, the quickly discover that the "Joker" is only an electrified dummy. The charge is not lethal, though, and the next clue leads them to Delaware. Batman wonders why the "New" had been crossed off the "New Jersey" card and the "D" from the "Deleware" card. Cogitating on it for a moment, he comes up with the answer: "That egotistical maniac has spelled his name across the country."
Forearmed with this knowledge, Batman anticipate that his next destination after Deleware will be Rhode Island, and decides to beat him at his own game by going there ahead of the Joker. Two days later, Joker reads the following item in the paper: "I. Namtab will stop at the Fray Hotel at Providence, Rhode Island. Namtab, it is rumored, has with him the Jonkers diamond, one of the largest in the world." Now you'd think that "I. Rekoj" would see through such an obvious ploy, wouldn't you? You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. Joker decides to alter his plan to go to Rhode Island next and walks into Batman's trap at a hotel in Providence. The Joker takes Robin out of the fight by kicking him in the jaw, then slips out a window onto the hotel's marquee where he leaps to a car in the street below. Batman leaps onto the roof of a differnet car, and a chase across the roofs of moving cars ensues. Batman cathes up to Joker and scores a definitive win, bringing the score to J7; B6. Batman completes the pattern (or does he?) by sending the Joker to a place with an "R" in it: AlcatRaz. (I guess ARkham was not yet in use.)
This is not a particularly compelling story. For one thing, there is too much coincidence (Bruce and Dick just happen to go to the theater Joker plans to rob, Batman and Robin just happen to be driving along the same stretch of road at the same time Joker is committing a crime, etc.). For another, even the smallest states are pretty big when you don't know exactly what you're looking for or where you're going. Third, the pattern doesn't really work, does it? I'm sure the Joker could have picked some actualy cities within a state and saved himself the trouble of driving all over the country. It's nice to see the Batman scoring a definitive win (against the Joker) for a change, but this is one premise that show have been either re-worked or dropped entirely.
Trivia: 1) The Joker is 6' 2" tall; 2) The base of 'Joker venom" is ammonium nitrate.
BATMAN #9 - "The Case of the Lucky Law-Breakers!"
In a nice little bit of Golden Age continuity, the Joker escapes from a prison that might be Alcatraz, pioneering a method later used by James Bond. The next morning, a newsboy shouts that the Midtown Bank has been robbed of $10,000. Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, in another nice little bit of Golden Age continuity, attend the showing of a newsreel detailing the history of "The Joker Versus the Batman and Robin." The house lights come on and the manager announces the theater will be giving away a $10,000 prize to the winner of the the spin of the "Win-O" wheel. The prize is split between Trigger Tom and Nick Bacy, two ex-cons. Just then, the news arrives that the Joker has escaped prison.
18th murder: Suspicious of the circumstances and the coincidence, Batman and Robin go to the theater manager's office only to discover that the Joker has just killed him. they fight briefly, but the Joker gets away.
A week passes. then the Joker announces his plans to rob the Midtown Bank (again, I guess). On the street outside, a street hawker peddles little wind-up clowns. One of them bumps into the bank's outer wall, blowing a hole in it. The Joker and his men abscond with $20,000, but Batman and Robin pursue their getaway car on motorcycles. The joker causes the cycles to crash and gets away again. (Batman's lucky I'm not including escapes in the combat tally, because this is the second time he's gotten away this story.) That night, the Bowl O'Bills program gives away $20,000 to whoever answers a phone number they call at random. The man who answers is Mont Wily, another ex-con.
In the days that follow, there are more robberies and more ex-cons awarded the same amount in raffles, lotteries, etc. Suspecting that the Joker is threatening contest runners, radio program directors and the like into laundering his ill-gotten gains, Batman and Commisioner Gordon conspire to set a trap for him. The next day, the newspaper reports that a drowned body, suspected to be the Joker, has been recovered, but is awaiting proper identifiction. Being presumed dead would suit Joker's plans, so he disguises himself as an old man who's business was once ruined by the Joker. The Batman is waiting, however, but the Joker smacks him with his cane, jumps through the window and gets away again.
Batman and Robin set out in pursuit, but the Joker has gimmicked his own car to emit knockout gas from the tailpipe. B&R awaken to find themselves in a rectangular-shaped hole in the ground. The Joker fits a "ton-heavy slab of rock" atop the "makeshift crypt," creating a makeshift death-trap. The stone and the hole are nearly identical in size, so the stone slides slowly down to crush the caped crusaders. Escaping death-traps is Batman's schtick, but this escape makes so little sense it is utterly implausible. Both Batman and Robin have "silver pencils" with them, which the jam on either side of the slowly-descening stone. Then they lift it using their own strength. Batman explains: "A simple engineering trick! We couldn't slide the geavy rock itself -- but with the silver pencils under either side to act as rollers -- well, there's your answer!" What? Where?
Anyway, Batman and Robin soon catch up to the Joker and his men. Batman takes on the Joker, leaving Robin to handle the others by himself. Batman punches the Joker directly into the path of on oncoming express train, a clear win for Batman, tying the score at seven wins apiece. They wait until the train passes, but there is no sign of the Joker. "He always comes back," observes the Batman, 'and when he does, he'll find us ready and waiting!"
So far, unless I've missed something, there's only been one Joker story in Detective Comics, and otherwise all of his appearances have been in Batman. Or are you just reading the Dark Knight Archives, and then going back for Batman Archives?
Both. I'm going back and forth between Batman and Dark Knight Archives, but so far that has been only one story from Detective Comics (#45). At this point, Joker has been in seven of the first nine issues of Batman (including two stories in #1); by the time we get to 13, he will have been in ten of the first thirteen. Starting now, the Harlequin if Hate will begin to appear more frequently in Detective as well. Next up: Detective Comics #60. Also (apart from Detective Comics #40, if you want to count that), Joker has yet to make any cover appearances. That, too, shall change.
The Joker's death trap in Batman #9 (F'42) on sale in D'41 is very similar to Dick Tracy getting trapped in a caisson in January 1942. The boulder was dropping slowly and there was literally no way out. Chester Gould wrote himself into a corner. Initially he wanted to have "the hand of the creator" i.e. himself, erase the boulder and put Tracy back into the story but his publisher said no. So the caisson turned into a shaft with a wooden floor so they could saw Tracy to safety!
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