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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The Joker was indeed a murderous bastiche, wasn't he? But he quickly got sanitized, and now I'm wondering when that happened. He appeared a lot in the Golden Age, so it would take some digging to see the change -- or evolution.
I read The Great Comic Book Heroes when I was ten-- with an emphasis on the reprinted comics-- and those includes the first appearance of the Joker. That remained my default Joker, despite having seen the Batman series as a very young kid, and watched a few very sanitized cartoons.
But he quickly got sanitized, and now I'm wondering when that happened.
Not to give too much away in advance, but I think the change happened after "The Joker Walks the Last Mile" (Detective Comics #64, June 1942) when he was electrocuted.
He appeared a lot in the Golden Age, so it would take some digging to see the change -- or evolution.
That is my intention here.
The Joker had a great passion for precious gems!
And he was seen scowling at times!
I have that book around here somewhere, probably buried in my boxes of Batman titles,
I recall disliking what I read in the introduction about how stories were selected for the volume. There was a multi-issue storyline during the time when Batman and Detective Comics were essentially treated as the same book -- with the stories beginning in the one title and then continuing in the other, two weeks later -- that was excluded because it was too long. It involved The Joker moving to Guatemala and joining a terrorist faction trying to overthrow the government.
That may be an argument against multi-issue stories (which I feel are overdone, having grown up with Silver Age stories that may have been heavy on exposition but got the job done in one issue!) or an argument against treating two titles like one title (which I thought was a bad idea, if only because it meant down the line good stories in those titles couldn't be reprinted). In any event, that story needed to be reprinted somewhere!
I have that book around here somewhere...
I borrowed the name of that collection for this discussion, but it is going to be "The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told" by default because I plan to cover them all.
In any event, that story needed to be reprinted somewhere!
And it was (but it will be some time before I get around to covering it here).
BATMAN #1 - "The Joker Returns"
With absolutely no corroboration whatsoever, I have always supposed that the second Joker story from Batman #1 was originally intended for Detective Comics #40 (because the cover of Detective Comics #40 matches the splash page of "The Joker Returns" story from Batman #1). For whatever reason National decided to run two Joker stories in the same comic, it made for a very strong debut issue, featuring not only the first two appearances of the Joker, but also the return of Hugo Strange and the first appearance of The Cat(woman).
Bill Finger refers to the Joker as the "Harlquin of Hate" for the first time here, and the Joker refers to himself as a "man of intellect." He escapes jail by means of combining the contents of two hollow false teeth to create a powerful explosive. His hideout is a crypt behind a false headstone in a cemetary and is a fully equipped laboratory where he concocts his Joker venom and explosives. That should be a clue to his identity (plus that he was once convicted by Judge Drake, as revealed in the first story). Now that I have started down the path of keeping track of the Joker's murders, I'm tempted to continue.
5th murder (actual): He immediately reverts to his established M.O. of announcing his crimes in advance over the radio. This time his target is Police Chief Chalmers, whom he kills with a booby-trapped telephone. (I should note that at least one guard seemed to be killed during his prison break, but I'm not going to count that one as it was not verified and was more-or-less "collateral damage.")
6th murder: His next crime is the theft of a painting from an art gallery with no loss of life, but the crime after that is the theft of a rare gem from an unidentified victim.
7th & 8th murders: The Joker's next radio broadcast announces his intention to steal the Cleopatra necklace from the Drake Museum. This is a nice little bit of continuity I never noticed before, as the Cleopatra necklace was his objective when he was apprehended by Batman & Robin in the first story. (I can only assume that the owner, Otto Drexel, wisely had the necklace moved from his penthouse to the museum for his own safety.) This time the Joker has secreted himself in an Egyptian sarcophagus and kills two guards with his Joker venom. This time, however, Batman is lying in wait. He attacks the Joker, but the Joker again bests him in hand-to-hand combat and escapes.
9th murder: Reformer Edgar Martin puts himself on the Joker's radar by speaking out against him. The Joker announces in his usual manner that Martin will die tomorrow night. When the night arrives, surrounded by police, Martin attempts to calm hinselve by playing a game of solitaire. All the cards in the deck are Jokers, however, with sharp, poison-tipped edges, and he accidentally kills himself right on schedule.
At the suggestion of his young friend, playboy Bruce Wayne, Police Commissioner Gordon baits a trap for the Joker with the famed Fire Ruby. Suspecting a trap, the Joker nevertheless walks right into it. (He shoots four police officers in the process, but I'm not including them in the tally because they are not confirmed kills.) Joker flees to an adjoining roof and knocks Robin off, but the Boy Wonder saves himself by grabbing ahold of a flagpole. Back at street level, Batman again takes on the Joker (with a little help from Robin this time, who drops onto Joker's back). After a brief skuffle, the Joker accidentally plunges his knife into his own chest.
"The Joker has played his last hand and lost!" Finger narrates. "Look -- still grinning in death!" Robin notes. Batman adds, "Yes -- and when the flesh is gone, the grinning skull will still carry the sign of the Joker... into eternity!" That's not exactly the way skulls work, but its a gruesome image. It's too bad the Batman didn't stick around, because the medical examiner notes, "I just examined this man -- He isn't dead! He's still alive -- and he's going to live!" Thus is born one of the Joker's best schticks: returning from certain death.
NOTE: Right around the same time I first read the Batman #1 TE, I also read Hulk #166, written by Steve Englehart, in which Major Talbot, while resuing General Ross, his father-in-law, from a Russian prison is shot and falls from atop the prison's outer wall back inside. As his body is examined, the prison doctor exclaims, "Comrade, this man is still alive!" I can't help but think that Englehart was influenced by the pacing of the Joker's "death" in Batman #1. Reading these tweo stories in such close succession stuck with me. I generally prefer this kind of reveal to the usual kind of comic book "resurrection" story, when the writer is upfront with his readers all along.
Apparentlty, the Joker was not only to be merely dead at the end of the story but really most sincerely dead but the editor, IIRC, thought that it would be a waste of a strong villain so granted him a reprieve.
The Joker stories in Batman #1 stories are full of strong gimmicks. They might be the two best stories published in comic books to that time.
The murder threat/police protection sequences are similar to the opening of The Bat (1926), one of "Batman"'s key inspirations.
The Joker's murder venom may have been inspired by the murder device in an episode of The Shadow, "The Laughing Corpse" (10 Mar 1940).
If Batman had minded his own business Brute Nelson might've ended the problem.
Batman's fight with the Joker on the car recalls his fight with Duc D'Orterre on the carriage in Detective Comics #34. Why does the car speed like that? Is there a brick on the accelerator?
(edited)
I borrowed the name of that collection for this discussion, but it is going to be "The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told" by default because I plan to cover them all.
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