Jack Napier

"Batman brought out all the crazies in Gotham. If it weren't for him, there wouldn't have been a Joker!"

—Jacob Kane^[src]

Jack Napier,^[1] otherwise known as the Joker, is an infamous criminal from Gotham City who was responsible for the attack on the Kane family. Due to his notorious criminal record, he was portrayed in pop culture by the actor Heath Ledger and even referenced by Cisco Ramon.

Biography

Jack Napier was a mysterious criminal, who was for some time known only by his alias, the Joker. He was an enemy to the similarly half-mythical Gotham City protector, Batman. On January 26 2003,^[2] he hijacked a bus full of schoolchildren and ended up ramming the Kane family car, leaving it dangling on the edge of the bridge. He was stopped by Batman, who secured the car with his grappling hooks and pursued the Joker. However, the hooks turned out to not be enough due to an engineering mishap in the car, causing it to fall into the river, leading to the death of Gabi Kane and apparently Beth Kane. The Joker was tried the following month.^[3]

Joker was later portrayed by Heath Ledger in a fictionalized form of some sort. Cisco Ramon mentioned him in his blog while discussing the events from his journey to Earth-2. Cisco compared Heath Ledger's Joker to Zoom, claiming that the maniacal meta-human speedster made Joker "look like Santa Claus".^[4]

Joker was later brought to justice and prosecuted by assistant district attorney Angus Stanton. His identity was revealed to be Jack Napier.^[1]

Appearances

Batwoman

Season 1

• "Pilot" (name seen in newspaper)
• "I'll Be Judge, I'll Be Jury" (mentioned)
• "A Mad Tea-Party" (mentioned)

The Chronicles of Cisco

• Post 27  (mentioned)

Behind the scenes

• In the DC Comics, the Joker is the nemesis of Batman.
  • In "Back to Normal", when Joe, Cisco and Barry rescued Harry, they find him being held by Griffin Grey at Ace Chemicals. In the comics, it's at Ace Chemicals that the DC Comics' Joker eventually fell into a pit of chemical product that turned him into the maniac that he is.
• The Joker, played by Heath Ledger, was indeed a character in The Dark Knight, a film adaptation of DC's Batman mythos. Considering the Joker's later appearance in Batwoman, it can be assumed that Ledger portrayed the character in a documentary, or as a fictionalized version of him in a movie based on real events (considering that Batman himself is thought to be a myth by a number of characters in-universe; Oliver Queen being one-such individual).^[5]
• Jack Napier was both an alias and the real name used by the Joker in many Batman projects including the 1989 Batman film and Batman: The Animated Series, where the Joker's real name is in fact Jack Napier.
  • The name "Jack Napier" was intended to sound like the word "jackanapes."

References