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] (vanished 2015^[2]), better known as the Joker, was an infamous criminal from Gotham City who terrorized the city for years and was responsible for countless attacks, including the Kane family car accident. Being one of Batman’s greatest enemies, the Joker racked up a massive kill count, ultimately resulting in Batman snapping and killing him. Due to his notorious criminal record, he was portrayed in pop culture by the actor Heath Ledger and even referenced by Cisco Ramon.

Biography

Original Multiverse

Jack Napier was a mysterious criminal who was, for some time, best known by his alias, "the Joker". He was an enemy to the similarly half-mythical Gotham City protector, Batman. On January 26, 2003,^[3] Joker hijacked a bus with 34 schoolchildren and ended up ramming the Kane family's car, leaving it dangling on the edge of the bridge. He was pursued by Batman, who secured the car with his grappling hooks. Batman then saved the schoolchildren and defeated Joker. However, the Kanes' car loosened from the hooks due to an engineering mishap and fell into the river, leading to the deaths of Gabi and apparently Beth Kane. Joker was captured and tried the following month.^[4]

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

New Multiverse

In 2015, the Joker was defeated and possibly killed by Batman, although it is widely believed that he remains locked up in Arkham Asylum.^[2]

Legacy

Joker is remembered as one of the worst criminals to have plagued Gotham, as well as one of Batman’s most noteworthy unhinged adversaries. He was at some point portrayed by Heath Ledger in a fictionalized form of some sort. Cisco Ramon compared Heath Ledger's Joker to Zoom, claiming that the maniacal speedster made Ledger’s Joker "look like Santa Claus".^[5]

Joker's supposed death (as described by Luke Fox) seems to have had a profound impact on Batman, who apparently broke his moral code upon killing him. Due to this experience, Batman disappeared into a possible retirement, remaining out of Gotham for over four years.^[2]

In 2020, after Alice released all the inmates from Arkham and sent them to wreak chaos and havoc across Gotham, Jacob Kane began to compare his daughter to Joker, as she had fixated on Batwoman the same way Joker was fixated on Batman.^[6]

Appearances

Batwoman

Season 1

• "Pilot" (name seen in newspaper)
• "I'll Be Judge, I'll Be Jury" (mentioned)
• "A Mad Tea-Party" (mentioned)
• "A Narrow Escape" (mentioned)
• "A Secret Kept From All the Rest" (mentioned)

The Chronicles of Cisco

• Post 27  (mentioned)

Behind the scenes

• In the DC Comics, the Joker is the nemesis of Batman.
  • In The Flash episode "Back to Normal" when Joe West, Cisco Ramon, and Barry Allen rescue Harry Wells, they find him being held by Griffin Grey at Ace Chemicals. In the comics, it's at Ace Chemicals where DC Comics' Joker fell into a vat of chemical products that turned him into the maniac 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 a one-such individual).^[7]
• The name "Jack Napier" was used as both the real name or simply an alias for the Joker in many Batman projects, including the 1989 Batman film and Batman: The Animated Series.
  • The name "Jack Napier" was intended to sound like the word "jackanapes".
• The Joker hijacking a school bus is a reference to the events in The Dark Knight where the Joker hijacked a bus after a robbing a bank.

References