TheJokerha

Anyone know where these are from?

" But this is exactly what makes The Joker my favorite villain of all time (I mean, we are talking EVER in any medium). He is an elemental force- you can never stop him (you can only hold him back momentarily) he kills indiscriminately without motivation, rhyme or reason. He is Lovecraft's 'uncanny', an indiscernable cosmic force that is ultimately more terrifying.  "
 
YES! I agree 100%. He is also my favorite of all mediums and you summed him up perfectly.
 
There is another new wrinkle to this. I had forgotten that DC has made Joker more self aware. That he no knows he is a comic book character, that they all are. After he got shot in the head by the crazed cop dressed up as Batman, the real Batman said Joker came back from the dead "different". In Salvation Run, Joker even tells Luthor its all a game and none of it means anything.  That they will get to play it again and again. He even speaks directly to the reader on several occasions, going back to The Sign of the Joker /Laughing Fish story arch in the late 70's. But as he told Lex, in Salvation Run  "Just because I know its a game, doesn't mean I don' t want to WIN."

There have been a few story lines in non-Batman titles that seemed to settle the issue.  In the "Rock of Ages" storyline in JLA, Luthor trapped Superman and Martian Manhunter inside Joker's insane maze of a brain. The only way they made it out was for Manhunter to make himself temporarily crazy so he could make "sense" to the patterns of Joker's mind. Later on in the storyline, Joker gets the Rock of Ages and starts killing millions with his thoughts so Manhunter forces sanity on him. t takes all of  J'onz considerable will and mind power just to hold it for a few seconds. Joker suddenly gets very remorseful and says thinks like "What have I done with my life? I..I think I need help." He then wills people back to life that he and Luthor killed. They grab the rock away from him just before he goes screamingly insane again. Not even J'onz could fight it.  
In an issue of The Specter,  Specter and James Corrigan go inside Joker's soul and find he really has no choice. They show this set of circuit boxes in him and things like "morals" and "self control" are burned and gutted. Only scorched wires remain. Batman and Specter agree Joker has a "unholy innocence" and is serving an unknown higher purpose by being the way he is.
In a JLA annual,  an arch angel takes The League inside Joker's mind and soul and shows deep down he is a good man who has no idea or control over what he is doing, and is blameless for his deeds. The angel tells them Joker exist the way he does to fulfill a plan.
When Nightwing beat Joker to death they actually showed his soul traveling to heaven before Batman resurrected him.
One final clue, during the "Last Laugh" initial issue, they showed Joker's CAT scan. One doctor said "Look at the gap in the pons, and all the lesions on the brain stem. This poor guy never had a shot at sanity."
He is unquestionably a genius. But a mad genius. And keep in mind "insanity" is a legal term, not a medical one. It is not an assessment of the type of mental illness. But a term referring to the subject being able to tell the difference between right and wrong and choosing to do right. I think he may fit the description because, even though he does know right from wrong and loves doing wrong, he is compelled by mental illness to choose wrong. What form the insanity takes, even the "super sanity" referred to in" Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth." could be the part of him that keeps changing. At least that's how they explained the different versions of him over the decades.
In his early appearances, he went to prison, not Arkham. There was even an issue where Batman and Robin played a trick on him to make him think he was insane, and he went out of his way to prove his sanity and get out of the asylum. In doing so he accidentally gave Batman the clue he was looking for. 
But by the time he showed up in "Joker's five way revenge" he was the lunatic we know him as now. And he had spent the missing years in Arkham, according to that story.
It's possible his mental state deteriorated over the years, as often happens with insanity. Staying in the insane world of Arkham made him WORSE. Combined with  what ever the chemical bath did to his brain evolving and damaging him.
I think he started out amoral and damaged, but has gotten worse over the decades. If he was exaggerating his madness, he was telling more of the truth than he realized.

Alex Ross and a few other at DC offered up a theory that I really like.
The chemical bath Joker was immersed in made him almost a type of "undead". Not in a supernatural sense, but in a sense that he can't really be killed.  He has healing factor/ damage resistance powers. He recovers from any thing and eventually returns to how he looked when he originally emerged from the chemicals. His healing factor is no where near as advanced as Wolverine's of course. Maybe re genitive powers would be a better term. He can be hurt, blown up beat up,and suffer. But he always completely recovers. Hell, he keeps going through damage that would kill or cripple another man.
When Paul/Batman broke his arm, busted him up and beat him unconscious, he popped up in the ambulance and escaped. He's been hit by a semi and knocked off a over pass into oncoming traffic. Shot in the knee but walks and runs just fine. He's been struck by lightening on a steel girder and plummeted into the ocean during a hurricane. He was even executed in the electric chair once, before he was declare legally insane. He crawled out of his grave with his henchman's help. Outside of Elseworld stories, he has never been permanently damaged after the chemical bath. I know Nightwing beat him to death, but I wonder if he would have even recovered from that if given enough time. I think, no matter what happens to him, he will eventually return to "normal."

THANKS! I did not know that, I'll add it to my subscriptions right away. Thanks again everyone.

"My Joker fix". Heh I love it.
Thanks for the good news, too. I had read Joker had been hunting down the members of The Black Hand Society, and was wondering what issues had been telling that story. 'm also surprised Joker had nothing to do with the Darkest Night stories. Seeing as he is VERY strong willed and, in a dark way, is creativity and imagination personified,  I thought he would get a green lantern ring or something.
I just ordered Batman and Robin #13 through #16, and subscribed to the title. Any more appreances I should know, or do those issue cover his revenge against The Black Glove?
Thanks again.

I'm returning to comics after a hiatus. ( Got laid off and had to cut back on everything). My main interest in comics is following The Joker stories. Now that I am employeed again i'd like to catch up on the good stuff I missed out on.
The last time I saw Joker he was leaving Arkham after the black Glove incident. Damion forced the ambulance off the bridge ( of course Joker made it to safety off camera.)
So, with all the various titles and such since then, can anyone recommend which back issues/ future titles to collect? I did not see any sign of him in the battle for the cowl or Blackest Night promos.Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!