Keeping Joker Alive: A Stupid Move?

I'm a Joker fan like anyone else but even I know that this is ridiculous. Joker is a twisted homicidal maniac and neither Batman or the police will kill him. In reality, if we had a person like Joker, cops would obviously fry or hang him to death but in the comics, Joker gets captured and is put behind bars and they do nothing after that and as always, the clown breaks out and goes on yet another killing spree. He's never been sent to death row and he sometimes gives Batman a chance to finish him but the dark knight keeps chickening out as always and either gives Joker the KO or has to catch him through a long period of time and through that long period of time, Joker kills even more people. Joker has killed citizens, doctors, police and maybe children and yet the clown prince of crime is still on the loose because no one has the guts to kill him.

So is keeping Joker alive smart or just plain stupid?

Don't get me wrong. I like Joker and he is one of my most favorite villians in the DC Universe but I think it's just stupid that they keep him alive when they know that he'll easily break out of jail again and go kill more innocents (again).

Killing the Joker would cause a pretty outrageous fan reaction. Even if he was killed he would be brought back with some sort of stupid excuse. So its pointless. Though I do agree they should at least make some plots where Joker IS actually on deathrow.

There is a story where Joker is sentenced to death. However, Batman believes that for the particular crime he's been convicted of, he's innocent and thus sets out to prove The Joker's innocence. It's called Devil's Advocate.

Originally posted by Nemesis X
I'm a Joker fan like anyone else but even I know that this is ridiculous. Joker is a twisted homicidal maniac and neither Batman or the police will kill him. In reality, if we had a person like Joker, cops would obviously fry or hang him to death but in the comics, Joker gets captured and is put behind bars and they do nothing after that and as always, the clown breaks out and goes on yet another killing spree. He's never been sent to death row and he sometimes gives Batman a chance to finish him but the dark knight keeps chickening out as always and either gives Joker the KO or has to catch him through a long period of time and through that long period of time, Joker kills even more people. Joker has killed citizens, doctors, police and maybe children and yet the clown prince of crime is still on the loose because no one has the guts to kill him.

So is keeping Joker alive smart or just plain stupid?

Don't get me wrong. I like Joker and he is one of my most favorite villians in the DC Universe but I think it's just stupid that they keep him alive when they know that he'll easily break out of jail again and go kill more innocents (again).

the joker will never die

Originally posted by Kovacs86
There is a story where Joker is sentenced to death. However, Batman believes that for the particular crime he's been convicted of, he's innocent and thus sets out to prove The Joker's innocence. It's called Devil's Advocate.

So Joker was gonna get the chair until Batman stopped it? That's stupid.

Originally posted by Nemesis X
So Joker was gonna get the chair until Batman stopped it? That's stupid.

I read about another story where Joker was actually sentenced to death but he escaped by faking his own death. Seems a little more plausible than Batman trying to save him from the Justice system.

keeping him as a character : incredibly smart

the one thing, though, is that the suspension of disbelief that the joker can continually break out of jail and that batman can never ever catch him simply... it's cool the first million times. but then people start thinking 'um, reality?' thus breaking the suspension of disbelief and we make a thread like this. 🙂

i think that keeping him as an unseen threat for a while would be a smart decision. if he's in the playing field, then the story has to be around him. but have him move to canada or metropolis and let the GPD hear about his horrendous crimes in the newspapers, so that the joker is still a threat, just not an impending one. then batman gets a chance to play with other villians for a bit.

Yes its stupid, the old joke about superman being the boyscout...is now bruces moniker.....in this day and age who is afraid of batman anymore...oh he might hang me from a building or punch my nose.....i think his aura has been diminished,its one of the reasons i cant read his stuff anymore...though i am liking Dick Grayson at this time.....Bruce lost his edge to me....kill the joker and make people really afraid of him......i would not be surprised if they make bruce more cutthroat when he returns...but i dont think they will have him kill the joker, maybe they can get that waste of a character Jason Todd to do it?

Originally posted by BruceSkywalker
the joker will never die

Indeed.

Honestly, I know that Joker would be sent to the electric chair in real life. But in comic book life, if the killed him, Batman wouldn't have a true arc enemy to fight. It's like if you killed Lex Luthor in the Superman comics.

If the Joker were real, he'd be sitting in a sanitarium if he proved to be truly insane. As far as I know insane people don't get the death penalty, but it'd be really pointless to kill the Joker off, seeing as he'll only come back, but if it were meant to mean the character will be retired and gone forever, practically everyone on the planet would go nuts. There can't be a Batman without the Joker, that's a fact.

I do kinda feel like every Joker story that can be told, has been told other than his origin which many would argue should never be definitively told and that even the stuff about his wife etc. was too much.

I would definitely kill him off but I would do it in a random, anticlimactic way, not in some dramatic battle or some crap in order to reflect his personality.

Like he escapes from Arkham, gets in a fight with Batman and as he's running away, he's hit by a car. Like that would be appropriate. A lot of writers really use the Joker as a crutch or gimmick to make an interesting story instead of either exploring other characters more or coming up with new ones. I mean has there really been a new villain since Onomatopoeia?

I guess its part of the reason why I was always more of a Daredevil fan than Batman because they don't overstate villains, but they do explore old ones while coming up with new ones like Lady Bullseye and Johnny Sockets.

........has NOBODY read Kingdom Come? 😬

Yeah but they can't ever bring him back into the Nolan films, they could never replace Heath Ledger because the actor who did play the Joker would just have a backlash against them.

The same can be asked for every hero's arch-enemy

Originally posted by Kovacs86
There is a story where Joker is sentenced to death. However, Batman believes that for the particular crime he's been convicted of, he's innocent and thus sets out to prove The Joker's innocence. It's called Devil's Advocate.

F*king hell Batman...retarded.

I always thought he got let off for claiming insanity which is true 😬

Originally posted by Icy Ninja
I always thought he got let off for claiming insanity which is true 😬

That is true. I'm sure that's been mentioned a load of times. Besides, who knows if whichever state Gotham's in uses the death penalty?

Originally posted by Phantom Zone
F*king hell Batman...retarded.

He wasn't going to allow someone to be punished for a crime they didn't commit.