Nightwing? Killer? Huh?

[yourverysilly]

Ok, so I'm re reading the bruce wayne murderer series and I come across a couple of confusing bits.
one: bruce wayne murderer: Dick in the cop car driving to after he's met bruce after he's been arrested. he punches the radio and says "uncontrollable rage. the same rage when I killed the joker."

two: In bruce wayne fugitive vol 2: when they're launching the plan to catch the killer, oracle says "be caredul, Dick, he's a killer" Nightwing repiles "yeah...so am I".

Ok, What the fuck? number two he MIGHT be referring to black mask, maybe, but it doesn't sound right. But seriously what the hell is he talking about killing the joker? hang on, bat fans lets just check...no, Jokers still alive. but you know, Joker only being BATMANS ARCH NEMESIS I'M SURE WE WOULDN'T NOTICE IF NIGHTWING JUST CASSUALLY OFFED HIM.

Please, someone explain, I'm so confused...

[ChthonicSpirit]

The Joker's Last Laugh. It was a crossover event in the 90's. In it, an arkham psychologist tricked the Joker into thinking he had a brain tumor in an attempt to maderate his behavior. Instead, the Joker pretty much declared war on America, determined to go out with a bang. The crossover ended with Nightwing strangling him until he lost vital signs, but Batman showed up and resuscitated him.

That's one explanation. The other is that in Devin Grayson's Nightwing Series, Dick allowed a vigilante called Tarantula to shoot dead a Crime Boss called Blockbuster. He was angsting about that for years.

[Nintendite]

Now, I may be misremembering here, but I seem to remember pre-Robin Dick Grayson killing a ordinary thug by hitting him in the head too hard with a pole in Jeph Loeb's "Dark Victory".

Can't remember exactly though.

[Chad]

The Joker's Last Laugh. It was a crossover event in the 90's. In it, an arkham psychologist tricked the Joker into thinking he had a brain tumor in an attempt to maderate his behavior. Instead, the Joker pretty much declared war on America, determined to go out with a bang. The crossover ended with Nightwing strangling him until he lost vital signs, but Batman showed up and resuscitated him.


Chuck Dixon not only wrote this story, but at least two other tales in which he used the same plot device. In the Electrocutioner storyline he did while on Detective, he had Batman die and then brought back to life when Robin forced the Electrocutioner to shock his heart back online. I believe he did the same thing on Robin when Tim Drake killed Lady Shiva and then brought her back to life moments later.

Since DC wanted to do a major Joker storyline that crossed over into the entire DCUniverse, they came up with the gimmick of announcing that the Joker would die in this series and then "killed" him for about two seconds so that they could claim they went through with what they promised.

[Captain Jim]

The Joker's Last Laugh. It was a crossover event in the 90's. In it, an arkham psychologist tricked the Joker into thinking he had a brain tumor in an attempt to maderate his behavior. Instead, the Joker pretty much declared war on America, determined to go out with a bang. The crossover ended with Nightwing strangling him until he lost vital signs, but Batman showed up and resuscitated him.

That's one explanation. The other is that in Devin Grayson's Nightwing Series, Dick allowed a vigilante called Tarantula to shoot dead a Crime Boss called Blockbuster. He was angsting about that for years.

Given the time frame involved, I'm sure this is a reference to the Joker's Last Laugh. Most people will tell you they hated it, but I thought it was pretty good--if you only read the actual storyline and the Dixon cross-overs. It was the fifty billion other lame crossovers in every other DC book at the time that made it look bad.

[Aaron Kashtan]

In New Teen Titans vol. 1 #26-27, Dick was involved in a battle in which he may have killed people (well, okay, they were aliens, not people).

[elias_A]

Given the time frame involved, I'm sure this is a reference to the Joker's Last Laugh. Most people will tell you they hated it, but I thought it was pretty good--if you only read the actual storyline and the Dixon cross-overs. It was the fifty billion other lame crossovers in every other DC book at the time that made it look bad.

Yeah, the Tarantula stuff was much later.
I also assumed Nightwing was referring to Last laugh (which was published in 2001, I think.)

[OverMaster]

Chuck Dixon not only wrote this story, but at least two other tales in which he used the same plot device. In the Electrocutioner storyline he did while on Detective, he had Batman die and then brought back to life when Robin forced the Electrocutioner to shock his heart back online. I believe he did the same thing on Robin when Tim Drake killed Lady Shiva and then brought her back to life moments later.

Also, he wrote the LOTDK story where the Joker is shot by Talia, and Batman dunks him into a Lazarus Pit to save him from the brink of death.

[ouiyahtsiouiyah]

But thats only cuz he had to find Rai's and only Joker knew where he was

[OverMaster]

But thats only cuz he had to find Rai's and only Joker knew where he was

Eh, ten bucks say he'd have done it in any other case too.

[Captain Jim]

Also, he wrote the LOTDK story where the Joker is shot by Talia, and Batman dunks him into a Lazarus Pit to save him from the brink of death.

That was an old inventory story from when Chuck was writing Detective that they pulled out of the drawer.

[Sean Whitmore]

Dick was definitely referring to when he almost killed the Joker in Last Laugh.

It was pretty recent and Dick was "wah-wah-wah"ing about it constantly.


SEAN