What are your favorite Joker stories?

[David Walton]

All great choices.

I'll add Going Sane to the list. Succeeds in humanizing the Joker by breaking him off into a split personality, "Joe Kerr." Touching and tragic. You really can have your cake and eat it, too.

[dupersuper]

All of them...

Yech...you may be almost as mad as Joker...

[robowizard]

What are the best story arcs about The Joker?

[carabas]

There aren't many good ones...

I think he was used very well in the finale of "No Man's Land".
And there's of course the "Soft Targets" arc in Gotham Central.

[melkorjunior]

"Lovers and Madmen" from Batman Confidential 7-12. It thankfully dispenses with the frankly very stupid red hood nonsense and instead gives us a Joker who really is terrifying even before he falls into the vat of chemicals. It also gives us the most plausible reason yet for Batman's reluctance to kill him.

[_original_]

Hate to go with the obvious, but oh well; The Killing Joke.

[carabas]

Hate to go with the obvious, but oh well; The Killing Joke.

Not actually a story arc...

[Vil_Dee]

What are the best story arcs about The Joker?

"Going Sane" -LODK
"The King of Comedy" -Shadow of the Bat
The Joker and Scarecrow stuff in Knightfall
"Batman and Robin must die" - Batman and Robin (vol 1)
"The Cutting Room Floor" - Detective comics (vol 1)
"Laughing Fish" - Detective comics (vol 1)
"The Great Pretender" - Showcase94

Fun arcs (not necessarily good good, but fun)

"The Demon Laughs" -LODK
"Waxman and the Clown" - Shadow of the Bat

[maxpower00044]

"Lovers and Madmen" from Batman Confidential 7-12. It thankfully dispenses with the frankly very stupid red hood nonsense and instead gives us a Joker who really is terrifying even before he falls into the vat of chemicals. It also gives us the most plausible reason yet for Batman's reluctance to kill him.

I hate this story. The Aeon Flux style art was it's only saving grace. Joker with a concrete origin = fail.

[maxpower00044]

Soft Targets
The Man Who Laughs
Mad Love
The Laughing Fish
Dark Detective


And, I'm one of the few who doesn't mind A Death in the Family

Come to think of it, I need to read some more Joker stories. I've been looking for Going Sane forever, but can never find it as a complete set, or in trade.

[Billy Batson]

Soft Targets was so awesome...

[Evxn]

I hate this story. The Aeon Flux style art was it's only saving grace. Joker with a concrete origin = fail.

QFT. Agree 100 percent. An origin for Joker devaluates him.

[melkorjunior]

An origin for Joker devaluates him.

I agree, which is why Killing Joke's "failed comedian wears a red bucket on his head" fiasco needed an alternative, and Lovers and Madmen gives us that alternative. Now when Joker says in Killing Joke that he remembers his origin in different ways, we actually have more than one example to choose from. If Killing Joke had never been written, we wouldn't need Lovers and Madmen, but unfortunately DC has made Moore's elseworld's tale a part of actual continuity.

[Van Cleaf]

"Five Way Revenge", "Death Has The Last Laugh" (Haney), "Catch As Catscan" (Barr), "Ruins" (Moench), "The Laughing Fish"... nothing too connoisseur, I guess. Everything since then kinda sucks. The Joker isn't the same since they decided to make him a total loony.

[Aquacatlungfish]

I agree, which is why Killing Joke's "failed comedian wears a red bucket on his head" fiasco needed an alternative, and Lovers and Madmen gives us that alternative. Now when Joker says in Killing Joke that he remembers his origin in different ways, we actually have more than one example to choose from. If Killing Joke had never been written, we wouldn't need Lovers and Madmen, but unfortunately DC has made Moore's elseworld's tale a part of actual continuity.

Except The Killing Joke clearly states that the Joker's memory changes and the flashbacks are clearly memories so giving the Joker a concrete origin or alternatives is not needed at all. And The Killing Joke is not a "fiasco" in any way. If anything it should stop the concrete origin stuff from happening with it's ideas. The whole point is that his memories are unreliable.