The Joker is easily one of DC’s most famous villains. He’s Batman’s most iconic nemesis, the one who has pushed him farther than anyone else more times than anyone else. He’s the Clown Prince of Crime, the number one problem people have with superheroes not killing people, and the source of some of the greatest Batman stories ever told. It looks like, despite all the changes, the Absolute Joker will still fill that role perfectly. The Absolute Universe has built itself around the idea of taking something pivotal away from its heroes, but ultimately, they are the same characters at their cores. That is not the case for the villains.
The Absolute villains are bigger, badder, and more violent than ever before. Instead of being the same as their Prime counterparts, they have been adjusted to better bring out what makes the Absolute heroes so heroic. A perfect example of this change is the Absolute Joker, who, instead of being a creature of unmatched chaos, is a man who established order with a bloody, iron fist. Absolute Batman #15 dove into the Joker’s origins and what he is, and not only does it paint a terrifying picture of Batman’s archenemy, but it calls back to one of Batman’s best unused ideas, penned by Absolute Batman scribe Scott Snyder himself.
The Grimm Ghost of Gotham
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
After proving Alfred wrong by beating Bane at his own game, this issue started with Alfred telling Batman everything he gathered and believed about the Joker. His real name was Jack Grimm, and he was the fifth Jack Grimm in a line dating all the way back to 1888. The first Jack Grimm was an orphan street performer clown, who eventually earned enough money to start a media business called Just Kidding. From there, Grimm and his descendants become some of the wealthiest men in the world. To the public, they were philanthropic and kind, if private souls. However, the Grimms amassed their fortune and power by constantly playing both sides against each other in conflict, from business rivals to the Axis and Allies.
Alfred revealed that, despite being the heads of entertainment corporations, the Grimms only ever laughed at sites of great atrocities, such as the atomic bomb testing. At Bruce’s pressing, Alfred shared his deepest, craziest-sounding fear; there was no Grimm family. There had only ever been one Jack Grimm, who found immortality through the blood of children, be it twisted science or some evil magic. He was the Joker, a monster who had stalked the Earth and only found enjoyment in the death and destruction of humanity. He wanted to mock everyone by smiling on the surface while hiding a devil-like monster underneath that reveled in agony and torture.
Alfred’s fears were, of course, accurate. The Absolute Joker is a seemingly immortal monster who strands his enemies on deserted islands just to hunt them down and eat them thirty years later. He uses the blood of children to maintain his eternal youth and has all the resources that the Prime Bruce Wayne does, down to his own cave under his Gotham manor. The Absolute Joker is a true monster, which actually calls back to one of the best unused Batman ideas of the last twenty years.
The Pale Man
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
In Scott Snyder’s acclaimed run on Batman (2011), he overhauled the Joker to the extreme. Snyder turned the Joker into a true horror character, and nowhere is that better exemplified than in the myth of the Pale Man. During the “Endgame” storyline, Joker tried to trick Batman into believing he was an eldritch entity that had stalked Gotham for centuries. The Joker wanted Batman to believe that he was some ancient evil that was born of the darkness in people’s hearts and could not be truly killed. While this proved false for the Prime Joker, being just a lie he told to try and prove to Batman that he mattered, it could absolutely be true for the Absolute version.
The Absolute Joker’s monstrous origins seem to clearly tie back into this idea of the Pale Man. Obviously, DC Editorial would never let this type of demonic origin stand for the original Joker. He’s far too important a character to change so dramatically, but this type of origin is perfect for an Elseworlds like the Absolute Universe. It provides the perfect ground to explore a different type of evil than what the Prime Joker represents, but one that Batman would also stand up against so passionately.
The Prime Joker is a normal man who has been driven insane beyond measure. The fear and dread he generates are from the idea that he used to be a person just like anyone else, but something happened that pushed him over an edge he cannot walk back from. Now, he regularly commits atrocities that normal people could never imagine themselves doing. The Absolute Joker, meanwhile, is a literal demonic entity that gets its life from death and desolation. He is the Pale Man, and the final evolution of one of Scott Snyder’s most ambitious ideas. I might not want this origin for the Prime Joker, but for the Absolute version, this is the perfect change.
Absolute Batman #15 is on sale now!
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