Batman Just Gave the Joker a Disturbing New Origin

Batman's ongoing multiversal adventure reveals a surprising (and disturbing) new origin for his worst enemy, the Joker.

Batman's journey through an alternate Gotham has been an examination of the good that the Dark Knight does for the city. Through it all, the mysterious Red Mask has been pulling the strings, using Gotham's law enforcement to terrorize its citizens and use them for bizarre experiments. In Batman #134 (by Chip Zdarsky, Mike Hawthorne, Adriano Di Benedetto, and Tomeu Morey) it was confirmed that Red Mask was none other than Darwin Halliday, this universe's version of the Joker. While this was a shock, his motives were even more surprising. Darwin wanted to know how to break his own mind, so he could become this universe's Joker.

According to him, his entire life feels empty, despite his incredible financial success. After learning about the Jokers of other realities, he became obsessed with replicating the process that would transform him into the Clown Prince of Crime in an effort to finally be whole. His quest proves that the true nature of a person is relatively consistent throughout the multiverse. Darwin Halliday's actions reveal that the Joker wants to be bad and that his transition may not have been an accident as many assume.

Darwin Halliday Actually Wants to be the Joker

As told by Halliday, his success brought him to new heights of wealth. However, despite this, there is a hole he could not explain or fill. It wasn't until one of his chemical experiments went wrong that Halliday finally understood why this was. The gases he was exposed to gave him a glimpse of the multiverse, and he saw another version of himself that felt truer to who he was -- the Joker.

Ever since then, Halliday devoted himself to doing whatever was necessary to peer through the different universes to discover the moment the Joker became who he is. To that end, he crafted the Red Mask persona to get the test subjects he needed and prepare himself for the day he would finally feel complete. A twisted desire, but one that provides unique insight into the psychology of the Joker.

The Joker May Not Really be a Tragic Victim of Circumstance

What's so interesting about Halliday is that he is a rare version of the Joker. He's who the Joker was before becoming a villain. He isn't just some flashback of his many pasts, but an actual examination of the man in real-time. Batman has never had the chance to learn more about what kind of person the Joker was before he changed, and neither have the fans. He wants to become the Joker. In his mind, the Joker's chaos and evil are the truest expressions of who he is deep down, and without that distorted view of the world, he can never reach his true potential. This is important to understand as it implies that other versions of the Joker prior to their transformation shared a similar disconnect from the rest of the world.

If Halliday is a typical example of what the Joker was like before his change, then there's an excellent chance that every other version of the Joker was the same -- a monster looking for an excuse to be worse. The Joker has given fans so many possible beginnings for himself, most of them portraying him as the victim of some horrible accident, but the truth might be even more sinister. These "origins" were nothing more than lies, and the Jokers remember exactly what happened because it was deliberate. They became the Joker to finally feel happy.