No, I’m not saying I hate him or that he’s overrated, he’s just very overused. Let’s just talk about this problem for me. I’m not the only fan who thinks this though, since I’ve seen other you tubers and even the people in the comments say this as much. You may say that’s of course his legacy of doing bad stuff, mainly blowing and shooting. People up, mainly Barbara Gordon and Jason Todd before, but why did he even manage to get this big? Because he got really lucky and popular. He was originally going to simply get killed off in his second appearance in the same issue he first appeared, by a knife he tried to use on Batman, but editor Julius Schwartz said to stop killing their villains, and they added two panels of the Joker surviving. I’m glad the Joker was kept around, but not this much. I mean, can we have any other villain (besides Bane and Ra’s Al Ghul) to hurt Batman as much as this? Please DC, can you just keep the Joker to just a minimum?
Extra Note: I still think the Joker is a worthy archenemies, but it’s been to long for him to be. Just cure him or have him killed off in anyway (not by Batman’s hands), and have him return in 5-10 years.
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I see what you’re saying, but a) nooks he appears in sell well and b) with every new creative team comes a writer and artists who have been waiting to tell their Joker story. So I don’t see it letting up anytime soon.
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I just don’t understand why they can’t do other villains. They just spit on them. What’s so hard by using them rightly as a main villain as they have potential to be?
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I don’t either- multiply this feeling by 2 and that’s how it feels to be a Superman fan who gets either Luthor, Brainiac, Darkseid, or a brand new villain with every new creative team. He has other villains, but they get overlooked or mentioned for a panel or a page and that’s it.
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This has gotten me curious – what’s the longest amount of time DC has ever gone without using The Joker?
I went through the archives, and the record was set, and remains unbroken since, 66 years ago. The Joker made no appearances in the year 1955, for 15 months between Batman #87 and Batman #97.
EDIT: Never mind, I was accidentally counting reprints. The Joker went 3 years without being used from 1970-1972.
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Honestly I feel that as well for a Superman fan, but this is the Batman and the Joker I’m talking about so maybe another time I could say that, for the movies at least.
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I think maybe since the late Silver Age when Man-Bat and Ra’s Al Ghul during the Bronze Age, and Joker was then used again in his best story ever, Joker’s Five Way Revenge.
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CORRECTION: Never mind, I was accidentally counting reprints. The Joker went 3 years without being used from 1970-1972.
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Your welcome Vic Sa-I mean the Question. 
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I mean, they do a lot. Like, the biggest villain going on right now in the current comics is Scarecrow and for the past few years Batman’s biggest baddie in the main comics was Bane.
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I’m glad they don’t always at least drop the other villains for random cameos but they still keep using the Joker anyways all the time.
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While I love both The Joker and Ra’s, I think The Joker, Ra’s al Ghul, and Bane have been overused. Batman has the best rogue’s gallery in comic books, so I don’t see why they can’t simply use other villains from time to time when they want a big bad who has a history with the Dark Knight.
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This is the biggest problem with the rogues gallery of Batman. They have often very little used as main villains and the rest as useless cameos with a single line or two if lucky.
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I do like a good Joker story, but I am a bit burned out on him at the moment. I think it’s tricky, because even when writers focus on other villains and use them well, there’s always kind of the element of “well, at least it’s not the Joker”. Like, no matter how bad things are now, they’re not as bad as it would be if the Joker was back. It’s kind of hard for other villains to not be overshadowed by him, is my point. I kind of would like to see other villains get the best of him, from time to time, but that probably wouldn’t happen.
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I agree. I think seeing the Joker being humiliated by other rogues well known or lesser known with him still being portrayed as a menace at times works well. For example, Joker’s Millions, were he was given fake money as a prank.
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I know there’s been tension and fighting between Joker and other Batman rogues before, but I have a feeling someone like Penguin, who is more of your typical gangster trying to make money, would really want someone as chaotic, destructive and unpredictable out of the way a long time ago.
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I though miss both Joker and Penguin teaming up.
Edit: I guess I prefer when they are against each other like in Arkham City, and I guess they weren’t actually working with each other but back then, but still.
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It is a little weird, for me at least, reading older Joker stories where he was depicted as more or less just a flamboyant, colorful criminal, rather than a totally psychotic, chaotic, sadist who just wants to watch the world burn.
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It seems like a bigger deal now that comics are written for trades. If the Joker doesn’t appear for a year, that means that the Joker is absent for two stories.
That said, I would’ve kept him “dead” for much longer after A Death in the Family, possibly not bringing him back into regular stories until after KnightsEnd and Zero Hour. (And it’s not like they had to go without any Joker stories in the early 90s: they could’ve just confined him to an arc or two in Legends of the Dark Knight).
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His longest vacation was from Justice League of America #77 (Oct 28, 1969) to Batman #251 (June 21, 1973).
Both were written by Denny O’Neil.
Amazingly, he only appeared in one comic in 1978 and none in 1980.
I’m absolutely shocked that it took 45 years for him to get an ongoing series again.
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