The Joker

"No, no, no! You were supposed to DIE when the clown exploded!"

- The Joker in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

The Joker is a Human supervillain known for his appearance in DC Universe in both comics and film. He is most famously known as the arch-nemesis of Batman, is also arguably DC's most well-known antagonist and is widely regarded as one of the greatest fictional characters ever created.

The Joker was one of the many DC characters chosen to appear in the crossover video game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. With the Joker's reputation for unmatched sadism and maniacal homicidal tendencies, his counterpart in the crossover game is the mercenary Kano.

The Joker is set to return to the Mortal Kombat franchise in Mortal Kombat 11 as a playable guest character, being the fifth character available in the Kombat Pack.

About The Joker
Because of his chronic and deeply seated insanity, there is no definitive story of how the man who would become the Joker came to be. There are, however, a few prevailing versions of what could be his origin story.

The most well-known of these is about a chemist with a pregnant wife, down on his luck and trying to make money as a stand-up comedian. Not able to make ends meet, he is recruited by a group of career criminals to assist in a heist at his former chemical plant using the traded off guise of the Red Hood. Right before the job was to be carried out, the man learns that his wife and unborn child were killed in a fire at their apartment. Feeling hopeless, the man agrees to the job and breaks into the chemical plant with the criminals as the Red Hood. Coming under fire, one of the criminals is killed by gunfire from a police officer, and one escapes, leaving the man in the Hood alone.

It's then that Gotham's recently-established nocturnal avenger, the vigilante known only as the Batman, descends upon him on one of the chemical plant's catwalks. Cowering from him, the man loses his footing and falls into a large vat of chemicals before Batman can save him. Washing ashore, the man feels burning in his face and eyes. Discarding the hood, the man looks at his reflection in a puddle of rain and sees his skin bleached white, his hair turned emerald green, and his mouth unnaturally stretched into a rictus grin. The man begins crying, then giggling, and suddenly bursts into laughter, driven irredeemably insane by one bad day and a horrible disfigurement. From then on, the Joker's brilliantly sadistic and reprehensible actions would plague Gotham City at-large for years to come, with his murderous, unpredictable formability causing him to become Batman's chief adversary in the vigilante's war on crime.

Biography

 * MK vs DCU: "An insanely homicidal super-villain, the Joker's white skin, green hair, and blood-red lips belie the chaotic nature underlying his cartoonish appearance. The self-styled "Clown Prince of Crime" has no superpowers, beyond a capacity for incredible violence and a skill at creating deadly mayhem. He frequently concocts elaborate schemes to entrap his arch-nemesis, Batman."


 * Mortal Kombat 11: TBA.

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe
The Joker first appears in Gotham City, ambushing Batman by throwing an exploding clown doll on the hood of the Batmobile. Batman easily survives the explosive, frustrating the Joker, who decides to fight Batman himself. He is easily defeated and quickly surrenders, getting cuffed by Batman.

However, when Liu Kang mysteriously appears, the Joker escapes as Batman investigates. Sometime later, the Clown Prince of Crime encounters Scorpion, who is searching for Kitana. When Scorpion walks away after becoming annoyed by the Joker's antics, the Joker strikes him with an extending boxing glove, prompting a fight with the enraged spectre. Scorpion easily defeats the Joker in combat but spares his life out of disgust.

Moments after his defeat, Lex Luthor appears and recruits the Joker onto his team of villains alongside Catwoman and Deathstroke. The Joker is present with them when they go to Metropolis and meet up with Captain Marvel and learn of Dark Kahn and his connection to Apokolips. Luthor dispatches the Joker and Deathstroke together to find the portal in the Mortal Kombat universe that would allow them to go to Apokolips.

During their mission, the Joker and Deathstroke encounter Sonya Blade and Kano in the Graveyard in the Mortal Kombat Universe, and Joker damages Sonya Blade's communicator with a spray of acid from a fake flower, the damage done to the device teleporting all of them to Oa. While Deathstroke battles Kano, the terrified Joker faces Sonya. Much to his own surprise as well as Deathstroke's, the Joker defeats Sonya, and becomes fueled by the Kombat Rage infecting their worlds.

Arrogant over his victory, the Joker shoves Deathstroke aside and challenges Kano himself, defeating him. Deathstroke is able to return himself and the Joker to the graveyard, but quickly realizes something is wrong with the Joker. The Joker then declares his intentions to allow the universes to be destroyed and his ultimate goal of killing Batman. Joker betrays Deathstroke and battles him, defeating him too. Believing himself unstoppable, he decides to finally confront Batman.

He lures his old arch-enemy into a trap by calling him out to Gotham and confronts him in the streets, defeating him as well. As he is celebrating, he is tazed by the Dark Knight and is easily dispatched. The Joker is next seen among the gathered heroes and villains at the Special Forces base as they prepare to take on Dark Kahn.

In the final battle between the DC universe heroes and the Mortal Kombat Kombatants, the Joker fights against Kano but is ultimately knocked out. Joker later witnesses the DC Universe's restoration.

Powers and abilities
Although the Joker is a human man with no particular enhancements, natural or otherwise, his lack of sanity and rationality have often been a fatal weapon for his victims: he is unencumbered by rational thought and is therefore extraordinarily creative, vindictive and sadistic. This has translated to his many schemes over the years, as well as in his hand-to-hand combat style. Although the Joker prefers to have henchmen do the "dirty work" for him, having a resourceful nemesis like Batman has forced him to be able to fight hand-to-hand in situations that force him to. Sometimes using weapons that play off his clownish appearance, he also makes use of stabbing weapons and firearms, and always attempts to use his methods of killing in ways that he finds ironic and humorous.

As a result of Dark Kahn's Rage, the Joker has become both stronger and faster than he would normally be otherwise, allowing him to hold his own against and defeat such skilled fighters as Sonya, Kano, Deathstroke, and Batman.

Special Moves

 * Joker's Wild: The Joker throws a playing card lined with steel at the opponent. (MKvsDCU)
 * Sinister Heels: The Joker grabs the opponent and kicks them repeatedly with the back of his foot. (MKvsDCU)
 * Put It There Pal!: The Joker counters an opponent's attack by grabbing their hand and shocking them with his electric joy buzzer. He then laughs giddily and dances in a circle. (MKvsDCU)
 * Bombs Away: The Joker throws a bomb with a smiley face on it that bounces up and down before exploding. He can throw the bomb at close and long range. (MKvsDCU)
 * Magic Trick: The Joker is enveloped in a cloud of green smoke. Any button which is pressed in this brief state will produce a different attack. (MKvsDCU)
 * Surprise Stomp: The Joker does a flying jump kick. (MKvsDCU)
 * Surprise Slide: The Joker does a sliding kick across the ground. (MKvsDCU)
 * Surprise Bomb: The Joker appears from the mist with a bomb in his hand. (MKvsDCU)
 * Surprise Pistol Whip: The Joker smacks the opponent with a pistol. (MKvsDCU)
 * The Funnyman: The Joker laughs as he dances in a circle causing his rage meter to fill. (MKvsDCU)
 * Punching Bag: The Joker pulls out an extend-o boxing glove and fires it, stretching over half the field. It is possible to strike the opponent twice with this technique, as pulling out the glove will cause damage to the opponent if they are close enough before the Joker extends the glove for the actual strike. (MKvsDCU)
 * Fatal Blow: The Joker will start winding up a jack-in-the-box. If the opponent gets caught, he brings out his knife and stabs the opponent's back. He then brings out another knife and use both to slash the opponent's mouth. He then hits his opponent from behind repeatedly with his cane, as blood splatters all over the screen. (MK11)

Other Moves

 * Free-fall Super Move: The Joker pulls out his extendo boxing glove and fires it, punching his opponent. (MKvsDCU)

Fatalities

 * The Killing Joke: The Joker takes out a gun and shoots it, but instead of a bullet, some confetti and a flag with the word "Bang" on it pop out of the barrel. He drops it and starts to laugh, before pulling out a real gun and shooting the opponent in the head, killing them. (MKvsDCU)
 * Card Trick: The Joker takes out four cards and throws three at the opponent's body. Then he throws the last one to the opponent's head, which knocks them to the floor, dead. (MKvsDCU)

Endings

 * MKvsDCU: "As the worlds separated, the Joker discovered he had retained his new powers. With them he soon controlled all of Gotham, proclaiming himself "Mayor Joker". Under his rule, the city devolved into chaos. He now holds a tournament in which "contestants" are forced to fight to the death for his amusement. The winner will face off against the Joker himself."
 * Mortal Kombat 11: TBA

General

 * The Joker's inclusion as a guest character in Mortal Kombat 11 makes him the only character from another franchise to appear in more than one Mortal Kombat game as a playable character, if Freddy Krueger's inclusion in the mobile version of Mortal Kombat is not counted.
 * The Joker’s appearances in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and Mortal Kombat 11 makes the Joker the only character to have been both a regular character and a guest character.
 * The Joker is the first comic book guest character featured in the series, the second being Spawn.
 * He is also the first comic book villain to be a playable guest character.
 * With the exception of MKvsDCU, he will also be the first DC character to appear as a guest character.
 * In a technical sense, the Joker is the fourth serial killer to be a playable guest character, after Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Leatherface.
 * Despite this, he is the only one of the four to not come from a horror or slasher film franchise.
 * The Joker is the fifth guest character to be alive (as opposed to undead), after Kratos, the Predator, Leatherface, and the Alien.
 * The Joker's real name and his origins have differed over the years, leaving many to wonder who he really is and what drove him towards insanity.
 * The Joker's depiction in cinema has varied over the many different portrayals, ranging from a comically insane villain, to a mob-boss inspired psychopath, to a mentally and physically scarred terrorist, to a failed comedian turned criminal.
 * Of all the portrayals, only three live action depictions have been given names, these being Jack Nicholson's portrayal from the Tim Burton Batman film being known as Jack Napier, Cameron Monaghan's portrayal being known as Jeremiah Valeska in the TV series Gotham and Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal being known as Arthur Fleck in Todd Phillips' film Joker.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

 * The Joker is one of the only two fighters in the MK vs. DC Universe game that laugh when under the influence of rage. The other is Catwoman.
 * Joker is also the only fighter to hit the opponent after they are defeated without a finisher. He does this by stomping on their groin.
 * His Fatality, The Killing Joke, is named after the one-shot comic showcasing a psychological battle between him and his archnemesis, Batman, whilst detailing pieces of his life before turning into the Joker.
 * It should be noted the chair in his ending resembled his chair in said comic.
 * The Joker is one of the two characters to have a special move that fills the Rage Meter and the only playable character to perform the move. The other is Dark Kahn, however his is the unplayable boss.
 * In NTSC regions, The Joker's first Fatality, The Killing Joke, was mildly censored to keep with the Teen rating. However, in PAL regions, the Fatality is shown in full, including the death of his opponent.
 * Joker's ending has him turning into the DC Universe's equivalent of Shang Tsung or Shao Kahn.
 * In the DC Storyline, The Joker references Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; after hearing the news of Dark Kahn, he looks up at the sky, and yells "Kahn!", similar to Captain Kirk.
 * This is later referenced by Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat 11 if the player chooses Shao Kahn with Cage as an announcer.
 * His ending is a nod to the "Emperor Joker" storyline where he stole Mister Mxyzptlk's power to create the world in his own image.

Mortal Kombat (2011)

 * Although the Joker does not appear in the game, Shang Tsung uses an edited and more gruesome version of the Joker's The Killing Joke Fatality, however the laugh that Shang Tsung makes as a clown is the same as The Joker's.

Injustice

 * The Joker is a playable character in both Injustice: Gods Among Us and its sequel Injustice 2 being voiced by Richard Epcar, who has voiced Raiden in MKvsDCU, MK 2011, Mortal Kombat X, and more recently Mortal Kombat 11.
 * Richard Epcar reprised his role as Raiden for his guest appearance in Injustice 2.
 * In Injustice 2, when clashing with Black Adam, the Joker will ask "Meet that other lightning guy?" to which Black Adam will respond "With the bamboo hat? Yes.". This is a reference to Raiden's inclusion in the game as a playable guest character and his foreshadowing as a DLC character and Richard Epcar himself.
 * Raiden and Sub-Zero frequently assume the DC villains to be agents of Shinnok during interactions, the Joker included.
 * Despite being killed in the first game, the Joker and his actions are key components to the series' main story, as he is the catalyst to Superman's villainous turn in the Injustice Universe.
 * This dark turn caused by the Joker towards Superman could have been used as inspiration for Raiden's darker turn in Mortal Kombat 11 as both he and Superman exhibit the same characteristics.

Mortal Kombat 11

 * The Joker is set to be the fifth DLC character in the game's Kombat Pack, with Richard Epcar reprising the role from MKvsDCU and the Injustice series.
 * During Cassie Cage's Social Media Intro, if she is fighting against Raiden, John Vogel will text Cassie saying "Why is Raiden so Serious?" to which she will respond with "Deep down he's (Joker Card Emoji)". This is both a reference to Raiden's voice actor, Richard Epcar, who voices the Joker in the Injustice series along with the Joker's inclusion as a guest character in MK11 and a reference to the 2008 Batman film The Dark Knight, to which the Joker, played by Heath Ledger, would occasionally say "Why so Serious?".
 * With the release of The Terminator, Cassie Cage is given an outfit resembling the Joker's sidekick and lover, Harley Quinn and Johnny Cage has an award costume shade that resembles Joker's attire as well.
 * One of the Joker's intros has him cutting his thumb with his own knife and then drawing a smile on his face with his own blood. This is a clear reference to the 2019 Joker film, where Arthur Fleck stands among a crowd of rioters in Gotham, dancing and then smearing the blood on his own face into a smile.