DC Comics Will Soon Reveal Joker's True Name

[Misterian]

No mention of Jack Napier? Come on people, Joker has had a name since 1989.

Yeah, I have to agree, Jack Napier's been used for the Joker in the Tim Burton Batman movie and the DC Animated Universe and I never heard anyone complain about it.

Also, this is the first I've heard of this "Rebirth" thing DC's doing though, and if they're bringing back some of the Pre-Flashpoint stuff they removed for their New 52 story-line, I consider it good news already. And with any luck, it means DC Comics is finally over their "We need to try too hard to be mature and grimdark in order to sell" phase.

Heck, I might be sold on Rebirth if they just bring back the Blue Lantern Corps and Martian Manhunter's love of Oreos.

 

[hudsonzero]

bet its joe carr

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Isn't the red hood Robin, therefore this former red hood Joker is Robin? (I'll admit my DC knowledge isn't all that up to scratch)

You're mixing a couple things up: The Joker was the Red Hood first. When Jason (the second Robin, who died and then came back and went nuts) died and then came back and went nuts, he adopted the title, both to remind Batman of his failures, and to match Batman by dressing as something that he (Jason) found frightening: Bruce chose bats, Jason chose the Joker.

 

[Darth_Payn]

I can see it in character for Batman to find out the Joker's true identity, because he is the World's Greatest Detective, and mysteries exist to be solved. You can only keep stringing something like that along for so long until you run out of ideas and just reveal it, and if it works, hey! you got more story ideas! Just look at Wolverine.
Still, this announcement isn't as bad as how Marvel reveals its big "surprises", especially who's gonna bite it in the Big Crossover Events That Change Everything Forever they crank out every month.

 

[EHKOS]

Yeah sure why not. Go ahead and demystify the fuck out of one of your best villains DC. Go all out.

Yeah, I'm not accepting it. He'll always be nameless because that's a piece of him. I'm not considering it cannon.

 

[Saltyk]

If memory serves, in the story-line where Batman threatens to tell Joker his real name, he later goes back to the Batcave and the computer shows that it has no answer for his identity. In other words, Batman was bluffing. I could be wrong, I watched the Comicstorian episode on it.

Otherwise, I don't think this is a good idea. Joker is nameless. That's the thing about him. He's the one villain Batman can't identify. The one villain who has no backstory beyond, he was once Red Hood. Even Joker may not know who he was. Everything he has ever said about his past contradicts itself and that is the point.

Fully expect it to be reconned, regardless. In the next DC reboot, if not sooner.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Reveal? Or make up?

Reveal makes it sound like all the different writers who have written stories with him in over the years have all actually known his name and background and that they are now going to tell us who it is...

 

[Jute88]

Spoiler

They did cure him in the aftermath of Endgame, he and Bruce both had their respective traumas healed and became regular people

I'm guessing Thomas Wayne Senior or his Uncle Philip Kane.
because they toyed with the idea in Flashpoint of one of the Bruces family being the Joker and DC loves to reboot ideas Philip was a member of the Red Hood gang and died protecting Bruce.

But terrible idea all round, the idea of just one bad day creating the Joker from a nobody is the most terrifying aspect of the character, that he could be anyone.

Okay, sounds kinda interesting. Was the story good? In the spoiler section I mean.

Making Joker a family member would require A LOT of changes and tweaks in the story, setting and tone. And for what? What would a blood relation mean in the story? That he and Batman are the same? That's already been told (constantly) and it didn't even require any any shared ancestry.

I agree, Joker was better suited as a symbol of chaos and insanity. Making him more complex and human weakens that aspect.

 

[Kameburger]

Please don't DC... Just... it's really not important who the jokers real name is... There is no story in which that is an enhancement...

 

[Brian Tams]

Ronald McDonald.

Seriously, DC, don't do dumb stuff. Its bad enough your movies always turn out shit.

 

[Bedinsis]

I can see it in character for Batman to find out the Joker's true identity, because he is the World's Greatest Detective, and mysteries exist to be solved. You can only keep stringing something like that along for so long until you run out of ideas and just reveal it, and if it works, hey! you got more story ideas! Just look at Wolverine.

I agree with the first part; I'm not privy to enough comics lore to comment on the part about Wolverine.

Here's my entirely unfounded(seriously, I've never picked up a Batman comic) theory of what will happen:

For some reason Batman has to find out the Joker's identity. He investigates and eventually he comes upon the identity; it turns out that this info changes their relationship. (To have something to work of off, I assume it is Bruce Wayne's dad). They publish a couple of issues where this new found knowledge affects how Batman and the Joker interacts, and how Batman must view the Joker given their now known shared history. After they've ran this idea into the ground(or decided that the idea was good enough to keep, though I doubt it) it is revealed that the Joker obviously has tampered with whatever source Batman used to find out his true identity, all just to mess with him.

 

[Leg End]

Yes, please DC, you've defiled everything else. Please just uncreatively rape one of the last good things you have left.

Considering how politicised comics have become recently (although it does seem to be happening more in Marvel than DC) I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be Donald Trump, and then he goes into a censored rant about unsolicited opinions on Mexican wall building.

You need to win an award of some kind for that.

 

[william1657]

Skip giving us a name and just give him a few new origin stories instead.

I liked all of the possible Joker origins so far.

 

[FURY_007]

Ugh. Have they not learned from Boba Fett? 50% of why he was so cool is cause he was so mysterious. Some of the stuff in the EU was pretty good that told his bounty hunting tales, but when they started exploring his childhood and expanding on Mandolorians, they lost a ton of allure.

This is such a bad idea.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Do it by internet vote. I vote for jokey-mcjoke-face

IF you do it by internet vote, he'll be one of the following:

Justin Bieber
Terry Crews
Zoe Quinn
Miley Cyrus
Barack Obama
Donald Trump
Rick Astley

You have missed the most obvious meme. Shame on you!

Spoiler: And his name is...

 

[ArcaneGamer]

It will probably be something really stupid like Bruce Waynes long lost brother/sister/cousin/nephew/dog or whatever. Or something even stupider. I know! They'll reveal the Joker to be biblical figure and traitor to the messiah, Judas Iscariot, who went completely mental somewhere during his ca. 2000 years of guilt-ridden immortality.

Which given how End Game went, I sadly wouldn't be that surprised.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

bet its joe carr

I was thinking Joseph Kerr.

 

[conmag9]

I find it funny that Joker's already pointed out the fact that this sort of thing is a bad idea. I think it was in the Brave and the Bold...

Harley: "Ain't you gonna take his mask off and see who he is?"

Joker: "And reduce my primal enemy to a mere man? Harley, my dear, I'm so disappointed in you. Where's the fun in that?

He then breaks into a song and dance number utilizing the nigh-omnipotent powers he's recently got his hands on. I loved that show...

 

[Silvanus]

Skip giving us a name and just give him a few new origin stories instead.

I liked all of the possible Joker origins so far.

Well, they already gave him a whole slew of new apocryphal origin stories very recently in the Endgame arc.

 

[Rastrelly]

Joker was Batman all along.