Every Time The Joker Died In The Comics

In 1940, DC moved Batman from the pages of Detective Comics to his own standalone series. Batman #1 didn't just set the course for one of the most successful comic book heroes ever — it launched one of the medium's most notorious villains as well. 

The Joker might not have been created to be a permanent addition to the Batman universe, but it's impossible now to imagine a Gotham without its Ace of Knaves. He's the true dark counterpart to the Dark Knight, and he's been the cause of countless deaths throughout his decades-long comics lifespan. 

But what about the Joker's own deaths? While it might not seem as though the character could face the reaper, the truth is, he has — and more than a few times. The beautiful thing about comics is that most of the time, even death won't stop a popular character from returning at some point or another — and the Joker is one who just doesn't like to stay dead. Since the list of Joker deaths is a long one, we've gone ahead and sorted out his most memorable exits. 

For much of the 1940s, the Joker would die at the end of a confrontation with Batman and the Boy Wonder, only to be resurrected in a subsequent issue. It's almost laughable the number of times the character actually bit the dust, then immediately came back, like some Harlequin zombie hellbent on chaos and destruction. Some deaths were pretty anticlimactic. Others were nearly comical.

In 1941's "Wanted: Practical Jokers" story, the Joker puts out an ad in the daily newspaper in search of practical jokers. When he tricks a group of pranksters into putting their fingerprints on weapons he's used in prior crimes, the Joker blackmails them into committing dangerous pranks throughout Gotham. There's a run-in with a horde of Joker imitators, a jewel heist, and a fight on the roof of a train before Batman punches the Joker and he falls to his supposed death in the river below.

By the early 1970s, the Joker made something of a return to his original psychopathic murder spree self. In 1978, Detective Comics #475 and #476 ran "The Laughing Fish" storyline by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, and Terry Austin. In the first half of the story, the Joker attempts to trademark poisoned fish that bear a resemblance to his own face — so-called "Joker Fish" (they would also make an appearance on the '90s TV show Batman: The Animated Series). When the clerk refuses to do so, the Joker sets up an elaborate, multi-poison plan to kill him.

In the follow-up story "The Sign of the Joker," the Joker continues his quest to patent his famous fish, targeting another man and using the man's cat as a delivery system. Batman catches up with the Joker at a construction site, and after a lengthy battle in the rain, lightning strikes and sends an electrocuted Joker into the water below. His body isn't recovered, so it's assumed that he's died — but that, of course, is a lie.

Alan Moore's The Killing Joke is arguably one of the best Joker storylines ever written. It offers a backstory to the character that's often used in screen adaptations — an aspiring comic desperate to provide for his pregnant wife gets caught up with the local mob and agrees to help commit a burglary under the guise of Red Hood. When the robbery goes awry, the man set to become the Joker finds himself confronted by Batman and, in an effort to escape, falls into a chemical vat. He emerges as the character we've all grown to know and love, hellbent on destroying Batman's life.

Years pass, and the Joker sets his sights on Commissioner Gordon and his daughter, Barbara. When Batman finally catches up to him, he attempts to come to some sort of peace agreement, but the Joker refuses on account of it being "too late." 

There's a lot of subtlety in The Killing Joke, particularly when it comes to the story's violent tendencies. Acts are hinted at without ever fully being disclosed, and it's in this way that we see Batman take the Joker's life in the final panel — hands around his neck until the laughter dies, literally.

In 1998, Justice League of America: The Nail set out to answer the question of what the world would look like without Superman. Another Elseworlds storyline, The Nail begins with Jonathan and Martha Kent out for a drive when they suffer a flat tire. The accident prevents them from discovering Superman, which creates a future in which society kind of hates metahumans, and those with powers are considered outsiders. 

In Gotham, the Joker has gotten hold of a pair of energy-producing gauntlets made from alien technology, which he uses to set the inmates of Arkham free inside the asylum. Batman, Robin, and Batgirl face off against the Clown Prince of Crime, but the trio are easily captured. The Joker, being the complete psychopath that he is, uses the gauntlets to tear Robin and Batgirl into pieces in front of Batman. When Catwoman comes in to set the Dark Knight free, he attacks the Joker in a rage and snaps his neck on live TV.

The Joker would return in 2004's Another Nail, in which dimensional forces allow him to escape from Hell, but he's returned to the underworld with the help of Robin's and Batgirl's spirits. 

In 2001, The Joker's Last Laugh brought together a slew of DC characters, including a number of villains who become altered versions of themselves thanks to a weaponized gas put together by a terminally ill Joker. Apparently, the story was originally intended to have more lasting consequences for its characters than it did — creators Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty told Newsarama in 2017 that they were looking to make some real change in the DC universe. "We wanted a crossover with consequence rather than a reset to the same status quo that preceded the event," Beatty said. "Somebody had to die. And consequently, there would be mourning and ire and grand drama that would drive the Bat-titles for a year afterward."

Regardless of what ultimately unfolded in their story, The Joker's Last Laugh did give readers a legitimate Joker death — and at the hands of someone other than Batman, no less. After the Joker successfully "jokerizes" a number of DC villains, the idea that Robin has died at the hands of one of them sends Nightwing over the edge, and he beats the Joker to death... at least, temporarily.

Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, and Jonathan Glapion created one hell of a Joker for the New 52. This iteration had allowed another villain — the Dollmaker — to remove his face at the beginning of the run, and he spent the rest of his time wearing it loosely like a mask. In Death of the Family, everything between the Joker and Batman comes to a head, and it leaves Batman more alone than he's ever been.

When the Joker captures Batman's family members, he tortures each one individually, telling them secrets he's learned about their beloved patriarch. His hope is to take Batman's family away so the two of them will be left with only each other. At one point, he tells everyone in Batman's family that he's removed their faces too, which he serves to them during an elaborate dinner. After some back and forth about revealing secret identities, Batman convinces the Joker he knows his true identity, and it sends the Joker hurtling into a chasm deep within the Batcave. 

In 2018, DC launched its Black Label, a platform for artists to tell mature DC stories without having to worry about continuity. The first comic released through the imprint was Batman: Damned, a three-part supernatural story by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, which the pair has described as a sort-of sequel to their 2008 graphic novel Joker. 

Batman: Damned starts its story with Joker's death. We know he fell off the Gotham Bridge, and we think Batman may be responsible for it — in fact, Batman himself is afraid he may have been the cause of Joker's demise... he just can't remember it. In search of answers, he seeks out Constantine, who takes him on a journey into the supernatural underbelly of the DC universe. Batman does eventually get his answer, via a few choice encounters and some time travel. We won't spoil it for you here, but you can probably guess how the Joker fares.