The greatest comic book villain ever, and as versatile a character as his nemesis, the Batman. The Joker has been a merry prankster of crime (poisoning all the fish in Gotham Bay so they sport his literally trademarked grin, then suing fishmongers for copyright infringement) and a gleefully sadistic bastard (responsible for permanently crippling Batgirl and temporarily killing at least one Robin), and always done his best to get under the ultra-grim Batman�s skin by taunting him with sick jokes. There�s a sense that Joker is the only one of the rogues� gallery Bruce Wayne really hates �many comics (eg: Frank Miller Jr�s The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Moore and Brian Bolland�s The Killing Joke, Grant Morrison and Dave McKean�s Arkham Asylum, Michael Green and Denys Cowan�s Lovers & Madmen) revolve around Batman and the Joker as opposites or mirror images. The original look of the character was based on Conrad Veidt�s fixed grin in the silent picture The Man Who Laughs.

FIRST APPEARED IN BATMAN # 1 (1940)
CREATED BY BILL FINGER AND JERRY ROBINSON