The Joker is one of the most dangerous villains in the DC Universe. Though Batman is one of the greatest heroes, he is repeatedly vexed by the Clown Prince of Crime. While it’s hard to imagine how the Joker has kept the Dark Knight on his toes, it becomes apparent when one takes a look at his sinister array of weapons.
Batman’s utility belt may contain useful gadgets and toys, but the Joker has more than a few tricks up his sleeve. Read on to see ten of the deadliest weapons the Harlequin of Hate has used.
10 Razor-Sharp Playing Cards
The Joker is nothing if not a showman, and he really loves embracing his namesake with one particularly sinister weapon. When he needs to do some long-range damage, the Joker uses playing cards with absurdly sharp corners. Not only are they effective, but Joker can easily hide them, making these cards the perfect secret weapon. The villain has also used the playing cards as an stealthy way of delivering toxins, as seen in Batman #1 when he kills a man with a deck of cards after lining the edges with poison.
9 Joker’s Coattails
The Joker isn’t afraid to think outside the box when it comes to his weapons, and The Joker #3 features one of his most unconventional attacks. While being pursued by the Creeper, Joker finds himself matched by the wacky hero. After being knocked to the ground, the Joker reveals a surprising weapon hidden in his jacket. With a pull of a secret drawstring, Joker clobbers the Creeper with lead weights placed in his coattails. The attack gives Joker enough time to throw the Creeper off his game and choke the hero out. Lead-lined coattails are definitely strange, but it’s hard to argue against their effectiveness.
8 Electrified Joy Buzzer
A joy buzzer is one of the oldest gags in the book. So, of course, the Joker has one that could easily electrocute a person unfortunate enough to shake his hand. The Joker’s electrified joy buzzer has been seen several times since it first appeared in Batman #73. The scary thing about Joker’s device is that its voltage varies. Sometimes the shock is low enough to make someone pass out; other times, it will completely fry a person. But the most dangerous version of the buzzer was seen in The Killing Joke, which saw him swap out the electricity for a dose of Joker’s toxin.
7 Jokerangs
The Joker may love his playing cards, but he’s also a fan of taking a page out of Batman’s book and using his own ‘Jokerangs’. The Joker has tinkered over the years to create his own spin on Batman’s iconic Batarangs. In Batman #100, the Joker shows off his own version of the weapon by adding high-powered explosives onto existing Batarangs. But the Clown Prince of Crime has also used throwing weapons of his design. In Batman #129, the villain had a utility belt and tried killing the Dark Knight with several smile-shaped Jokerangs.
6 Laughing Fish
Yes, the Joker is so devious he’s event willing to put innocent fish at risk. The Laughing Fish are a result of Joker contaminating local waters with Joker Venom in order to claim a copyright on the modified creatures (Seriously). However, while the villain failed to trademark his grinning fish, they became a menace when a few got loose in the wild. Batman: Urban Legends #17 revealed that the fish effected by the Venom caused anything that ate them to become infected. Joker has done some dangerous things in the past, but his fishy experiment nearly screwed up the entire food chain.
5 Acid-Squirting Flower
The water-squirting flower gag is another classic prank that the Joker gave his own ghoulish spin on. Rather than water, the Harlequin of Hate uses the trick flower on his lapel to squirt out a stream of acid that can burn through anything it touches. The villain has also used it to deliver laughing gas or concentrated Joker Venom in the past. It’s an insidious close-range weapon that makes fighting the Joker head-on a dangerous scenario.
4 Jokermobile
To keep up with the Dark Knight, the Joker created a series of Jokermobiles inspired by Batman’s iconic car. Much like Batman’s old-school vehicle, the Jokermobile has a large Joker face built onto the front of the car. But as unsettling as its appearance is, the true terror lies in the vehicle’s many weapons. Outfitted with machine guns and giant boxing gloves, the Jokermobile had a trick to counter anything Batman’s Batmobile threw at it. While the car is mostly retired now, the Jokermobile really speaks to the Joker’s knack for weapon design.
3 Joker’s Gag Gun
The Joker isn’t afraid of brandishing a gun, and one of his favorite weapons proves it. The villain often wields a gun that displays a message of “BANG!” or, in the case of The Killing Joke, “Click, click, click”. It’s a classic joke, but the insidious part is that the message on the flag is a hidden weapon. Just as the Joker’s intended victim lets their guard down, he fires the flag like a speargun, usually killing his victim. The gag gun is a good reminder that the Joker wants nothing more than to tickle his demented funny bone.
2 Crowbar
The infamous crowbar isn’t a gag or a prop, but there isn’t a Batman fan alive who doesn’t know what the Joker did with that hunk of metal. “Death in the Family” saw the Clown Prince of Crime mercilessly beat the second Robin, Jason Todd, within an inch of his life before locking him in an exploding building. Despite being a simple crowbar, the Joker had an affinity for the tool, keeping it as a perverse keepsake for years after killing Todd. It’s not a stylized weapon like most of Joker’s other armaments, but the crowbar stands out from nearly every other weapon he’s ever used.
1 Joker Venom
The biggest blight the Joker has ever unleashed on the world is his patented Joker Venom. The toxin has been described as deadly as the bubonic plague and has killed hundreds if not thousands of people. Joker Venom is so powerful that the villain managed to modify it so that it could infect the members of the Justice League. The poison is highly unpredictable, too. Those subjected to it either die laughing with a huge grin on their face, or find themselves driven to a cackling madness. The poison the Joker concocted will always be the most terrifying weapon he’s ever created.
The Joker is one of the scariest villains in the DC Universe, and these ten weapons helped him earn that position.
