The Joker has proven to be surprisingly tough in the face of some of DC’s most powerful characters, holding his own against even the most ruthless villains. This is largely due to his mental state, with his plunge into a vat of chemicals leaving him clinically insane. The exploration of his psychology has been a core feature of some great stories, from Batman: White Knight to The Killing Joke — and one issue of The Spectre.

Few stories took the Joker’s strange psychology as literally as this issue from the 1990s, one that delved deep into the mind of the Killer Clown — and showed why he’s so hard to control. In The Spectre #51 by John Ostrander, Tom Mandrake, Carla Feeny, and Todd Klein, Batman pursues his arch-nemesis to New York after an encounter with the Spectre in Gotham.

In a commentary on city youth culture, the Joker is introduced at an underground nightclub based around the attendees’ idolization of him. Naturally, the villain takes this as an affront to his entire persona and attempts to gas the guests. At the same time, the Spectre and his host, Jim Corrigan, make for the club just as Batman arrives on the scene. The Spirit of Vengeance attempts to bring justice to the twisted Gotham villain.

How the Joker Is Immunized from the Spectre’s Wrath

Who Is the Spectre?

The Joker has been confronted by plenty of overpowered superheroes before, such as Superman and Wonder Woman. However, his uniquely amoral and chaotic mind serves as an ironic advantage to these beings. In the alleys of New York City, he showed readers that this is true with even DC’s most powerful being. In his effort to determine his moral guilt, the Spectre infiltrates the Joker’s mind. However, what he finds is the frenzied inner-workings of the villain’s mind, a perfectly on-brand house of mirrors with a psychedelic touch.

In the blink of an eye, the Joker switches places with Jim Corrigan, stealing the supernatural being’s powers — and turning them on Batman. As Corrigan searches in vain for his new host’s conscience, a now god-like Joker attacks Batman. While the undead cop does manage to trick the villain, reducing him to tears by sharing his conscience with him, he agrees with the Dark Knight: the Joker is simply too psychologically broken to judge with any true accuracy.

The Joker and Spectre Combination Is Truly Terrifying

But This Isn’t the Only Time the Joker Gained Powers

The Spectre’s powers aren’t the simple strength of Superman, nor the immortality of Wonder Woman. As the DCU’s answer to God’s Wrath, the Spectre possesses the ability to warp reality as he sees fit, to reanimate the dead, and to infiltrate the mind of anyone he chooses. Typically, he judges the sins of the wicked, and exacts vengeance befitting their deeds. In the hands of the Joker, Batman was lucky the villain didn’t possess the wherewithal to put test new skills to their fullest potential, or he could have finally defeated the hero.

The Joker’s theft of the Spectre’s abilities is one of his most impressive achievements, and it isn’t even the only time he’s gained god-like powers. In the “Emperor Joker” story arc (by Joe Kelly, Jeph Loeb, Duncan Rouleau, Jaime Mendoza, and Marlo Alquiza), the villain was accidentally gifted with Mr. Mxyzptlk’s Fifth Dimensional reality-warping abilities. When the Joker is in control of other-worldly powers, he consistently proves himself to be one of the biggest — and pettiest — menaces in the world. However, in the end, it’s always his own twisted and disjointed mind that proves to be the Joker’s undoing.

The Spectre #51 is available now from DC Comics.