Spoilers for The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #10!In 2020’s Batman: Three Jokers, it was revealed the Joker had a pair of doppelgängers running around the DC Universe who, for years, had helped him execute his villainous agenda against the citizens of Gotham City. And now, in comics, Joker has called out this divisive and controversial storyline in a way that doesn’t exactly paint its ideas in the most flattering light.
Pulling the curtain back on three distinct Jokers called “The Criminal,” “The Clown,” and “The Comedian” to explain the Clown Prince of Crime’s ever-evolving evil tendencies, Batman: Three Jokers, by Geoff Johns, Jason Fabok, and Brad Anderson, was a three-issue arc that dived head-first into a story met with critical acclaim yet a mixed fan response.
Killing off two of these characters in brutal fashion, The Comedian is eventually left as the lone Joker in DC Comics, making this an intriguing if ultimately unsatisfying tale, with the Joker now telling fans point-blank that the idea of having more than one of him — a la Three Jokers — is “just dumb.”
Joker Doesn’t Care For Multiple Versions of Himself
A moment taken from The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #10’s second story titled “Dying Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard!” by Matthew Rosenberg and Francesco Frankavilla, this short sees Joker turning one of his henchmen into a new version of himself when the minion in question doesn’t die after being exposed to Joker’s lethal laughing gas. Soon hitting the streets of Gotham in tandem yet presented as one and the same, Joker eventually kills Joker #2 after he steps too far out of line. Trying to argue “…how scared everyone will be when they realize there are two of us” before the real Joker guns him down, Joker responds with a blunt, “The world is scared of me already. Two of me is just dumb.”
Not specifically calling out Three Jokers by name but rather drawing criticism towards the entire idea it hangs its narrative on, Joker being perturbed that someone else is making themselves out to be his equal makes far more sense than him sharing murderous duties with another version of himself, let alone two. Furthermore, both Three Jokers and “Dying Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard!” show that the only good reason for having more than one Joker in continuity is to help make the original’s plans a little easier to execute by sharing the weight of being a sadistic psychopath with others, that, and having more chances to ruin Batman’s day.
The Idea of Three Jokers‘ Storyline Is Called Out By Joker
And although Three Jokers’ narrative began back in 2015’s Justice League: Darkseid War after Batman asked Joker’s true name while sitting on the Mobius Chair, it all turned out to be a bit anticlimactic and head-scratching in the end, with “Dying Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard!” proving there only ever needs to be a single Clown Prince of Crime at a time. Joker is right to call out Three Jokers, so fans should keep up with the main The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing story to see how its similar multiple-crazed clown plot line will pan out.
The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #10 is now available from DC Comics.
