No one in the DC Universe tests Batman’s “no-kill” rule like The Joker. Time and time again, The Joker commits the most blatant, heinous crimes just to see how far he can push Batman’s buttons. No matter what he does, Batman refuses to kill any of his enemies, not even The Joker. By proxy, The Joker may never kill Batman just because he finds it so fun to push his buttons. In The Joker’s mind, he and Batman were always destined to do this forever. However, “forever” comes to an abrupt end following Bruce Wayne’s presumed death in Final Crisis.
Dick Grayson took over as Batman, so the mantle was in good hands, but The Joker was left without purpose. Batman still existed, but it wasn’t Joker’s Batman. He was so lost without his hero that he ended up becoming one by adopting the mantle of The Gravedigger, having an unlikely alliance with the new Batman & Robin to stop The Black Glove.
As for the original Gravedigger, Oberon Sexton, it is revealed in Batman and Robin #13 by Grant Morrison and Frazer Irving that The Joker discovered the crime novelist/detective murdered his wife. Rather than kill him, The Joker buried him alive in her coffin. Similarly, later, The Joker takes out his one and only super villain arch nemesis Dr. Hurt (mastermind behind The Black Glove), by burying him alive after giving him brain damage. Ironically, as a hero, The Joker abides by Batman’s code which he challenged for so many years, albeit on a technicality.
Is The Joker Even Eviler For Not Killing His Villains?
Believe it or not, The Joker never kills anyone as a hero, at least not outright and certainly not to the deliberate murderous extent he’s infamous for. Yes, those opposing him as The Gravedigger certainly wouldn’t have died if The Joker didn’t put them in a coffin six feet underground, but they never actually die by The Joker’s hand. He puts them in a coffin, and they die a slow, painful death from lack of air, a process that may take several hours.
That’s what makes The Joker’s so-called heroic method so disturbing. To not kill is considered a noble act in the superhero community, especially by Batman’s standards. However, when the supposed hero in question is The Joker and the alternative to killing is being buried in a box until the victim slowly dies of suffocation, killing sounds like an act of mercy. Considering that so much of their conflicts had to do with the Clown Prince’s acts of murder, choosing not to kill in favor of this almost feels like a prank against Batman, if not The Joker’s poor attempt at emulating his favorite hero’s code.
