Before his appearance in mainstream DC canon, Smallville explored the idea of a Batman who had gone mad and become the Joker, originating one of the most fascinating recent DC villains: The Batman Who Laughs. The iconic CW series, and it tie-in media, have a lasting legacy among DC fandom; its introduction of the Batman Who Laughs concept is one more reason to reflect on the importance of Smallville.
Smallville: Alien #11 – by Bryan Q. Miller, Edgar Salazar, Dym, Rob Lean, Carrie Strachan, and Saida Temofonte – was a follow-up comic to the CW Superman origin story, which aired for over a decade. After it ended, the story continued in comic book form; true to the show’s nature, plenty of unique takes on characters were explored.
This included a version of Bruce Wayne who took on the role of the Joker. While this character wasn’t used much, DC would revisit the idea ten years later in its main continuity.
“I Get It, It’s Just Not Funny”: Batman’s Favorite Joke Explains Why Joker Is So Obsessed with Him (Really)
The Joker has been trying to get a laugh out of Batman for years — and part of that might be because Batman told Joker his favorite joke years ago.
Smallville’s Twisted, Jokerized Batman Killed His Own Parents
In Smallville: Alien #11, when a monitor crashes on Earth, Superman leaves to investigate how this could’ve happened. Meanwhile, Batman investigates the mysterious death of a human, Clark Kent, who had appeared in Gotham City. His investigation eventually leads him to the killer, an alternate-universe Bruce Wayne. While readers are never really given a full background on this Bruce, he’s depicted as having taken up the ideals of the Joker, with dyed hair and skin, along with a permanent smile. The only thing readers know is that he was the Joker who attacked Barbara Gordon on his planet.
While this fusion of Batman and Joker wasn’t explored much, it did mark one of the first times this idea was seriously shown in comics. A decade later, DC would bring in the idea of The Batman Who Laughs, which was very similar. While Smallville’s twisted Batman backstory wasn’t explored, only mentioning that he killed his parents, the Batman Who Laughs backstory went far deeper. On his Earth, he killed the Joker and was infected by a Joker Toxin, which rewrote his brain, turning him into a brutal serial killer. He eventually killed the Justice League and everyone else on his planet.
Smallville Introduced An Idea DC Would Later Prove To Be Massively Popular
When the Batman Who Laughs was introduced, he was voted to be the most popular villain of the year. It is clear that fans like the idea of Batman and Joker being merged into one character. While Smallville: Alien #11 only used this character for one fight, the Batman Who Laughs eventually appeared to show just how well this idea could work. Though Smallville’s comic book continuation went on to focus more on Lex Luthor and the cosmic side of things, the series could have done a lot more with the the first Joker-twisted version of Batman.
