Joker

OriginThe Joker is Batman's arch-nemesis and his origin is shrouded in mystery. His skin and joker smile are commonly attributed to accidentally falling into a chemical bath while he was under the persona of Red Hood.CreationOriginally created to be an evil court jester, the Joker was originally rejected as a villain for being too clownish. Jerry Robinson is the original creator of the Joker, he talks openly about this and did do the original concept sketch of the clown faced villain. His trademark Joker Card (Jerry Robinson also drew) has been featured in many Batman movies, comics and animations. The original drawing of the card has also been featured on display in many museums across America. Jerry was also the creative consultant for The Dark Knight movie which closely followed Jerry's stylings of the villain. Bob Kane unfortunately finagled many legalities early on about Batman and fellow characters which made him look like the sole creator. The creation has been argued but Bill Finger may also share credit (as reported by Bob Kane). He was modeled after Conrad Veidt after his performance as Gwynplaine in the Man Who Laughs. Originally, he was a mass murderer in his first dozen or so appearances. He was set to die in his second appearance, however, the editor (Mr. Whitney Ellsworth-who was the editor on many DC Flagship titles) at the time saw the potential of the character and opted for his survival. So one more hastily drawn panel was added to the very end of the page by Bob Kane that showed the Joker had survived. Were it not for Whitney The Joker would not be here today.Character EvolutionPick a CardFor his first appearance in Batman #1, the Joker was presented with no origin story, simply existing. Detective Comics #168 revealed that, before his transformation, the Joker was the criminal known as the Red Hood, later falling into a vat of chemicals, making him the Joker that everyone has known him to be.Much of the Bronze Age and Iron Age Joker's depictions...