I love The Joker

The Joker is one of, if not the greatest villain in the history of comics. I don’t think any comic fan could dispute that. I could discuss how great Batman: The Killing Joke is, or why Mark Hamill’s portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime in Batman: The Animated Series is the best on the large or small screen, but those aren’t the reasons I’m writing about The Joker today.

Infinite Crisis #7 is. (SPOILERS AHOY!)

After a final showdown with Batman, Alexander Luthor somehow manages to evade death and even evade capture. He’s going to get away with everything, and come back down the road to try it all again. Or so he would have if he wouldn’t have made one major mistake. As Lex Luthor tells the son of his Earth-3 counterpart, “You made a lot of mistakes. You underestimated Superman. Superboy. Me. But the biggest one? You didn’t let The Joker play.” With an acid-spraying flower, an electro-joy-buzzer, and a big friggin’ gun, The Joker puts an end to the greatest threat the DC Universe has ever known. And while he only appeared in a handful of panels in the entire Infinite Crisis, he manages to steal the show at the end.

That’s why I love the Joker.