The Return of the Joker

hideThis article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (July 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

"The Return of the Joker"
Cover of Batman #451, the conclusion to "Return of the Joker" art by Norm Breyfogle.
Publisher	DC Comics
Publication date	July – July 1990
Genre	Superhero
Title(s)	Batman #450-#451
Main character(s)	Batman Joker
Creative team
Writer(s)	Marv Wolfman
Artist(s)	Norm Breyfogle
Penciller(s)	Jim Aparo
Inker(s)	Mike DeCarlo
Letterer(s)
Colorist(s)	Adrienne Roy
Editor(s)	Dennis O'Neil

"The Return of the Joker" is a storyline in Batman Comics which features a villain posing as Batman's archfoe, the Joker, who is believed to be dead.

Plot[]

A judge is found hanged, and Commissioner Gordon believes that the Joker is the culprit. Bruce Wayne decides to send his ward, Tim Drake, to school in Tokyo to protect him from the Joker, wanting to spare him Jason Todd's fate. The Joker then attacks an investment party, stealing cash and jewels from the audience. Gordon feels that something is not right about the way the Joker operates, and concludes that this Joker is an impostor. Meanwhile, in his hideout, the real Joker fumes at his name being wrongly used. As he is still recovering from the near-death experience he suffered in the "Death in the Family" storyline, he decides to regain his confidence by committing a series of crimes as his old alter-ego, the Red Hood.

After regaining his self-confidence, the Joker goes after the impostor, with Batman in pursuit. Both Jokers meet in a violent confrontation with the real Joker gaining the upper hand. The confrontation is stopped by both Batman and the police, and both Jokers escape. The impostor lures his three pursuers to the chemical plant where the Joker was born. In order to become like his idol, the impostor jumps into the vat of toxic waste which disfigured the Joker — only to die instantly. Batman arrests the real Joker, who willingly gives up.^{[citation needed]}

Continuity[]

"The Return of the Joker" is the continuing story-arc after "A Lonely Place of Dying" and "A Death in the Family". The Joker's origins were depicted before in the one-shot graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke.

References[]

This DC Comics–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

• v
• t