10 Best Joker Stories You've Never Read

Deep cuts from the Joker.

By Nathan Hastings /

The Joker has a truly rich history in comics, popping up countless times to ruin lives around the DC universe. Over the past 75 years, writers and artists have spun hundreds of stories around this troubling and intoxicating character. So why do people talk about only a handful of discussed-to-death storylines, just a single square€™s worth in the massive crazy quilt of Joker€™s existence? Comics like €œThe Killing Joke,€ €œMad Love,€ €œArkham Asylum,€ and €œThe Dark Knight Returns€ are all rewarding, but surely there€™s a bigger world out there for fans that want to soak up all things Clown Prince. Let€™s go beyond his iconic appearances from recent years, like the fork-tongued butcher served up in €œR.I.P.,€ the degenerate punk of €œJoker,€ or the jilted court jester of the New 52. Let€™s also bypass the foundation-laying classics€” his first appearance in 1940, his origin reveal in 1951€™s €œThe Man Behind the Red Hood,€ or the dark 1970s tales €œThe Joker€™s Five-Way Revenge€ and €œThe Laughing Fish.€ The following are amazing but overlooked gems, well worth the digging required to find them. By the nature of this list, I€™ve surely left out a lot of comics, so make sure to leave what I missed in the comments. Now join me, would you, and plunge into the bubbling green depths€