10 Most Disturbing Things The Joker Has Ever Done

10. Murdered By Popular Vote

The Joker has killed countless people in his time, but what makes this murder so egregious is that he turned comic readers into his accomplices. In the 1998 Batman storyline A Death in the Family, one issue ends with the Joker viciously torturing Jason "Robin" Todd with a crowbar, and leaving him for dead in a warehouse with a time bomb. What happened next ensured this story arc's place in comic book history.

On the last page of the issue, readers were encouraged to phone in to a special number, and vote on whether Robin should live or die. The Jason Todd version of the character had replaced the beloved Dick Grayson as Robin, and had proven unpopular with many readers. For this reason, his fate was put in the readers' hands, to see just how unpopular he really was.

As it turns out, he was indeed very, very unpopular! Although the votes were incredibly close, at about 51% to 49%, the decision had been reached that Jason Todd must die. This made Joker's graphic torture of him in the previous issue seem even more unpleasant, knowing that it was the last thing he would ever experience.

Oh, it's also worth noting that this storyline began with Joker selling nuclear weapons to terrorists because he was strapped for cash. Wow. This Joker guy sounds like a real jerk!