10 Comics You Loved As A Teen (But Should Never Return To)

6. Joker

Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo started their recurring creative partnership at DC with 2005's Luthor, a comic devoted to the Man of Steel's greatest adversary. The duo followed this up with Joker, an Elseworlds-style look into the inner-workings of the Clown Prince designed to launch alongside the premiere of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Bermejo's version of Joker even boasted the same appearance as Heath Ledger's clown, to the point where some mistook the comic as a movie tie-in.

And that's one of the first problems with Joker. Despite having nothing to do with Nolan's film, and having seemingly been green-lit only days after Luthor's publication, it's just impossible to look at without thinking of The Dark Knight. The book's title was even originally meant to be Joker: Dark Knight, which DC of course changed when they realised comparisons to Nolan's film were becoming increasingly inevitable.

Outside of The Dark Knight comparisons though, Joker's grimdark approach to the Clown Prince seems almost tedious in retrospect. Factor in the book's bizarre interpretation of Harley Quinn, and it seems almost as though it was intended to shock first, and offer a compelling look into the inner-most workings of the Batman villain second.