10 Things DC Comics Want You To Forget About The Joker‏

1. The Romance Between Him And Batman

Just why is The Joker so obsessed with the Dark Knight? The most common explanation is more philosophical than anything, the suggestion that the clown criminal is drawn to Batman because he is his opposite and equal. They are different sides of the same coin, Batman being a borderline sociopath who is fuelled by his tragic past to wage a one-man war on crime. The Joker, on the other hand, is a diagnosed psychopath who revels in chaos and disorder due to his own tragic past or - perhaps more chillingly - for no reason at all.

There is an alternate reasoning, however, that is touched upon far less frequently: The Joker is in love with Batman, in his own twisted way. Not necessarily a romantic love, or even a sexual one, but surely an obsessional one, not unlike a stalker. In the Dark Knight Returns it is the revival of Batman that snaps The Joker out of his catatonic state, initiating a plan which is followed by a scene of him applying his make up, as if he's about to go out on a date.

In Arkham Asylum, too, the character is openly seductive when talking to his supposed foe. Still, Dark Knight creator Frank Miller believes The Joker to be mostly asexual, and current Batman writer Scott Snyder's spin is that the villain is infatuated with the Caped Crusader, but not in a traditionally romantic way.

Whatever way you look at it, though, the two characters' encounters over the years have all the hallmarks of a will they, won't they relationship, which is sadly doomed to never be consummated outside of the deepest depths of fan fiction.