Emperor Joker is the first time the Clown Prince Of Crime has ever really gotten one-up on his arch enemy/beloved. The mostly-forgotten crossover event saw The Joker steal reality-altering powers from Superman villain Mister Mxyzptlk, which allows him to literally change the world as he sees fit. Which, it turns out, mainly involves subjugating every single superhero in the DCU. Technically a Superman crossover event, rather than a Batman one, Emperor Joker saw the bad guy rewriting reality so that the Man Of Steel was in Arkham Asylum for killing Lex Luthor, the Justice League was lead by his evil doppelgänger Bizarro, and Huntress, Nightwing, and Robin are dead too. Oh, and Aquaman has an actual fish head. The Joker's sense of humour and psychopathy are both on show in the fate he commits Batman to: torturing to death day in, day out, before resurrecting him the next morning and starting it all over again. In fact that's the way the story would have ended, were it not for The Joker himself realising the error of his ways despite all his attempts, Superman didn't save the day. It was Emperor Joker realising that his sense of self was so tied up in Batman, that if the Dark Knight were to die for good, he wouldn't have a reason to live either. So it kinda makes sense Endgame ended that way too FULL CIRCLE!
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
