10 Times The Joker Won

In the Death in the Family storyline - arguably one of the first indications of the Batman comic series dealing with darker topics for a more mature audience - the Joker somehow found Jason Todd's long lost mother and convinced her to set a trap for her own son.

When Jason arrived to find his mother alive and well, he tried his best to bond with her, and even wanted to help her with her archeological work.

Instead, Jason quickly found himself trapped inside a warehouse. It is here that he was struck from behind by the Joker, who beat him almost to death with a crowbar in probably the most violent and dark panels ever illustrated in a comic book at the time.

Jason and his mother were then tied up and left inside a warehouse with a ticking bomb. Batman knew of this trap, and raced towards his partner. He arrived just as the bomb exploded, killing both mother and son.

Admittedly Jason's death was actually brought about by fans who voted for him to die instead of surviving. Nonetheless, it is one of the biggest Joker victories in comic-book history, because he finally succeeded in killing someone truly close to Batman.