8 Comic Book Characters Who Broke The Joker

How do you break the craziest crook in Gotham?

Joker Crying
DC Comics/Lee Bermejo

Batman's rogues gallery is home to all sorts of supervillains who many would probably classify as being among the criminally insane. They're dropped off at Arkham Asylum once they take their licks from the Dark Knight - which is a medical facility first and a super prison second - and most clearly aren't healthy.

The unhealthiest of all is clearly the Joker, a man who revels in violence, unpredictability and cruelty to seemingly no end. He's unbreakable, an amoral figure with an unconscionable attitude who can never, ever break character. He trolls Batman for a living, and no matter how much of a beating he ends up taking, you can be sure he'll still be smiling that same old smile by the time he's thrown back in his cell.

But that's not always the case. Although the Joker has developed a reputation for being invincible in the sense that he's impossible to break, a few characters have actually achieved that feat.

Whether by proving him wrong, finding an insult that lands or simply through scaring him half to death, the Clown Prince has been reduced to tears, rage or even quiet resignation by even the most unassuming of his adversaries. It's rare, but it does happen - and as soon as it does, you know something isn't right.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.