8 Comic Book Characters Who Broke The Joker

7. Terry McGinnis - Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker may just be the best Batman film ever made - or at least in consideration for that award alongside Mask of the Phantasm and The Dark Knight. It was dark, gripping, and - as was the case with all the DCAU shows - wonderfully atmospheric.

Ultimately, though, it was just a fine continuation of the Batman Beyond animated series, which had taken the Dark Knight from the now familiar setting of an art-deco Gotham City, into a cyberpunk infused Neo-Gotham. It was a major breath of fresh air, and while Batman Beyond excelled at introducing new villains for the teen Batman Terry McGinnis to take on, the spectre of Bruce Wayne's old enemies lingered - none more so than the Clown Prince of Crime.

The Joker was never mentioned in the series, but that only added to the mystery of what had happened to the character. As the film reveals, Joker's last battle with Batman resulted in his own death, as a tortured and Joker-fied Robin turned a gun on his captor. But the clown leaves behind a parting gift - a microchip, that leaves behind his own personality on Tim Drake, the Robin who he'd tortured.

And thus Joker returns to the future, and while Bruce is aware of the threat posed, Terry is more complacent. He sees him as a bit of a joke, and while this works against the neo-Batman to begin with, McGinnis finds success in his final duel against Joker by mocking him. As he says, the "real" Batman never really talked to him, and with that in mind, McGinnis makes Joker lose his mask by insulting his talents as a comedian, completing the insult by laughing at him.

Will Friedle and Mark Hamill are tremendous in this sequence as Batman and Joker respectively, and the latter really sells how gotten to he is by the new Caped Crusader's insults.