A Brief History Of The Joker

1. "Look Out, Gotham! Joker's Back In Town!"

Though the Joker's history might be ever changing, one thing that definitely won't be are the character's most iconic storylines - the reads that shaped him, made him, and changed him.

Chief among these stories is Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' Five Way Revenge, a comic that divested from the character's Silver Age tendencies and returned him to his original ghoulish demeanour. The Joker of this story is homicidal, bombastic and horrifying, with Adams' design in particular having shaped the character's look in a way no other artist has since been able to achieve.

O'Neil and Adams wrote the book on modern Batman in a way no one else did, but it's their reappraisal of the Joker that will perhaps go down as their most enduring contribution. It's an interpretation that has informed countless other comics, but it's not the villain's only must-read book. Grant Morrison's run is worth reading in its entirety for what it does with the character, as is his one-off special Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth; then there's Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers' famous Laughing Fish story - adapted for the small-screen in Batman: The Animated Series - along with the aforementioned Mad Love and Killing Joke, all seminal in their own right.

That being said, it's also important to remember that some of the greatest Joker stories ever told weren't actually comic books. BTAS has countless classic tales of the clown in Joker's Favor, Return of the Joker and Mask of the Phantasm, and of course, both Tim Burton's Batman 1989 and Christopher Nolan's second Bat-film, The Dark Knight, are all veritable classics of the genre.

All have helped shape the Joker in their own, and while he might be overused on occasion, there's no denying the clown's preeminence. He's horrifying, humorous and hated in equal measure - no villain could possibly compare.

What do you like most about the Joker? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!