Ranking Every Joker Origin Worst To Best

2. Mask Of The Phantasm

Joker Mask of the Phantasm
Warner Bros.

Batman: The Animated Series is the definitive version of Batman past or present. It masterfully combined Burton's art-deco Gotham with the comics of yore to impart a truly compelling version of the Dark Knight's world - one that still manages to win affections today.

Sadly, the genius of BTAS didn't always go noticed. When Warner Bros. Animation released Mask of the Phantasm in cinemas in 1992, it bombed at the box-office. This, despite it also being up there with the greatest comic book movies ever made. (Return of the Joker slightly edges it in my books, but that's by the by.)

Anyway, MOTP - like Batman '89 - follows the same model of having the Joker start out in Gotham as a gangster. When a new vigilante known as the Phantasm rides into town, murdering Gotham's mob one by one, the Clown Prince himself becomes a target. During his investigation, Batman discovers that the Joker was a chauffeur for the Valestra crime family, and had in fact murdered the father of Andrea Beaumont, now revealed to be the eponymous Phantasm.

Mask of the Phantasm is the perfect Batman story, and while fans tend to prefer less concrete Joker origins, this one fits the context of BTAS perfectly.

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Content Producer/Presenter

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.