10 Insanely Dark Joker Moments That'll Never Make It To Film

5. Poisoning A Group Of Kids Then Breaking His Own Neck - The Dark Knight Returns

Frank Miller€™s The Dark Knight Returns is largely seen as the best Batman story of all time. Much like the Caped Crusader returns to action after years of being dormant, his re-emergence also brings about the reawakening of the Clown Prince of Crime. Whilst the first half of The Dark Knight Returns shows The Joker as a near-comatose mute, the second half of Miller€™s iconic tale amps up the action and delivers some of Mr. J€™s most heinous actions. As The Joker heads towards his final confrontation with his long-time foe, he first poisons a group of kids with tainted cotton candy. Killing a group of innocents is bad enough, but when that group of innocents is made up of children€ that€™s a whole different ball game. So horrific is this moment of The Joker€™s long history, even the animated adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns didn€™t directly show the deed despite being an adult-orientated feature. When the final battle does eventually come, The Joker ends up dead. But even then he has the last laugh, using his last few breaths to snap his own neck and make it look like Batman had succumbed and killed him.
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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.