10 Most Inappropriate Joker Storylines

Released three months after Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight hit the silver screen, Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo's 2008 graphic novel - titled simply Joker - very much pulled visual inspiration from Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime.

Without the shackles of standard continuity to play with, Azzarello and Bermejo unleashed likely the most twisted version of the Joker ever seen in the character's history.

This tale is narrated by Jonny Frost, a new henchman of the Jester of Genocide's. Much like so many, Jonny of course eventually becomes just another victim of the Joker's, but his doomed journey is one that at least gives readers a full glimpse into the depravity that Mr. J is capable of.

Dropping a healthy dollop of Leatherface into this iteration of the Joker, the rogue literally skins alive a poor fella called Monty, and he forces a bank manager to masturbate over a picture of his own daughter. For Jonny, the Harlequin of Hate r*pes his wife to make things 'even' for Frost having met with Joker's rival, Two-Face. That's not it for Frost, for he is mercifully put out of his misery as this '08 story concludes - infected by Joker's laughing gas, his face messed up after Joker shot him in in it, and then the newbie henchman falls from a bridge to his death.