Batman: 80 Greatest Ever Moments

6. "Joker's Back In Town!" - Joker’s Five Way Revenge

Batman Joker Dennis O'Neil Neal Adams Five Way Revenge
DC Comics

Although many commentators mistakenly point towards works like The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke as being responsible for restoring Batman to his darker persona, Bat-fans know that this transformation occurred much earlier, during the Bronze Age of comics.

Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams made for a legendary duo, and though readers are right to venerate Green Lantern/Green Arrow as the pair's most influential work, there's no underestimating their contributions to Batman. Most of the pair's stories tended to revolve around Ra's al Ghul, but Joker's Five Way Revenge may just be their most important Bat-book.

If Adams' iconic cover didn't manage to convey that the Clown Prince of Crime was back to his old, sinister self, then the contents within surely did. Still haunting, even 40 years on from when it was first published.

[EP]

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