Joker Origin Movie: 7 Comic Storylines DC Could Adapt

5. The Laughing Fish

Batman The Sign of the Joker
DC Comics

The Laughing Fish is a storyline fans of Batman: The Animated Series have come to cherish, but it was an actual comic long before it became a cartoon.

Written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Marshall Rogers, The Laughing Fish revolves entirely around the Joker's efforts to trademark the aquatic life surrounding Gotham City. By adorning the fish with his menacing image, he attempts to trademark the stock and make a killing in the market. Gotham being Gotham, however, doesn't take too kindly to the Clown's machinations, denying him the opportunity to copyright the fish as they're a natural resource.

What follows is a story that embodies all there is to love - and fear - about the Joker, with the goofy premise being offset entirely by the lengths the Clown goes to in order to see his fish make it to market. Characters die in horrendous fashion, left with the iconic and unnerving Joker grin as they pass on, and Batman is forced to contend with his nemesis at his most unpredictable.

This new Joker film is said to be an origin story, and though this particular arc revolves around the villain in his prime, there's nothing to stop Phillips from making a non-linear tale that switches back and forth between this story and the aforementioned origin from Moore and Bolland's comic.

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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.