Suicide Squad: 10 Past Jokers Way Worse Than Jared Leto's

10. Batman Issue #66 Joker

As a character, The Joker has come full-circle. In 1940, he began as the cunning, cold and murderous criminal we have come to love. Not long after his debut, however, the writers of Batman (feeling pressure from the newly formed "Comics Code Authority") took the edge off of the Joker and made him more of a slapstick, silly villain. This was never more evident than in the 1951 Batman issue #66. Not only was this a Joker whose evil was toned down for easier public consumption, but he unwittingly became a victim of the slang of his time. In 1951, a "boner" was simply a mistake, or error. How could writer Bill Finger have known then that this issue would become the clown prince of double entendre? It was this watered down Joker who became the blueprint for every hammy, campy variety of the Joker that was yet to come. One could argue that if the Clown Prince had continued on his original course, some other, more intriguing angles could have been brought to the character over the following sixty odd years.