Why Return Of The Joker Is Secretly The Best Batman Movie

4. It Tells The 'Last' Joker Story

Return of the Joker takes place about a year or so after Terry McGinnis first dons the cowl as Batman, and effectively provides the 'last' Joker story. These tales are something of a tradition for DC, and are told with a sense of finality, with the likes of Alan Moore's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? and Neil Gaiman's Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? concluding Superman and Batman's respective journeys.

Return of the Joker too conforms to that tradition, and it is excellent. Why so? Well like all great Batman stories Return of the Joker is a mystery, that mystery being how has the Joker returned after so long - why now? - and whether or not that 'return' is actually genuine. It's gripping from start to finish, but everyone who's seen it will point towards one sequence in particular as the one that sets the film apart over all others - the 10 minute flashback that caps off the second act.

At this point in the story Bruce has taken the cowl off Terry, due in part to his inability to take the Joker seriously and Bruce's own fear of Joker, while the Clown Prince has ransacked Wayne Manor and left Bruce for dead. Searching for answers, McGinnis speaks to Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl, now a police commissioner with the GCPD, who reveals the last encounter Batman ever had with Joker, and it is horrifying.

As the story goes, Joker and Harley Quinn kidnap Robin (Tim Drake), which leaves Batman and Batgirl to tear up Gotham looking for him. They discover that he's being held hostage at the now derelict Arkham Asylum, but it soon becomes apparent this wasn't an average scheme. It turns out that Joker had been physically and psychologically torturing Drake for weeks, to the point where the boy's personality was warped into a tormented mini Joker. Incensed, Batman lashes out at the Clown Prince, who taunts the Dark Knight throughout before revealing that he knows his true identity.

Finally, Bruce is left wounded on the floor, and Joker gives the order to Tim to murder his adoptive father. Tortured with laughter, Bruce makes one last plea for Tim to fight it, only for Drake to turn his weapon on the Clown prince and kill him then and there.

The entire sequence is bonechilling and breathtaking in equal measure, and exudes a haunting atmosphere. Not only that, but it effectively brings a close to the Joker in the DCAU, before Terry resolves the mystery for good in the concluding chapter.