10 Times Joker Was Actually The Real Hero

8. Stopping The Batman Who Laughs – Dark Knights: Metal

the joker
DC Comics

You know the situation must be ominous when it causes Batman and The Joker to team up and become temporary bestest buds.

In Scott Snyder’s 2017 Dark Knights: Metal, readers were introduced to a new villain known as The Batman Who Laughs. Hailing from the Earth-22 corner of the Dark Multiverse, this no-good sort was essentially a hybrid of the Caped Crusader and his Jester of Genocide rival.

Interestingly, this all-powerful bad guy had begun life as his world’s heroic version of Batman. After one too many battles with his world’s Joker caused the Earth-22 Bats to go insane, he snapped and became The Batman Who Laughs.

What made this alt-world foe so formidable for our standard Batman, is that The Batman Who Laughs knows every tactic that the World’s Greatest Detective will use. As such, Batman resorted to asking The Joker to assist in taking down this new threat; after all, the Clown Prince of Crime and his antics always adds an extra level of unpredictability to matters.

In this post: 
joker
 
First Posted On: 
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.