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I went out and about today, and made some purchases at a video game store and a book store:

• Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
• Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
• Stardust by Neil Gaiman
• Batman: The Man Who Laughs
• Gravitation volumes 5 and 6
• The Complete Sherlock Holmes volume one, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

On that note, I’d like to talk a bit about the various origin stories of The Joker. Think of this as a continuation of my discussion on Detective Comics #826. As that dealt with The Joker, and this will too.

There are two main sources that people tend to jump to when dealing with origin stories for The Joker, one of which is Batman: The Killing Joke. This story features a very human aspect on the character, almost having us sympathize with this man who would eventually become one of the most brutal killers this side of…well, he’s pretty much in a league on his own.

In the eyes of many people, Killing Joke cemented in the origin story that Joker was once a man who disguised himself as The Red Hood, a petty thief of sorts, and fell into a vat of something and was permanently scarred by the event–both mentally and physically. The backstory of it all, combined with the rest of the pages of the book, created a character that was actually able to be, as I said, sympathized with. This man didn’t WANT to become what he was, he just couldn’t handle the reality he was presented, and abandoned it in search of something more akin to what he was willing to accept. That “something” was apparently nothing more than chaos. Joker, within Killing Joke pointed out frequently that all one needs to become “like him” is nothing more than one bad day–which is essentially what happened to him.

Killing Joke is also set after Joker has existed for some time, showing the origin in the midst of showing a “current” event. The story was set in the 80s, so it’s not exactly up-to-date in terms of the non-origin aspect.

However, The Man Who Laughs was a different take on the story. It was much more graphic, presenting a less “human” Joker by comparison. The story also takes place as Joker is first “debuting” as a killer. It opens with Gordon (a captain) viewing several bodies that have been infected with Joker’s toxin or what-have-you, having been dead for months. This Joker is much more of the “whimsical”–for lack of a better word–and malicious sociopath that is commonly accepted with The Joker. He isn’t particularly funny, though he does find amusement whenever he’s dubbed “The Joker” by the police and press.

This series also points out Joker’s skill with various chemicals, especially as he was able to kill various people with a both slow-acting and fast-acting toxin combination.

The origin also shows that Joker isn’t merely a man who is a purely chaotic man. While he does not follow any sort of laws, the man plans each of his murders in the story carefully–even pointing out to Batman that fact during their major confrontation of the book.

Another thing that I almost forgot to mention about this book is that it features something rather fun. Batman goes to explore the plan that Red Hood fell in, and sees a man with white splotches on his skin as a result of getting some of the chemicals shot back on him. The man, with the splotches, tells that another man had all of the hair on his arm turn green as a result of coming into contact with it–this, unlike the other things–allow the impression that the effects aren’t just some kind of fluke.

There is another origin story that exists in Batman Confidential, but I haven’t really heard anything good about that one. I’m also wondering if there will be an updated origin that may take play as a result of The Joker appearing in The Dark Knight which is a discussion all to itself.