The Further Adventures of the Joker

Many have attempted to humanize the Joker with tragic backstories designed to inspire empathy among readers. The Killing Joke was a good example. In that story, the supervillain turned psychotic and became a criminal mastermind after he had a bad day (a really bad day, to be more precise).

But there were stories in which his psychotic behavior always manifested itself, this one included. It featured an abusive father who was obsessed with organizing everything in his life and keeping everything as tidy as possible. He insisted that his family smile and laugh at all of his jokes.

The kid who would later become the Joker may have developed a defense mechanism because of his father’s behavior. The kid later developed homicidal tendencies, killing birds and rodents and preserving their bones.

Other stories revealed that the kid wound up burning his house down when his parents discovered his collection. While its tone isn’t an exact match with that of the Scorsese films of the 1980’s, it could still work.