MOVIE NEWS – After years of backstory and Joker obfuscation, DC Comics has taken it upon itself to reveal the secret in a story that spans multiple dimensions…

 

 

After years of procrastinating on a definitive and coherent backstory for the character, DC Comics has now thrown the origin story, along with the Joker’s original name, loosely in a recent comic book. Origins in comics have always been a big deal for characters, but the Joker’s is an exceptional case.

The Joker is one of those rare characters who have been able to become a compelling and well-constructed character by simply being invented as the enemy of a superhero.

Because he’s scary in almost every way, the Joker never really needed a backstory to make it work because knowing more about him would only reduce the scariness.

That’s why Joker’s backstory remains vague and nebulous, with multiple possibilities for who he really is. According to Joker himself in The Killing Joke, one of the most essential Joker stories ever written, he likes to have his backstory “multiple choices”. However, the latest issue of Flashpoint Beyond may have finally put the matter to bed, as it’s been confirmed that one of DC’s most famous supervillains, Joker’s name is Jack Oswald White.

Although the name doesn’t say much on its own, if you do some research, you’ll understand that it’s a complex origin.

Jack was Joker’s original identity name in Tim Burton’s Batman and has been used in other incarnations of the character over the years. To be clear, this story deals with multiple realities/dimensions (or Earths), so there are multiple Jokers. However, this is specifically about Earth-0, the original reality of the DC Universe and the origin of all their heroes. So, despite some ingenious retcons of DC continuity regarding the Joker, this latest one seems to place him firmly as a man named Jack.

As for Jack Oswald White’s actual backstory, it fits pretty nicely into what many people are most likely to consider his origin.

Jack was a failed comedian who was dealt too many blows by the world until he was driven mad. It’s not too far off from the 2019 Joker movie, and with Joker 2 getting a release date, it’s an origin that’s coming to the fore even more.

Ultimately, this information probably won’t change too much about who the Joker is in most stories, which is fine. After all, the character’s popularity comes not from his name or even his backstory, but perhaps from how perfectly he can portray everything Batman rejects – but without becoming a boring, clichéd villain.

Source: ComicBook.com