After a hiatus of some 30 years—though he did appear sporadically throughout the 1960s—DC's villain The Joker of the early '40s was back and ready to cause mayhem all over again. This decade would set the future for portrayals of the mad clown that Gotham has come to fear ever since.
The Joker had been gone from Batman comics for a couple of years, while those taking Batman in a darker direction waited to reintroduce the rouges gallery. Two-Face came back two years before after decades of being gone, and he was back to his obsessive, deadly self. The Joker would wait until enough time had passed that the previous clown version had faded, and he would get his chance to take on the new Batman in 1973.
9 The Joker #3, 1975: "The Last Ha Ha"
The Joker meets the Creeper. This involves the Joker, Steve Ditko's Creeper, and a cartoonist Joker had kidnapped for one million dollars. This is a very tame plot, as he tries to manipulate an amnesiac Creeper into delivering a bomb to police headquarters. Everything goes awry, and Creeper slugs Joker and drags him off to jail. Very Silver Age, very sane, very safe, very comics code friendly.
When the Joker got his own book, he ran straight into the Comics Code. It was fine to guest in Batman comics and cause mayhem, but, as the main character of his own title, that wouldn't do. Every story had to have the Joker back in jail, his mayhem kept to a minimum.
8 The Joker #7, 1976: “Luthor—You’re Driving Me Sane!”
Lex Luthor and the Joker accidentally swap personality traits; Joker gets Luthor's coldness, and Luthor gets Joker's madness. When the insanity of the Joker free's up Luthor genius to consider things he never thought of before, he becomes a true evil genius.
This is a chance to study what happens to a truly sane Joker—and not one merely pretending to be sane. He is now a man who has to act outlandishly for people like his henchmen to think he's 'normal,' painting a grin on his face and exhausting himself to prove he's completely mad. But, why would a truly sane man want the madness back?
The Joker #6, 1976: “Sherlock Stalks the Joker!”
The Joker goes up against an actor famous for playing Holmes, as the Joker recreates Holmes cases in order the get the best of the fictional detective. Joker is back to playing games more to amuse himself than to enrich himself. He steals things of little value associated with the Holmes canon, all the while stalked and thwarted by the actor who thinks he's Holmes.
The story is fun for the Holmes fans—Denny O'Neil was one—but this is the tame, Silver Age-style Joker, and had been brought down a few pegs from previous highs of the past few years.
7 Brave And The Bold #118, 1975: "May The Best Man Die!"
Joker nearly kills 600 prisoners to get at one stooge, all in a matter befitting the '70's Joker. Joker infects an entire prison, and the hunt is on for a lab dog loose in Gotham that carries the anti-bodies that will save the prisoners if captured in time.
This is by old-school veteran writer Bob Haney, known for his long 60s-1970s run on the title. He's not going to show much of the danger O'Neil brought back, as Haney's Joker is often less than deadly. Jim Aparo, one of Batman's iconic and long-running artists, is at his peak here in the '70s.
6 Batman #260, 1975: "This One'll Kill You, Batman!"
Batman receives a dose of Joker Venom that is slowly making him laugh to death. He has 72 hours to get to the only doctor that can save him—if the Joker doesn't kill the doc first.
Away from his own title, Joker is freer to take his revenge on the guards of Arkham by poisoning their coffee with Joker Venom and head a mass escape. This installment features a dangerous, teasing Joker, literally putting on a 'comedy' show that may just end in Batman's demise—but this isn't the craziest comic version of the Joker the '70s will see.
5 Batman #321, 1980: "Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker... !"
The Joker is throwing himself a birthday party, and all his enemies will be there—willing or not. Batman's friends are tied to a giant cake in front of an audience and made to watch as the Joker threatens to kill them all.
Len Wein, Walt Simonson, and Dick Giordano bring the readers their take on the Joker of the '70s with this tale of cunning and madness. This is a Joker who enjoys a crowd and plays to it by making quips, bad jokes, and by killing anyone who dares not to laugh with his 'BANG! YOU'RE DEAD' spear gun.
4 Brave And The Bold #111, 1974: "Death Has The Last Laugh"
Batman and the Joker team up to find the 'real' killers of a family of five. Bob Haney and Jim Aparo bring us one of the best-selling single issues of Brave & the Bold in which Batman thinks the Joker is being framed for killing an entire family. It's all a trap, of course; this is Haney's Joker, a character who does his deadly deeds before the issue starts, and while dangerous, seems fairly sane and in control of himself and his plan to lure Batman into his deathtrap. Haney did a lot of outrageous plots in his stories over the years, though he never featured many killer characters, as he would leave that to other writers.
3 Detective Comics #475, 1978: "The Laughing Fish!"
The Joker put his face on all the fish caught in Gotham. Now, he demands royalties on each, or else. Joker has now come back to one of his many origins in announcing the time of his victim's death on TV and then killing them with his Joker venom. He does that to the city clerk, who told him a copyright on fish is not possible, and then he kills him remotely in front of Batman.
Writer Steve Englehart and artists Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin's Joker is a man of extremes who turns on a dime; silly and joking one minute, and terribly deadly the next. The Joker's motivations are known only to himself.
2 Detective Comics #476 1978: "Sign Of The Joker!"
The Joker continues his mayhem of warnings and killing across Gotham, insisting on either a legal claim to his fish or death to anyone standing in his way.
The Joker cuts a path through government and city officials, still demanding the right to trademark and copyright 'his' fish. He even toys with branching out into Joker cows. "Joker Burgers! Outrageous!" he laughs. Finally, when Batman buttons up his latest victim so Joker can't get to him, he has to come in person disguised as a cop. This Joker is mad enough to think he can get away with it all.
1 Batman #251, 1973: "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge!"
The Joker is killing former henchmen, and Gotham is getting caught in the crossfire. He does away with five ex-henchmen before Batman stops him from killing a sixth.
This is a return to form for the Joker that fans had been clamoring for for years, especially those who knew the character's original history. Writers Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams restored the killer clown, doing away with the purple tux and returning his Joker venom, deadly exploding cigars, and his Jerry Robinson-designed Joker calling card. The Joker was back, and he wouldn't be going anywhere.
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