Another backstory for the Joker?

[cyberghostface]

Trigger warning for rape (implied?)

This was a subplot in Paul Dini's Batman: Streets of Gotham. Afterwards you might want to read this recap of Joker's storyline here.

#16...









#17...










#19...

This flashback takes place years later when Joker is starting out.

















#20...

Going back to #18's time period...













#21...







The implication (with the callback of "Smile and swallow") is that poor Sonny is none other than the Joker, that he was kidnapped and sexually abused by the mobster only to get revenge on his tormentor years later.

Dini would later refer to Sonny as being one of the Joker's possible names in Batman: Black and White.

Comments

[beeyo]

The part about Joker being infected by a plague rat when he was younger is pretty cool. The SA is a bit much but I don't actually hate this.

[superfangirl1]

Isn't it inBatman comics. When it concerns Joker and his past. That the Joker an unreliable narrator. Could this have happened to him? Yes. Could this be "his version" of what happened to him? Yes. Could this be how he remembers it but not necessarily how it actually happened? Yes. Could it all be a fabrication of his? Yes.

[cyberghostface]

I think the canonicity is dubious but these aren’t the Joker’s recollections but others who witnessed these events (like the nephew of the gangster).

[cainofdreaming]

Didn't the kid surface as an adult later on in this series? Only to be replaced by Jane Doe. Or am I misremembering it?

[cyberghostface]

I don’t think so. Sonny’s DC wiki page just redirects to Joker.

[cainofdreaming]

Well, must be my memory. The character Jane Doe pretended to be looked too much like the kid grown up, so I guess my brain just assumed from the strips of memory.

[metadronos]

Sallie Guzzo's design is reminiscent of a Dick Tracey villain.

That last panel, from Batman: Black and White -- is that the one where a couple of Arkham psychiatrists discover an old report claiming the Joker has merely been faking insanity all along, then dismiss it as rubbish when they find Harley had written it while still on staff?

[cyberghostface]

Yes that’s the one.

[thanekos]

Sonny's broken jaw not healing right as an explanation for the Joker's long face works, but also feels like a detail too many (if for no other reason than " He's changed his look many times since then.. " sufficing.)

[esmegrey]

I hear that for every tenth backstory, he gets a free sandwich.

[cainofdreaming]

I heard it was a Scooby Snack.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Okay, but does the SA really add anything, besides "ooh, it's a more adult story now"?

[cyberghostface]

IMO it adds some extra pathos to Joker, like the line that suggests a part of him never grew up as a result.