When did the Joker become cemented as Batman's archnemesis? Was it from the Killing Joke and the Dark Knight Returns? Was it him killing Jason Todd?
Decades earlier than that. He had the most appearances in the Adam West show. He had twice as many appearances than Penguin or Catwoman in the golden age comics. He's the one readers responded to the most.
>>154346407He was the first villain Batman fought in the first issue of his first solo series.
>>154346883The first one that truly mattered, at least. Batman had already had a few encounters with Hugo Strange beforehand, but Joker was such a hit from the very beginning that they had to rewrite his death scene at the end to imply that he'd be back.
>>154346407He became the main villain pretty early on, I think even before any TV adaptations. My question is, when did he go from "goofy clown-themed gangster" to "super evil psycho monster"?
>>154346933Joker always killed people is the thing, the issue is that his goal was usually like any other criminal to get rich or steal shit or some other absurdity like in The Laughing Fish wanting to copyright his Joker fish, this constant shit where he literally only exists to get a rise out of Batman and we can le heckin do this forever is way more modern. When the Golden Age Batman literally died Joker was an old toothless retard in prison and just laughed about it didn't get all depressed or whatever.
Almost from the first appearance he had, he shows up again in another story the same issue and then the next issue and is in almost every issue of the first two years. Reappearances for Batman villains before the ‘66 show/new look era was rare, Riddler only appeared twice before the 60s and came back shortly before the 66 show in an issue that was adapted for it. Some villains would be common for a few years and get phased out, like the second Clayface who appeared a lot in the 60s for 4 years then largely dropped off before getting killed off. But Joker was in basically every year from his first appearance onward.only penguin and catwoman come close
>>154346407>>154346933the killing joke
>>154346928Hugo Strange appears in Detective Comics but Joker is the first story (and third story) in Batman #1. If memory serves, Batman #1 came out around the same time as Detective #38-ish which is about a year after Detective #27 and Batman's first appearance.
>>154346933Joker's first appearance is pretty close to "The Man Who Laughs" wherein he makes declarations about who he is going to kill and when and then it happens. He is more 'playing card' focused than 'clown focused' and even then the play card focus is very minimal.
Imo it should have been Two Face
>>154346981>this constant shit where he literally only exists to get a rise out of Batman and we can le heckin do this forever is way more modernthinkin' about it more, i blame frank miller
>>154346407He’s Batman’s first villain.
>>154351706No he isn’t, not even close. He’s not the first villain or even super villain. Hell the first reoccurring villain was Dr. Strange.
>>154351832Hugo Strange (Dr. Strange is usually used to describe the Marvel character) had his second appearance in the same issue Joker had his second appearance. Hugo's first appearance was Detective 36 which came out about 4 months before Batman #1 (Joker's first appearance).Arguing that he's 'not even close' to the first super villain is quite a stretch.
>>154346933He was a killer in Batman #1 though his motivation was to acquire other peoples' stuff. Then he stopped killing people for a while because the editor who saved him from dying at the end of Batman #1 thought comics needed to be child-friendly. In The Joker's Five-Way Revenge from 1973 he became a killer again, though there were always underlying reasons why he did it. Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns was the first book that wrote him as someone who mass murdered people because he thought it was funny.
