The Joker is very much a blank slate character, but one that's super fun. So I feel like doing some self projection to cope with my stress, and I'm going to do that by creating a new origin for The Joker. Starting with the point in my life i'm at now, absolutely depressed and existential about leaving high school. I'm going to add more details so that the character isn't just me, but the intro is definitely going to reflect my fears and stressors.
The Joker's name is no longer important, not really. But for posterity, his name was Jack Napier. He wasn't really an average kid. Having Autism, ADHD and a whole host of mood issues, Jack really had nobody in life beyond his parents. His parents were supportive, but they were all he had. Jack always wanted to be a comedian, and his parents supported him in his dreams and endeavours. But when he had to graduate high school, he found college was simply too much for him to bear. He dropped out at the age of 21, and he spiralled into a deep depression.
Eventually, Jack got a job working as an intern at Wayne Tech. Little did he know, but Bruce Wayne was actually one of his few friends there. Bruce would sneak into his own company under aliases on occasion, just to try and make sure nothing corrupt was going on. Jack and Bruce became best friends, understanding each other's ailments and pains far too well. But eventually jack got fired from Wayne Tech, which led him into another depression. Him and Bruce lost touch after this incident.
From here, Jack wound up working at the Ace Chemicals plant, a rundown old chemical plant full of hazards and deadly toxins. Located just on the edge of the city, out near slaughter swamp, everyone knew the place was sketchy. But it was the only place willing to hire Jack. While working there, he also did comedy gigs on the side at gotham's local comedy clubs. His jokes almost always fell flat, but at least two people always smiled. His father (his mom was dead, but his father was still alive), and a young woman named Jean Robinson, or Jeannie (as jack would eventually call her). She was the only one who ever laughed at his jokes, and they fell in love at first sight.
Within a few months of dating, the two of them got married (they were both only like 23 or 24). When Jack was 25, he learned that Jeannie was pregnant. He was going to be a dad! This inspired him to work extra hard on his comedy career. He even booked gigs on TV, only for him to be heckled off stage on live TV. Depressed, he fell into his work at the chemical plant. And then he got pulled into being a small time mole for a local mob ring operating inside of the chemical plant. This led him to becoming the red hood, desperate to make his wife and child proud with his newly acquired fortune.
But the night of the heist, jack was told that jeannie died in an accident with a bottle heater, and their unborn child died in the womb. Jean didn't actually die, but Jack didn't know that. So his grief made him reckless on the night of the heist. When the GCPD and Batman broke into the chemical plant chasing him, he panicked. Batman already terrified jack, and now he was facing his fears of a violent vigilante in body armour breaking his body and mind for his crimes. Scared, he ran all across the rafters like a madman.
Unable to see through his costume, he accidentally slipped on a wet patch of ground. And while he tripped and fell face first into the vat of dangerous, mixed together extra chemicals, he screamed his last words. He begged for Batman's help, but Batman was just seconds too late. Jack Napier fell in the vat. And he died. A 25 year old man, whose life was cut short far too soon. When Jean woke up, her and jack's father attended the funeral. Bruce Wayne did too, albeit in secret. But very few others even bothered to attend. Jack was either completely lonely and unremarkable, or remembered solely for his awkward but earnest comedy. Nobody even remembered to visit him at his funeral besides his father and his two friends.
Ordinarily, this would be where the story of Jack Napier ends. But there's ever more twists and turns to a story like this one. Although Jack Napier did fall in a vat of experimental chemicals, nobody ever found his body. They were planning to dump the chemicals out and find him in the morning, but he was nowhere to be seen when the time came to do just that. Somehow, he climbed out of the large vat of chemicals. And from there he stumbled on unsteady feet like a newborn child, stumbling along until he passed out unconscious in the waters of Gotham Bay.
From there, an unexpected nighttime storm churned up the water, resulting in his body being washed all the way onto a secluded beach somewhere near arkham asylum. The accident changed jack. He lost all his memories, except for the occasional strange feeling or snapshot. He had his whole apperance radically changed (mostly by the flawed cosmetic chemicals in the vat). And he was now just a blank slate, void of memory and self. This drove him completely mad in a fit of temporary insanity, and thus The Joker was born.
The Joker first made his mark similarly to the 2004 version, with him breaking into arkham and then preparing a plan to douse gotham in his joker venom via a massive balloon. But where things diverge is in how Joker handles being arrested. Because there is still just a broken man deep inside, and he reacts to his arrest by actually settling in fairly peacefully at arkham. He takes the new name of "John Doe," he makes psychological progress, he actually betters himself.
In many ways, he's the model inmate after his first major scheme. Well, until he learns that a jury convicted him and sentenced him to death. The fact that head doctor Hugo Strange just happened to let Joker hear the news on the radio…well, let's just call that another one of Doctor Strange's sick psych tests. In any case, that leads to Joker snapping and trying to get revenge on all the members of the jury. Batman successfully stops him, but Joker refuses to settle down until he gets a promise that he won't be killed. He can't be! He's got so much to live for! Life to feel and love to find and tv to watch and books to read! The man's got needs, as a virtual amnesiac. So Batman guarantees he won't be executed, and then Joker just peacefully returns to arkham.
After this point, Joker becomes far more like his old silver age version of himself, with some mingling in of things like the 2004 show and the Telltale games. "John" hates Batman, but he's no killer. He does use his joker venom to make people forcibly smile, but he doesn't even know that he's doing wrong. He just thinks he's making people's lives brighter. He's also still in therapy, trying to piece together his past. But for the most part, he just stays in arkham and minds his own business.
Perhaps not so weirdly, he also has an odd love for tv. It's one of his rare joys as an inmate in arkham. He really likes reality tv, especially that of pop psychologist harley quinn. He likes her not just because she's clearly even more crazy than him (with her flawed relationship advice), but also because she looks like somebody he used to know (his past self's wife, jeannie). And he also likes hearing about Bruce Wayne, even though he has no clue why. He doesn't know about his past self's connect to wayne, so he's equally baffled by his love for the guy.
But the one man he does hate is Batman. For spoiling all his fun and ruining all his criminal schemes. It's not like Joker's even a killer! He commits overly elaborate crimes, sure. But he's not a killer. He well and truly hates Batman for everything, which usually leads to him commiting crimes just for the sole purpose of trying to defeat Batman and prove Joker reigns supreme in Gotham!
So this is my interpretation of Joker. A mixture of many different takes on the character, but mostly a derivative of the silver age. He also has elements of my own life worked in there, for extra relatability. And I would plan on having Joker get Harley as a partner in crime, rediscover his lost memories, and discover batman's true identity. Nevermind him discovering Jeannie lived and had a second kid with a new man (ps: her kid is Anarky/Lonnie Machin). But there's not that much space left to cover all of that stuff. So i'm gonna leave this note here for now. I think I created a fresh new take on the character, and I also helped give myself catharsis by writing in some of my own personal struggles near the beginning.
