Over the decades that he's been terrorizing the citizens of Gotham, The Joker has done some truly heinous, objectively evil acts. But even the Clown Prince of Crime has a limit to his immorality, which he's proven on more than one occasion - Joker really doesn't like Nazis.
Sure, he's been personally responsible for the deaths of countless innocent Gothamites, but his victims are generally indiscriminate, random. Even Joker knows that the mass extermination of an entire class, community, or race of people is several steps too far in terms of villainy. And he recently reminded readers of his staunch anti-Nazi stance in Injustice: Year Zero #4, from writer Tom Taylor and artist Cian Tormey.
In the issue, which serves as a quasi-prequel to Injustice: Gods Among Us, Joker and Harley are being regaled by a story from Andre Chavard. The elderly Chavard was once a member of the Boy Commandos, an elite squad of children that fought in the trenches of WWII. Joker asks to hear more tales of Nazi killing, which surprises Chavard. Knowing Joker's homicidal and psychotic tendencies, he'd assumed Joker would be fond of the heinous acts perpetrated by the Nazis, to which Joker takes great exception. "I'm American," Joker exclaims. "I @#$%#$@ hate Nazis!"
Even if it doesn't seem to be the case 99% of the time, Joker does have a moral line that he refuses to cross. And while Injustice: Year Zero is a recent release, the clown's hatred of Nazis has a history dating back decades. Back in 1997, the DC/Marvel Elseworlds crossover Batman & Captain America - from John Byrne and Patricia Mulvihill - saw Joker partnering with Red Skull. The Elseworlds books would see familiar heroes and villains in wholly unfamiliar settings, with this particular issue finding Batman and Robin in 1945, teaming up with WWII-era Captain America and Bucky, with the heroes even swapping sidekicks for a little bit.
Meanwhile, Joker and Red Skull have partnered in their own nefarious plot. But despite their working together to mastermind their scheme, it's somehow not until Joker sees Red Skull sporting a swastika-emblazoned suit that he realized he was working with a Nazi. "I may be a criminal lunatic," Joker yells. "But I'm an American criminal lunatic!" The two come to blows and in a pretty hilarious comedy of errors, they try to douse one another with their signature poison gasses, only to realize their counterparts are immune to their respective toxins' effects. In a rare show of heroism, Joker actually thwarts Red Skull's scheme of dropping the Fat Boy atomic bomb on Washington D.C.
Comic books have a long and storied history of taking down Nazis. From the famous cover of Captain America that saw the hero socking Hitler in the jaw, to the TMNT's Raphael punching out a robot Hitler, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that comics on the whole have a decidedly anti-Nazi stance. It just comes as a bit of a surprise to see Joker so steadfastly opposed to objective evil, especially considering he'd just used his toxin to gas countless Allied soldiers to death before realizing he was working for the Third Reich.
It's a nice reminder that beneath his anarchy and madness, Joker is a feeling, thinking human being like anyone else. But even with his brain driven truly mad, he knows a real villain when sees one.
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August 22, 2020 at 05:33AM
