Batman Movie Where Joker Keeps Killing Batman Over and Over Again

It's an average day in Metropolis: Superman breaks out of Arkham Asylum, overseen past Solomon Grundy, Lois Lane is the richest, vilest, and baldest adult female in (and possessor of) the city, and Bizarro #1 is the city's most beloved (and destructive) hero.

...distressing, what?

Well, it turns out that this is what happens when Mr. Mxyzptlk accidentally gives nigh of his power to the Joker, who creates a mind-bendingly odd globe for giggles so that he volition be able to kill Batman over and over and over again. Of grade, in doing so he'south risking tearing the fabric of reality apart at the seams, but when has he always worried about that?

What started out as a listen-boggling inversion of everything Superman knows to exist true turns into a race confronting time to stop the Joker's reality warping and get the associated powers dorsum to their rightful possessor.

Emperor Joker starting time appeared in the primary Superman publications appearing throughout the latter one-half of the twelvemonth 2000, with contributions by several writers and artists.

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This comic book miniseries contains examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Ignition'southward origin and why the Joker cannot read his mind are never revealed, despite receiving a great amount of attending.
• Acrofatic: The Joker used his reality warping powers to plow the Flash into a man with Super Speed who is also chronically fond to junk food, thus earning him the nickname "The Flab! The fastest fat man live!"
• Adaptation Distillation: Batman: The Brave and the Assuming loosely adapted this storyline in one episode, with Batman instead of Superman defeating the Joker (and Bat-Mite instead of Mxy). And the many deaths of Batman at the hands of the Joker became less graphic and more than comical, off-screen, and Lighter and Softer, but nonetheless disturbing for children (in Batman'southward first expiry, they even showed him as a winged angel playing a harp and flight off to heaven... for a short while anyhow).
• And I Must Scream: The Joker kills Batman in extremely excruciating ways each night, and and then resurrects Batman so he can excruciatingly kill him again. And Batman remembers all of the pain of each murder. And he cannot stop the bike of murder and resurrection. By the end, the trauma of the whole ordeal is so great it finally achieves the Joker's greatest goal if even for a moment: it broke Batman completely. It's and so bad that in guild to render him to normal, Superman has to take his memories of all of it.
• And Show It to You: The Joker does this to Superman about the end. Superman survives for several minutes afterwards.
• Antagonist Title: Superman is the protagonist of the story, and the Joker is only revealed as the villain halfway through the series (which until The Reveal is called Superman: Arkham). Merely in one case the Joker does appear, he almost becomes the Villain Protagonist.
• Audience? What Audience?: Joker gives a nonsensical narration at one betoken and so mocks the reader for getting confused. Harley asks who he is talking to.
• Baleful Polymorph: Afterwards the Justice League—reimagined in this mad world as a bunch of wacky supervillains—teams up to terminate the Joker, he turns most of them into dogs.
• Bounder Understudy: Enigma/Riddler. Justified though given the Joker'due south plans to destroy all reality, including his minions.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Done past Batman himself. He lets the Joker know how much Superman cares for Lois, knowing the Joker would transport her into the Superman sitcom to be killed, and that this would only spur Superman on more strongly. This is the just time throughout the story that Batman smiles.
  • Done by Superman as well, as his mockery that no matter what Joker does, he can't rid himself of Batman thank you to his obsession. This undoes the Joker, who expires all of his ability trying to exercise the impossible for him.
• Breadstuff, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Employed by the Joker when listing his faults as a husband to Lois.

  Joker: Certain, I tin can be difficult—I eat crackers in bed, and I never put the cap back on the rat poison, and occasionally I'll snap your neck to prove a point...

• Breaking the 4th Wall: The Joker, even going so far as to turn the page for the reader, and in the final issue he tries to order Kano (the result's penciler) to stop drawing Batman.
• Break the Badass: At the terminate, after Joker's beaten, Batman'due south seen huddling and weeping in horror. Superman is forced to have his memories of Joker'south atrocities to heal him.
• Burger Fool: Superboy works at 1 of these under Joker's reign.
• But for Me, Information technology Was Tuesday: Satanus is completely unfazed with the Joker's have on him, importantly because of the I Have Many Names nature of him. He also proves that he tin step abroad from the Joker'due south incarnation of him very easily. It'southward implied he actually enjoys Joker's take of him as a piano playing crooner.

  Satanus: Let'southward simply say... I'thousand adjustable.

• Paper-thin Prison house:
  • The Joker is ultimately sent to a real prison chosen Slabside Penitentiary, which takes pride in the fact that no i has e'er escaped from information technology. This didn't concluding as during Joker'south Terminal Laugh, after being lied to and told he has terminal cancer, the Joker pulls off a jailbreak, and subsequent stories would see Joker dorsum in Arkham.
  • Superman breaks out of Arkham every night, just for Bizarro to capture him and return him again.
• Caught in the Ripple: The comic starts with Superman equally a dangerous criminal locked up in Arkham Aviary and trying to escape Bizarro'southward clutches every twenty-four hour period, Lois Lane equally a bald Corrupt Corporate Executive, the Justice League as a bunch of supervillains and the actual DC supervillains as a rag-tag bunch of heroes, all treated equally if this is the natural country of things. It's only revealed halfway through that all of reality has been perverted by The Joker later on he acquired the powers of Mr. Mxyzptlk, which only those two characters are initially enlightened of.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Lois backstabs Superman several times, only he never gives upwardly on her. And despite the abiding backstabbing, Lois cannot milk shake her feelings for Superman.
• Cosmic Flaw: The Joker has tricked his fashion into receiving Mxyzptlk's reality-warping powers and remade the earth in his image. Some people, primarily Superman, feel that there is something fundamentally wrong with their new reality. Equally they run across more powerful beings resisting the Joker'due south influence, it is revealed that equally he pulls more and more than strings, Joker will begin unraveling the very cloth of being.
• Bargain with the Devil: Satanus claims he is the only fashion to get rid of Joker'southward Reality Warper power. He could do it, but fortunately, another way is found.
• Expiry Is Inexpensive: Joker shoots Lex dead, after resurrects him and immediately shoots him dead again considering Lex gets mouthy virtually getting killed in the first place. Then there's Batman...
• Deface of the Moon: Joker reshapes the moon to resemble his face.
• Despair Outcome Horizon: Batman reaches this point afterward beingness continuously murdered and resurrected.

  Batman: I can't shut my eyes , Clark. I can't close my eyes because I see it. All of it. I tin can't close my eyes, because I meet him ... and it... and me... pieces and parts...
  Spectre: Each death cry, each horror resonates within him. Dark vibrations... merciless as the Joker's attentions. And they have broken him. The man you know... is lost. But pain remains.

• Determinator: Superman offers to take Batman'due south memories of beingness horribly killed over and over and over in order to mend his (Batman'due south) utterly shattered mind. Superman was also the just existence who never gave up under Joker'due south reign.
• Did Y'all Just Scam Cthulhu?: Mxy decides to give the Joker just ane% of his ability to run across what he volition practice with it to ease his colorlessness with his routine with Superman. The Joker scams him into handing over 99% past tricking him into saying his true proper name.
• Driven to Madness: This is the Joker's objective towards both Batman and Superman after gaining godlike powers from Mr. Mxyzptlk. He basically succeeded with his curvation-foe, torturing Bats to death and reviving him each day to do it over over again. Supes is half-way at that place when the comic starts, hunted downwardly equally a dangerous criminal by Bizarro each solar day, when he discovers that the now all-powerful Joker is responsible for turning the world into a dark parody of itself.
• Dude, Not Funny!: Joker has Jimmy Olsen browbeaten to decease because he didn't observe any fun in Olsen'south dropping of a fire hydrant to kill a dog.
• Enemy Mine: Darkseid of all people tries to do this with the council known as the Quintessence, which includes his mortal enemy Highfather, petitioning them to stay out of his way as he continues to search for the Anti-Life Equation in society to combat the Joker. Unfortunately for Darkseid the Joker had already turned the Quintessence into simpletons, and very soon thereafter Darkseid also falls victim to the Joker'south madness.
• "End of the World" Special: At the end, the Joker destroys the universe. Mxy supervises its rebuilding.
• Fifty-fifty Evil Has Standards: As noted under "Dude, Non Funny", the Joker didn't discover Jimmy killing Superman every bit a dog funny.
• Fate Worse than Death: Satanus invokes the trope as he kicks Superboy and Supergirl out of Hell later on they've been killed - later on offer a standard Deal with the Devil, he gets annoyed with Supergirl's ceaseless prayer and sends them back to the Joker's world, commenting there weren't many Hells worse than that.
• Fish People: The Joker uses his godlike powers to turn Aquaman into an actual fish man supervillain who ironically enough hates the sea and tries to keep everyone out of information technology.
• Foe Romance Subtext:
  • In Joker's warped reality, Lois Lane takes Luthor'southward place as the owner of a financial empire, as well equally Lex'southward alopecia and light-green/purple colour scheme. Both Lane and Superman are still very attracted to each other. They fifty-fifty have a big kiss with Lois wearing Lex's battle suit.
  • Invoked. Superman gets The Joker to have his Villainous Breakup by pointing out he can't go rid of Batman — he needs him likewise much.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: The Joker, fifty-fifty more so than usual.
• Giant Pes of Stomping: At one point after arch-criminal Superman escapes from Arkham Asylum over again, he is approached by a beautiful guardian affections who tells him that she'll protect him from Bizarro's clutches. She's immediately flattened by a behemothic mutated Jimmy Olsen's human foot.
• Gilligan Cut: Result #8 ends with the Justice League members returning to their original form and preparing to storm Joker City. Result #9 begins with a detailed shot of the Justice League's mangled remains, and the Joker laughing hysterically over them. Needless to say, this is a non-humorous version of the trope.
• God-Emperor/Mad God/World Gone Mad: The Joker + Reality warping powers = this.
• Gonk: Gorgeous Gilly is ugly every bit sin, but uses her powers to make men autumn in love with her.
• Gut Dial: Superman first assumes (when he finally realizes that this isn't right) that Mxyzptlk is responsible for all the changes. Standing on the Moon, he received a truly ballsy gut dial when he looks back at the World and sees its a cube with the Joker'southward face up as the landmass on each side.
• Promise Spot: Near the terminate of the penultimate chapter, Superman's refusal to let the Joker break him inspires the Justice League to recover their true forms, and the issue ends with the team preparing to attack the Joker'south forces and save Superman. The beginning of the terminal chapter immediately cuts to the team's remains later on the Joker effortlessly slaughtered them all.
• I Know Your True Name: The Joker uses this knowledge to steal Mxy's power by tricking him into saying information technology.
• I'k a Humanitarian: When the Joker decides to have Chinese for lunch, he decides to take all billion or so of them.
• Idiot Ball: Mxyzptlk decides to give the Joker, a known psychotic maniac, reality warping powers, simply considering he is bored. Mxyzptlk eventually acknowledges his catastrophic stupidity. In his defence, he just intended to give him i% and Joker tricked him into giving him the other 99% instead.
• Impossibly-Low Neckline: Harley looks similar she'south on the verge of popping out of several outfits in the get-go half.
• Just Toying with Them: The Joker can't not toy with Batman.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Joker's fate.
• Tardily-Arrival Spoiler: If you bought the original monthly issues, then who exactly was responsible for this was kept undercover until The Reveal halfway through, with the championship of the arc beingness given every bit "Superman: Arkham!" The Emperor Joker oneshot at the halfway point was solicited every bit Emperor ?????. If you lot buy the merchandise, of course, it says Emperor Joker on the cover.
• Leaning on the 4th Wall: Superman accuses the Joker of being ultimately unable to kill Batman because he'south too dependant on the Dark Knight for his identity and pregnant: "It's his globe. Yous just live in it." This works within the Joker'southward psychosis, but it as well works on a meta-level: the Joker is ultimately just the adversary to Batman, around whom the story functions; without Batman, there'south no Batman story, and thus no bespeak in Joker.
• Logic Flop: Leads to the Joker'due south defeat. How tin can he exist all powerful if he can't just impale Batman one time and for all?
• Magic Buss: The Joker has one. When Harley Quinn thinks she's about to die afterward all she's done for him, he says, "You kooky kid — c'mere," and as they both osculation, his is a powerful one that turns her into a constellation. So heartwarming.
• Magical Clown: While the Joker is usually a Badass Normal, in this book, he becomes a Reality Warper.
• Merged Reality: Satanus claims what Joker's done basically boils down to cartoon every sentient mind into his, effectively replacing the consensus reality with his own.
• Mind Wipe:
  • Considering of what the Joker put Batman through when he killed him over and over again, Superman has to take Batman's memories onto himself for Batman to move on.
  • On all humanity in full general, though Batman notes there have been too many reports of "dreams, nightmares, and somnambulistic activities" for it be to exist a coincidence.
• Mummies at the Dinner Tabular array: The Joker is seen playing a game of poker with the corpses of the various Robins that he murdered.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Joker Globe is a cube, much similar Bizarro Earth ◊.
  • The resolution of the plot resembles how Batman dealt with the Joker when he was given like power by Marvel'south Shaper of Worlds. (The Hulk was not amused by Joker'southward take on reality.)
  • The Joker tells Superman, "Never rub another man'due south rhubarb" when Superman goes later Lois. This is the Joker'due south post-mortem line to Bruce Wayne in the 1989 motion picture afterwards shooting Bruce for beingness in Vicki Vale's flat.
  • Jason Todd'due south decayed corpse has a sign saying "Why didn't anyone call in to save me?", referencing the popular vote over whether to kill or relieve Jason Todd in A Death in the Family unit. Also counts as Breaking the 4th Wall.
  • Harley Quinn requests to accept a boondocks named Harleyburg, to which the Joker asks "Harleyburg? Harleyburg?". This reflected a gag in Superman: The Movie, when Luthor is all perplexed that his minion Otis wants to proper noun a boondocks Otisburg.
  • Jimmy Olsen is bitten by a antropomorphic turtle, he becomes Turtle Boy!!
  • Grundy uses the red Phone from the sixty'south Batman show to summon Bizarro.
• Not-So-Omniscient Quango of Bickering: Darkseid is aware of the Joker's ascension and the peril information technology places reality in (and how the lunatic has access to the Anti-Life Equation), then he contacts the Quintessence, a group of cosmic entities devoted to the good of the universe - to convince them not to bother him while he deals with the situation. Unfortunately, by the fourth dimension he's presented his example, the Quintessence has already been reduced to imbeciles past the Joker, and very soon thereafter Darkseid shares their fate.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The Joker is prepared to unmake all reality simply because it created him.
• Merely Sane Man: Aside from the heroes, Joker left a single person untouched and drew him into his demented earth - Lex Luthor. He was not pleased. Not pleased at all.
• Rage Against the Writer: During his Villainous Breakdown, Joker blames his inability to get rid of Batman permanently on the creative person.

  Joker: HEY KANO! Which part of 'Batman no longer exists' don't you understand?! ¿Hablo 'No Batman'?

• Reality Bleed: Small-scale hints of standard reality leak through the Joker's rewoven fabric of the universe, offering the heroes hints that something—okay, everything isn't right.
• Reality Warper: Every bit annoying as Mr. Mxyzptlk is, the Joker with his power is worse.
• Reality Warping Is Not a Toy: The Key Theme of the series, equally Joker + Mxy'due south power = bad things.
• Resurrection/Decease Loop: Every time Joker ends the Nighttime Knight'south life, he brings him back to life but so he can impale him in a dissimilar way.
• Rolling Pin of Doom: Armed by the Joker's Straw Feminist Wonder Woman.
• Rogues Gallery Transplant: The Joker's biggest invasion into Superman's world, afterward a few mild jaunts.
• Rushmore Refacement: The Joker remakes the whole world in his image.
• Sdrawkcab Alias: "Rekoj Rorepme... Rekoj Rorepme... Rekoj Rorepme..."
• Shooting Superman: To Batman's credit, it involves missiles.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Joker's revamp of the Martian Manhunter is pretty much Marvin the Martian.
  • Satanus' pianoforte-playing incarnation sounds like Lucifer.
  • Joker says "Say 'goodnight', Harley," subsequently turning Harley into a constellation.
  • During his concluding confrontation with Superman, one of the Joker'south lines to say he's finished with deleting Batman is "He's in the cornfield", referencing the famous The Twilight Zone (1959) episode "Information technology's a Good Life", featuring a reality-warping six-twelvemonth-old who wishes away things that brand him mad "to the cornfield".
  • The Budweiser "Whazzzzzzup" commercial was a thing in 1999. The fad died chop-chop (and mercifully).
• Spiritual Successor: The story recalls the kickoff Batman/Hulk Crossover, when the Shaper of Worlds gave the Joker reality-warping powers. That story ended with Batman Talking the Monster to Expiry but equally Superman did in this story.
• Spoiler Title: The first half of the story was marked Superman: Arkham to hide that the Joker usurped Mxyzptlk'southward powers. (Though, honestly, information technology wasn't much of a spoiler, since "Arkham" and the weirdness that was going on made it quite clear this was a Joker plot.
• Stellification: Joker turns Harley into a constellation in the shape of her confront rather than kill her outright. For the Joker, this counts every bit sentimentality.
• The Starscream: Lex seems to accept ambitions to be this, but Joker kills him (twice) before Lex has the opportunity to do anything. Though Enigma's failed coup shows any attempt to overthrow Joker would've been pointless anyhow.
• Straw Feminist: Joker's take on Wonder Woman. Complete with rolling pin.
• Super Empowering: To the Joker.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Since Superman tin't lucifer the Joker's power, he resorts to this trope to win the day.
• Idea-Aversion Failure: This is exactly how Superman finally cracks Joker: by pointing out that no matter how many times Joker kills Batman, for all his infinite reality-warping power he can't get rid of him because Joker's whole identity is that reliant on him. Joker's every endeavor to put Batman downwards for good after this revelation just results in his subconsciously creating more of him. Superman even references the "white elephants" gag when setting it upwardly.
• Thou Shalt Non Impale: Played straight past Superman, despite bang-up temptation, simply subverted by Batman, who after suffering endless fell murders and resurrections decides that killing the Joker is the only fashion to stop him. This is then doubly subverted later the Joker is defeated, and Bruce agrees that Superman was right not to kill him. But then information technology is and so quickly triply subverted(!) by Bruce saying that when he does kill the Joker, he wants it to be for existent.
• To Create a Playground for Evil: The Joker'southward goal. He succeeds across his (or anyone else's) wildest dreams.
• Vanity Is Feminine: Before the real reason behind the event's made clear, Lois-as-Lex keeps and rotates a massive collection of wigs. Subverted in that it's nigh certainly a reference to Superman: The Movie, equally that Lex kept a choice of wigs, besides.
• Victory Is Tedious: The Joker literally cannot bring himself to kill Batman in one case and for all, considering he defines himself with Batman as his foil.
• Villainous Breakup: The Joker, when he realizes that he literally can't exist without Batman. The last page shows him back in Arkham Asylum, incoherently blathering "Rorepme Rekoj".
• Villain World: A earth run by an omnipotent Joker is, unsurprisingly, a friggin' madhouse. Even to the other supervillains in his court it'south no picnic.
• Visual Pun: At one point, Lois goes straight to Joker to tell him of Superman'due south programme. Harley accuses her of having the hots for Superman, saying information technology's written all over her face. The next time Lois steps into frame, she does indeed have "I have the hots for Superman" written all over her face.
• Wham Shot: The spread page that shows what the Joker did to the World: The planet is now a cube like the Bizarro Globe, and every continent is shaped into the Joker'south grinning confront.
• Wipe That Smile Off Your Face up: The Joker removes Batman'due south mouth. Batman communicates using Morse code and by clicking his teeth. Because he'south Batman, dammit.
• World Gone Mad: Everything in the Joker's new world is an insane mess where the laws of physics don't brand sense, reason and logic is seen as a sign of mental affliction, and death and anarchy reign supreme.
• World Shapes: In this case, a cube, with landmasses on each face up shaped similar the Joker's visage.
• Writer on Board: Maybe a few early gags poking fun at organized religion were inspired past Jeph Loeb's own viewpoints.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/EmperorJoker

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