Joker Merchandise

One of many origins states that Joker once worked as an engineer at a chemical plant that quit his job to pursue a career as a comedian. After his attempt at comedy failed, the engineer turned to crime to support himself and his pregnant wife, Jeannie. The engineer agreed to help two criminals break into the chemical plant he once worked at, but he found himself trying to back out once he found out that his wife and unborn child had died in a recent accident.

Though he was grieving, the criminals still forced him to carry on with the plan anyway. Donning the guise of The Red Hood, under orders from the mobsters, they make their way through the Ace Chemical Processing plant, but during the heist, things went wrong and soon Batman was on the scene. Desperate to escape capture, the Red Hood jumped into a vat of chemicals.

The engineer eventually surfaces at a nearby reservoir. Taking off his hood, he saw that the chemicals had altered his appearance; dying his hair green and bleaching his skin white. One look at his new self combined with his personal traumas and the engineer suffered a complete break from his old personality; the Joker was born.

Joker went on to be one of Gotham City’s most feared criminals, committing an estimated 2000 murders. Batman was always there to apprehend the Joker, but constant pleas of insanity spared Joker from getting the death sentence and made Arkham Asylum a second home for him.

Joker’s madness even spread to his one-time psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel. Relating a rather tragic version of his origin to Quinzel, Joker gained her sympathy and soon she found herself falling for him and aiding in many of his escapes. Soon, Quinzel renamed herself Harley Quinn and became the Joker’s loyal henchwoman.

Joker is personally responsible for many tragedies in Batman’s life including the death of the second Robin, Jason Todd, via crow bar beating and explosion, the crippling of Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, with a gunshot severing her spine and the death of Sarah Essen, Commissioner Gordon’s second wife. The guy is one bad dude! You can purchase Joker t-shirts, belt buckles, merchandise and apparel here.