The rivalry between Batman and the Joker is legendary. Batman is undoubtedly one of DC’s most popular heroes, but Joker reigns supreme as the number one villain. In this universe of Kryptonian superbeings and Amazonian demigods, they also have one thing in common. They are ordinary people.
Both Batman and the Joker are devoid of superhuman abilities. In addition, unlike Batman, the Joker is not a skilled martial artist. The majority of their fights are fought with their wits or Joker’s dark pranks and gags to toy with Batman. Throughout their fights, it is clear that the two characters are on opposing extremes of the morality spectrum.
There have been moments when the two opponents have linked together, no matter how dissimilar they are. Because their differences cannot exist without their commonalities, the two have frequently shared objectives.
The Joker is a criminal who, by definition, is breaking the law. Even though Batman is a wonderful guy, his acts go beyond the bounds of Gotham’s laws, making him a vigilante.
Throughout the years, Batman and the Joker have chased down enemies in the Batmobile, caught Penguin, faced off against the Punisher, and participated in a slew of other wild adventures.
In this video, we will look at ten instances where they joined together as a group!
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When They Paired Up To Fight Owlman
In an alternate universe, Batman (or Owlman) is a bad guy while the Joker or Red Hood is one of the good guys. Good guy Batman from Batman: The Brave And The Bold animated series encountered his alternate reality counterpart and the two went against each other.
In this story, a captured Owlman on Earth escapes from the Batcave and teams up with villains such as Gorilla Grodd, Doctor Polaris, and Black Manta. He steals Batman’s costume and commits a series of illegal activities to ruin his name.
Meanwhile, when Batman returns to this dimension, he finds himself at odds with the police and his allies who are holding him accountable for Owlman’s actions. Cornered, Batman has nowhere to go when the Joker pulls him into a warehouse.
The Joker is aware of a criminal masquerading himself as Batman to besmirch his name and feels jealous of the competition in being Batman’s #1 foe. He offers to team up with Batman to take down Owlman (who has also defeated Batman’s allies and wants the Phase Oscillator, a device that allows one to dimension hop). Surprisingly, the Joker manages to convince the Bat.
They pursue Owlman who tries to bargain the lives of the heroes for the Phase Oscillator but Batman isn’t one to negotiate. Joker opens fire against Owlman and when the latter drives away, Batman even allows the clown to take the wheel. In fact, Joker is made to save a child instead of focusing solely on the fight; way too out of character for him.
Owlman rigs death traps with a group of villains to overwhelm Batman and the Joker’s unusual duo. He then offers the Joker a chance to get Batman killed in exchange for his cooperation and Joker seems to go for it after being a little reluctant. Only a little.
Before Batman can die, a wormhole opens behind Owlman and co. and Batman emerges with several other Batmen from different dimensions (the lack of continuity in time due to the wormhole’s time-warping nature helped). The Batmen gain an advantage over the villain. Joker has also betrayed him so after Batman’s victory, Joker gets taken away.
Batman probably did not expect the Joker to stay true to his word anyway but hey, it was fun while it lasted!
When They Got The Same Virus
In Batman: Europa by Brian Azzarello, Batman, and the Joker goes on a cute little road trip together. Well, it is not cute since both of them seem to be coughing their guts out while being on the verge of death.
During a fight with Killer Croc, Batman notices his own movements getting sloppier and slower. He defeats Croc with difficulty, which shouldn’t have been the case.
At the Batcave, he gets a message on his computer that reads, ‘Colossus is in your system. You have one week left. Have fun. Start running’. Alfred deduces that the Colossus mentioned is not a virus in the computer. It is the virus that is in Batman and is causing his physical form to deteriorate rapidly.
Batman tracks the virus down to Berlin, a place he hasn’t visited in a hot minute. There, he follows a criminal to a shady bar, hoping to find a lead that will help him find a cure. The felon immediately runs out of the bar screaming ‘Murder’. Batman checks in and finds corpses of people who have been branded with the Joker’s signature sinister grin on their faces.
Naturally, he comes across his long-time foe, the Joker, who seems to be suffering from the same virus. Best friends who suffer together, stay together.
Joker’s clues had led him to this girl called Nina. She is the one who had sent the message to Batman on his computer. She gives them a new clue that suggests they go to Prague if they want to get cured. However, Batman and Joker realize that they have been given different clues from the start so the only way out for them is to team up.
As a duo, they are forced to make their differences take a backseat as they set out for their not-so-exciting vacation across Europe, visiting other countries like Prague, Paris, and Rome.
As the plot progresses, the two characters seem to have an increased dependency on one another. The toxicity of the virus makes them hallucinate and the two begin to bond over their individual sufferings, revealing their vulnerabilities to each other in a way.
Batman And The Joker Versus Penguin
The Brave and the Bold witnesses Batman and the Joker teaming up against Penguin.
The story opens with a live broadcast where Penguin tries to take over the transmission. However, the Joker kills him out of the blue, and millions of viewers witnessed this murder. Naturally, Batman leaves his penthouse to go after the Joker.
Batman is unable to track the clown down until the Joker presents himself to the Bat, confessing that Penguin was killed by an impersonator of the Joker. He had apparently pursued the thugs but they managed to escape. After the Joker gives a convincing explanation, Batman is forced to believe him and work alongside the Joker.
They team up and investigate the matter together, which takes them to the Penguin’s hideout. While his thugs prepare Penguin’s corpse for the funeral, Batman realizes that the Joker is actually not as heartless as he thought he was since he actually cared for Penguin.
Here’s the catch. Penguin faked his own death to be able to capture the Catholic Cardinal during his funeral at the church. Both Batman and the Joker were obviously aware of this.
On the day of the funeral, Penguin disguises himself in a nun’s costume. His goal is to kidnap the Cardinal for a giant ransom from the Vatican.
However, the Cardinal turns out to be the Joker in disguise, which shocks Penguin. His plan is now foiled and he released several birds to make an escape. The Joker catches the Penguin and he is finally apprehended.
Both Batman and the Joker go back to their old way of hating each other after closing this case. It was anyway quite hard for the Joker to not run Batman over with his car while they were in cooperation.
Saving A Kidnapped Girl Together
In the 1998 Batman story Fool’s Errand, written by Chuck Dixon, Joker ditches his overblown schemes of clownery for something a lot simpler. The Joker here is in Arkham Asylum and he toys with Batman while playing nothing but head games.
An ex-con from the Asylum kidnaps a little girl and then commits suicide. Batman investigates the case but is unable to find clues that are solid enough due to the perpetrator being dead. So he goes to the one place that might help him out – Arkham Asylum.
Turns out, the ex-con was previously placed in a cell next to that of the Joker. The Bat seeks out the clown for a little interrogation and to find out where the little girl is being held. Reduced to living in a cell in an asylum, there’s not much the Joker can do to toy with Batman but he always has tricks up his sleeves.
The Joker begins to play mind games with Batman. The two-match wits and it is revealed that the abduction had been a part of the Joker’s plan all along. In fact, he had used the ex-con to do his bidding. Batman deduced that he did what he did due to the date, as it was the death anniversary of Batman’s sidekick Jason Todd, the one who was blown to tiny, eensy bits by the Joker himself.
The ex-con, Stroud, and Joker used to communicate via Morse Code. Stroud had a mother who wanted a girl child but never had one. His mother was also dead. Joker used this information to make Stroud kidnap the girl and send her to his mother. And he picked the date of Jason’s death anniversary, the second Robin because he actually wanted to toy with Batman.
Eventually, Batman stops playing along with the Joker’s game and cuts straight to the point. Noticing the shift in Batman’s demeanor (mainly because he straight up slapped the Joker), the Joker feels like the fun is over and gives out the exact details of where the girl is being held.
Batman finds the girl and realizes why Joker carried out this plan – he wanted Batman to trust him and not always expect the worst when it comes to a hostage situation involving the Joker. This is not endearing at all because the Joker probably did it to make it harder for Batman to make assumptions about the actions taken by him. It just amplifies his already erratic and unpredictable twistedness.
Batman Helped Joker In A Conspiracy Against Him
Another one of Chuck Dixon’s one-shots, The Joker: Devil’s Advocate revolves around the Joker being held accountable for murders he did not commit. To help him out, the Dark Knight comes to his aid.
The Joker has always had a thing for stand-up comedy. However, when an LSD stamp series commemorates comedians but omits the Joker, he doesn’t take it well. He takes out his anger by committing a series of illegal acts.
Batman and Robin apprehend him to put an end to his antics. Soon after, the residents of Gotham City begin to die one after another. The reason? They licked the stamps which are apparently poisonous. And they died with a Joker-like smile on their faces which is something that we’ve seen in Tim Burton’s Batman.
Naturally, the DA begins to think that the Joker is behind this, especially because he was already salty about not being on the bandwagon with the other comedians. He is tried for murder and sentenced to death.
Batman believes that the Joker is being framed and he is right about it. Someone else has poisoned the stamps and he wants to find out the real culprit, even at the cost of saving the life of his long-time nemesis.
Turns out, the culprit is someone who wanted revenge on the Joker. When the Joker learns about him not having to die because he is not the perpetrator, he is super happy. Too bad his life remains intact because of Batman, the knowledge of which wipes the grin out of the Joker’s face immediately.
Fighting The Red Skull Together
DC is no stranger to crossovers and of course, they have joined hands with Marvel comics from time to time. In one such crossover, Batman teams up with Captain America while the Joker teams up with the Red Skull. But hey, it is supposed to be the Joker and Batman fighting together.
The Joker had teamed up with the Red Skull for Project Gotham. But Red Skull is a Nazi. The Joker might be a lunatic but he is an American lunatic, something he himself points out when he learns that Red Skull is a Nazi. So, Joker decides to go against the Red Skull, who was initially pleased with the Joker but not anymore.
As they turn on one another, they dose each other. The Joker attacks with the Joker Venom while Red Skull comes through with the Dust of Death. Unfortunately, their toxins have a similar formula and cancel each other out. But the Joker is rendered unconscious.
Red Skull takes the Joker away. When Batman and Captain America reach Red Skull to stop him, Joker sides with the heroes because of how much he despised the Nazis. He foils Red Skull’s plan of nuking Washington because even he has his limits when it comes to being evil.
When Batman And The Joker Fought Ra’s Al Ghul
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #145 brings the Joker into the forefront alongside Batman and Ra’s Al Ghul.
Before being shot by Talia Al Ghul, the Joker and Ra’s spent a considerable amount of time bonding over chess and intellectual conversations revolving around international politics and imagining a hypothetical world where humanity is dead.
Ra’s Al Ghul wants to save the Earth’s ecology by destroying humanity. Because the Joker is a part of humanity, Ra’s plan requires the Joker to ultimately di. This brings the two ‘friends’ at odds.
The Joker tries to take Ra’s down by spraying a contagion while being oblivious to Ra’s immunity against it due to the Lazarus Pit. Talia shoots the clown.
When Batman arrives, he finds Joker on the verge of death. But Batman needs him to be alive to find out Ra’s plan. And so, he decides to lend a helping hand. He submerges Joker in the Lazarus Pit to heal him. Now, the Pit causes the people submerged in it to be rejuvenated from their injuries or sickness. But, they also enter a state of psychosis. Since the Joker is already psychotic, the Pit’s powers make him normal and sane. He literally shows remorse for his villainous actions.
He tells Batman that he has planted a transmitter in Ra’s submarine. The two best friends then track it down together. Batman takes Ra’s down but by the time Batman returns to the plane, the Joker is back to his crazy, psychotic state. He is ultimately taken back to Arkham Asylum.
The Time When They Fought The Punisher Together
This right here is another crossover between DC and Marvel Comics. In Punisher and Batman: Deadly Knights Volume 1, the Joker and Batman fight the Punisher together. Frank Castle hates Gotham City anyway.
Well, they technically did not fight together as different things led them to the Punisher in the battle. But they were still on the same side, which is not something you see every day.
In this story, Frank Castle returns to Gotham where he fights a couple of criminals. He interrogates one of them whose boss, Luke Tango, worked for Jigsaw, which the criminal confessed to being oblivious to. Before the Punisher could kill him, Batman intervened and attacked the Punisher. The criminal escaped and the Bat fought Castle.
That criminal met up with Jigsaw at Chuckles Comedy Club but the Joker appeared and shot him dead. Meanwhile, the Punisher tried to track down the Gotham Mobs with help from Micro Chip while Batman and Robin decided to stop gang wars in order to prevent people like the Punisher from stepping into Gotham City ever again.
Jigsaw and the Joker find a guy called Jimmy Navarone after killing off Tango for information. Meanwhile, the Punisher and Robin try to hack into Navarone’s computer and Robin emerges victorious. So at the moment, the Punisher is against Navarone, Joker, and Jigsaw, who are against the Punisher as well. Meanwhile, even Batman and Robin are against the Punisher. You know what they say, your enemy’s enemy is a friend.
Navarone and Joker take on the Punisher. Batman arrives from up top to take on the Punisher. They fight one another until Batman notices Jigsaw and averts his attention to the villain. Meanwhile, the Punisher tries to chase the Joker down.
In the end, Batman captures Jigsaw, stops the Punisher from killing the Joker, and literally asks the clown to run away. Who’d think that there would be a moment where Batman would actually ask the Joker to run away after saving his life from someone who wants to take down criminals.
Batman And The Joker Founding The Justice League Of Arkham
The Green Lantern enemy Hector Hammond erases the memories of the Justice League members. Batman and Nightwing team up in the story while being oblivious to their endeavor together.
A mysterious man called Advance Man wants to poison Gotham City’s water supply with toxic gas and kill the people. Because of how desperate and horrible the situation is, Batman frees the Joker, the Riddler, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Scarface, and the Ventriloquist from Arkham Asylum. This unusual group forms a league called the Justice League of Arkham to stop Advance Man.
Well, the villains might be bad guys but they wouldn’t want to die from toxic water would they?
Together, they storm into the processing plant where the Advance Man was and take him down. As Joker and Batman fight alongside each other, the Joker revels in the fact that the two of them were partaking in teamwork and even jokes about wanting to be Batman’s sidekick.
The Creepy Moment When They Shared A Good Laugh Together
In Alan Moore’s 1988 story The Killing Joke, we get to witness Joker’s tragic backstory. He lost his family, went crazy, fell into a vat of chemicals at Ace Chemicals that changed his appearance, got crazier, and turned into the Joker.
In this story, he also commits a terribly sinister act by paralyzing Barbara Gordon with his bullet. He kidnaps Commissioner Gordon and forces him to look at pictures of Barbara lying on the floor, naked, and bleeding out from her wound.
Here, the Joker is at his most sadistic. He does not team up with Batman unlike the prior instances because the Bat is against him throughout the story. However, they do share a moment towards the end.
When Batman tracks them down at an amusement park (Joker had sent him the invitation anyway), he is traumatized by what the Joker has done. However, the Joker tries to tell him that the world does not need his saving because it is a joke. One bad thing can drive and ordinary man insane. The Joker had expected Commissioner Gordon to go insane from the traumatic incident he was subjected to. But, Gordon manages to find his moral code, leaving the Joker is alone in his madness.
Batman subdues the Joker and offers to help him out to end their long feud. But the Joker is beyond saving now. In the end, he talks about a joke he had once heard.
There were two crazy guys in an asylum. One day, they had decided to escape. They got onto the roof and saw the rooftops of nearby buildings separated by a narrow gap. One of them had no problem jumping to his freedom. The other wanted freedom as well but he was afraid of falling.
The first guy jumps. The second guy stays back. The first guy offers to shine his flashlight onto the gap between the buildings while his friend walked across the beam to reach the other rooftop. However, the other refuses and does not want to do that. He believes that his ‘friend’ would switch off the flashlight while he was halfway across and he wasn’t crazy that he would take that big of a risk.
Batman listens to this joke and chuckles at the punchline. Here, Batman gave the Joker one of the best gifts the clown could receive as a comedian: laughter. And coming from the brooding bat, it means a lot.
The joke here is symbolic. The Joker believes that Batman is the first guy who jumps and offers the flashlight as its a reference to him helping the Joker back into society. However, both Batman and the first guy are crazy to do so, because there’s no way the friend can jump when he is so afraid of falling. Similarly, the Joker cannot return to society because he is too far gone.
Towards the end of the joke, the second guy calls himself someone who is not crazy, making the Joker sane according to his worldview while Batman is the crazy one.
The roles can be reversed as well. The Joker can be the first guy who jumps to his insanity. The flashlight is the one final push and the one bad day that turns the ordinary man into a villain.
Both Batman and the Joker have a traumatic past. Both of them are fueled by vengeance. However, while the Joker’s bad days made him insane as he took the leap, Batman’s bad days caused him to stay back and protect the people.
They are essentially the two sides of the same coin. For the Joker, his ultimate victory would possibly be Batman giving up on his ethics and killing him, which is something he tries to make Batman do in The Dark Knight Rises, Part II. Joker wants to prove his point that anyone can turn evil as a result of their pain.
Batman stands on the opposite end. He refuses to submit to the Joker’s ideology and upholds his moral values over anything else. He feels remorse over not killing the Joker because he believes that he could’ve saved countless lives by doing so, but he has to prove his own point as well.
In fact, you could blur the lines between good and evil and call Batman the bad guy for not killing the Joker because personal values cannot be more important than the lives of several innocent civilians, can they? That obviously does not make the Joker a good guy though.
There’s an old fan theory that might be a little bit of a reach, but it is intriguing nonetheless.
Batman goes back in time to save his parents from getting killed. As he stands in Crime Alley overlooking his parents and his younger self, he expects the perpetrator to arrive. But the perp doesn’t. Batman realizes that there’s no perpetrator. He also realizes that if Dr. Arthur and Martha Wayne do not die, he will never turn into Batman. As a result, Gotham City will never get its Dark Knight.
Batman then kills Dr. Arthur and Martha Wayne himself and allows the younger Bruce to live. Meanwhile, the trauma of being the one to kill his own parents breaks him and he turns into the Joker.
Either way, the dynamic between Batman and the Joker is one of the greatest dynamics in superhero fiction. Even though it has been portrayed time and again in several forms of media, Batman and the Joker have always opposed one another. It would be great to see the two of them teaming up on the big screen as they ignore their differences and work towards a common objective.
What did you think about these moments and this pairing? Did you enjoy this video? If yes, then don’t forget to like and comment on this video. Till then, goodbye. And have a nice one!