Jack Napier

Jack Napier, also known as The Joker, was a notorious gang leader in Gotham City and was the murderer of Bruce Wayne's parents. He was employed under the crime boss Carl Grissom however he was set up so that Grissom could get Jack's girlfriend, Alishia. Jack fell into a vat of acid during a botched operation at Axis Chemicals during a confrontation with Batman. The chemicals bleached his skin white, died his hair green and peeled his lips back into a red smile.

Jack considered his former self dead and referred to himself as The Joker, a criminal mastermind and lunatic. He killed Grissom and made his entrance in Gotham City. He released a deadly toxin named Smylex that made the citizens of Gotham smile. His grandest scheme came on Gotham's 200 year anniversary, where he dropped $20 million on the crowd as a decoy for his plan to gas Gotham. However his plan was foiled by Batman and Joker shot down the Batwing in anger.

He had Vicki Vale come to a church and dance with him, however Batman showed up and confronted him about killing his parents. Batman punched Joker off of a rooftop but he dragged both Vicki and Batman down as well. He attempted to kill them however a helicopter showed up and he was about to escape. However, Batman grappled him and Joker was dragged down by the weight of a statue. He fell onto the ground below, hitting his head and dying in the process.

Early Life
Born in Brooklyn between February 19 and March 20, 1937, Jack Napier came to live in Gotham City. In his school years, Jack proved himself to be emotionally unstable, but was highly intelligent, and showed aptitude in art, science and chemistry. He also turned to a life of violent crime. When he was fifteen, Jack was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon. Jack, at one point, implied that he may have also murdered people, including those who were parents, since he was a kid.

In 1963, as a young man of the age of twenty-six, Jack and Joe Chill mugged Bruce Wayne's parents, Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife, Martha.

When Thomas interceded in order to protect his family, Jack stepped from the shadows and shot both him and Martha in cold-blood. Jack then inquired to young Bruce after he stepped out of the shadows with his gun aimed: "Tell me, kid, you ever danced with the Devil by the pale moonlight?". Jack cocked the hammer of his revolver and was about to shoot him, but before he could fire, Chill urged him to leave: "Let's go, Jack!". Jack uncocked his gun, decided to spare the boy, turned to leave, and said: "See you around, kid".

Little did Jack know that his prediction came true — he and Bruce met again in the future.

Grissom's Number One Guy
As Jack aged, he worked his way up in the Mafia ranks, and eventually became the right-hand man of Mob Boss, Carl Grissom. Jack often toyed with a deck of lucky cards, which most likely saved his life on one occasion due to a bullet hole that was in between each card and often twirled the cards in small tricks. In stark contrast to his later hilarious attitude, Jack's persona was rather sarcastic and grumpy, and he prided himself on a dignified and handsome appearance.

Jack doubted the competence of Grissom's leadership of the crime family and also snidely retorted to a news broadcast of Harvey Dent's speech about decent people living in Gotham: "Decent people should live somewhere else", as well as heavily implied that he'd kill Dent brutally if the latter even attempted to move in on Grissom.

Jack entered into an affair with Grissom's mistress, Alicia Hunt, which prompted Grissom to set him up to be killed by GCPD Officer, Lt. Eckhardt at Axis Chemicals. When Grissom informed Jack of his entrusted task with stealing incriminating documents from the plant, Jack was toying with his lucky deck again. Jack then turned a random card's face towards him as he inquired "me?". The card happened to be a Joker (which, coincidentally, was the very thing that he later became).

Grissom's plan went awry thanks to intervention by both Batman and Commissioner Gordon and his more loyal police officers. He gunned down Eckhardt and then tried to do the same to Batman. However the Dark Knight deflected his attack and the bullet ricocheted off the factory's machinery, striking him in the face through both cheeks. In pain and in a panic, Jack lost his balance, and fell off the catwalk. Though Batman caught Jack's arm and attempted to pull him back up to safety, Jack's leather glove slipped through Batman's, and he plummeted into the chemical vat below.

Jack survived, and was washed into Gotham Harbor by a drainage pipe. Still submerged, Jack stretched an arm upward through the water's surface, where his lucky deck floated.

Jack's long chemical submersion permanently wreaked a horrible toll: his hair follicles and nails were turned emerald green, his skin pigmentation was bleached chalk white and his lips were flushed ruby-red.

Becoming the Joker
After he saw the horrible result of his chemical encounter, Jack turned to a hack plastic surgeon named Dr. Davis and was particularly desperate to have his facial wounds healed to preserve his prized appearance. Despite an extensive procedure, Davis informed Jack that not only was he unable to reverse the chemical damage to his skin and hair, but due to the extent of the trauma - specifically completely severed nerves - and a lack of effective tools, Davis was forced to resort to a procedure similar to a face lift; stretching the skin of Jack's cheeks over the bullet holes to seal them, resulting in a permanent rictus grin. At Jack's demand, Davis presented Jack with a mirror to reveal that his carefully maintained appearance had been transformed to that of a clown.

This was unacceptable to the vain mobster, and after moments of reflecting on all that had transpired, Jack lost touch with what little sanity that he had. He began to laugh maniacally and convulsively, then smashed the mirror that he held on the table that held Davis' tools, stumbled out of the room, and laughed into the night.

With Jack's mind completely snapped after he saw his bizarre new appearance, Jack then assumed the new identity of "The Joker". He went directly to Grissom's apartment, revealed his survival, and made clear that he knew that it was Grissom who set him up to die in the first place, especially regarding Alicia as his motive, and also held Grissom up in order to prevent him from reaching for a stowed away gun. Grimson tried to cut a deal with Joker but he didnt care. Joker then killed Grissom as revenge for setting him up and took over his empire.

The Clown Prince of Crime then engaged in a violent and chaotic crime spree, with the motive to "outdo" Batman, whom he felt had gotten too much press. When Joker tried to present himself in a more "normal" light, he applied various cosmetic products to give himself a more normal-looking skin tone and hair color that resembled his original appearance.

Mob Meeting
During a mob summit with the rest of the Gotham City Crimelords, Jack claimed that Grissom was just in hiding, who then left him to be the acting President, and declared that, starting with Gotham's 200th anniversary festival, their action would be to "run the city into the ground". However, most of the mob bosses, including Antoine Rotelli and Vinnie Ricorso, were suspicious of Jack's apparent orders from Grissom and his constant devilish grin. Rotelli then wondered what would happen if he said "no". Jack then responded with a handshake and that would be it. Unfortunately for Rotelli, Jack meant by that statement that it would be it for Rotelli, as he fried and electrocuted Rotelli with a Joy Buzzer, which horrified the rest of the Mob bosses and with Jack joking about his demise and then laughing at it. Jack then dismissed the mob as his Goons then rushed in and held them at gunpoint. Joker then ordered Bob to tail Alexander Knox, and then decided (by talking to Rotelli's charred corpse as if he were still alive) to "grease" all of the mob bosses at the summit.

Assassination of Vinnie Ricorso
Joker then arrived at City Hall and, after he claimed that the check was written with a dead hand, murdered Ricorso (who claimed that Grissom had landed him with the check with his signature) with his quill pen after he claimed that he was his "Uncle Bingo" and then had his mime faction of his gang open fire. As Napier made his way down the stairs he noticed that Bruce Wayne was the only member of the crowd who not taken cover, unafraid. Joker got in his black sedan getaway car and waved at Bruce as he stared into window.

Following his debut to the public, Bob showed Joker a photo of Vicki Vale he had taken the event. Joker had a strong reaction to her beauty, a striking blonde similar to Alicia. Joker set up fake date between her and Bruce Wayne.

Smylex Commercial
During this time Joker began to taint some of the raw components of chemicals shipped to beauty companies from the Axis plant. A strange office space was set up in the factory. with a plastic dog next to a common arm chair, mocking domesticity. A large studio room had hundreds of photos taken of dead soldiers stolen from a CIA file where spread across the floor. An elderly scientist, one of the few employees still working at the plant began obeying his wishes. Joker Goons now inhabited the factory and carried the menial labor of loading trucks and operating the gates. A video threat was taped at the plant and interrupted the Action News broadcast when news of the first victims broke.

Incident at the Flugelheim
Joker and his henchmen planned the deaths of patrons and staff of the Flugelheim Museum. A purple gas was released through the ventilation system, killing everyone there apart from Vicki who been given a gas mask by a waiter. Joker was driven to the museum in the Joker Van, where Alicia was left parked outside. As Joker entered the building, he cued Lawrence to blast a song called Partyman on his boombox. The group danced over the corpses and defaced every priceless work of art on their way up the stairs, Joker's goal that evening to deface every vision of beauty that came into view, his final target, Vicki Vale. After sitting at her table he mocked her entire fashion portfolio but praised a photo of a dead civilian from the Corto Maltese Revolution. He offered her the job of photographing his homicidal performance art but she didn't seem very enthusiastic. During this Bob walked Alica over to table, now unable to stand by herself. Vicki asked about her mask and Napier asked her to show her scarred visage. Joker balked as it startled Vale so much she immediately rose from her seat, realizing the full extent of Napier's intentions. Joker closed in to squirt her face with his Acid Flower, she dodged and threw water in his face. His flesh makeup now ruined, Joker feigned pain, hiding his face and rubbing more makeup off. As Vale attempted to comfort him he looked up to startle her and cackled in her face. Suddenly Batman crashed through the skylight and grabbed Vale away from him. As Joker stepped forward, the Dark Knight held up a Foefie Gauntlet and unfurled the folding gadgetry in his face, creating a ziplane from the balcony to the entrance. Joker watched mouth agape as the pair left the building, he could only ponder where one could acquire such "wonderful toys."

Reclaiming his Rhubarb
The following day he arrived at Vale's apartment to express his anger her running off with a "sideshow phony." He presented the mask of Alicia, placing it on the mantle and smashing it after claiming she had jumped out a window. Wildly giggling, suddenly Bruce Wayne appeared. As he approached Joker, Bob pointed his pistol at him on the quickest draw of his life, ready to protect Jack. Joker motioned to Bob and Lawrence to stand down and let Wayne speak. Bruce leaned in and whispered that he know Napier's true identity, he then proceeded to tell a story about a "bad seed" that met an unfortunate end. This culminated in Wayne settling next to the fireplace, grabbing the fire iron and smashing a vase, beckoning Napier come "get nuts" with him.

Napier looked on stone faced, drawing a small derringer he asked if he'd ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight. Bruce asked" what?" in dismay, to which Joker explained he asked that of all his prey before shooting him in the heart. Joker gave a final disingenuous speech to Vale making his way out of the apartment. Joker danced and blew raspberries down the hall as he exited the building.

200th Anniversary Parade
Later, Joker sent a live television broadcast, saying that he would reignite the previously cancelled Gotham City's 200th Anniversary Parade against Mayor Borg's wishes who was not prepared to discuss any deals with him. Joker even promised to drop twenty million dollars on the crowd and offered a challenge to Batman to meet him there.

Batman then drove to Axis Chemicals to stop the manufacturing of Joker's poisonous products once and for all. Batman succeeded in destroying the factory and killed most of Joker's henchmen, but Joker escaped in his helicopter, and mockingly told Batman that he wasn't beaten yet.

At the parade, Joker threw twenty million dollars into the crowd as he had promised (the comic adaptation of the film and the novelization as well as a deleted scene revealed that the money was actually fake one dollar bills with Joker's face on them). After that, Joker released a gas form of Smylex out of his Balloons. Batman arrived in the Batwing, took away the balloons, and released them into the night sky, which caused Joker to kill Bob to vent out his frustration. Batman then made a strafing run on the Joker, but Joker shot down the Batwing with an explosive round that was fired from his long barreled gun.

Skirmish of Gotham Cathedral
Joker then took Vicki hostage and led her at gunpoint into the Old Gotham Cathedral. Realizing that an injured Batman was pursing them up immense staircase, he dropped one of Vale's shoes near Batman to taunt him. When Joker reached the bell tower, he used his Acid Flower to disconnect one of the massive bells which fell to the ground and blocked the only entrance to the stairs so they wouldn't be followed by the police. The falling bell narrowly missed the Dark Knight and he continued the pursuit. Joker then ordered three of his goon to attack the Batman on sight while he forced Vicki to waltz. Batman eventually reached the belfry and after he defeated Joker's henchmen, confronted Joker, and vowed to kill him for murdering his parents years ago, although Joker, who had apparently murdered several parents since he himself was a kid, did not know what Batman was talking about and eventually mocked him for how he made the revelation of Joker making Batman first.

During their confrontation, Batman repeatedly beat up Joker and managed to knock him off the balcony, but Joker reached up with both of his arms and pulled both Batman and Vicki down. Batman and Vicki held on for dear life from a narrow ledge, while Joker insanely taunted them. Joker's Helicopter then arrived to get Joker to safety. Batman fired a bola launcher that then tied Joker's ankle to a large stone gargoyle. The Joker sealed his fate when it broke loose as he refused to let go of the rope ladder.

Death and legacy
Unable to break free from the heavy burden of the gargoyle, Joker lost his grip on his helicopter's rope ladder, fell to his death, and hit the Cathedral's flight of steps below hard, which then broke every bone in his body.

Ironically, just a few seconds beforehand, Joker said: "Sometimes I just kill myself!" Commissioner Gordon then came upon Joker's body and heard a repetitive laugh which drew him ever so slowly. Gordon then reached into Joker's coat and pulled out a laugh box that was activated by the landing.

Though the madness of the Joker was ended forever, the decline of the Gotham mob and the Joker's initial rise paved the way for the appearance of numerous villains with a similar theatricality to both Batman and Joker, such as Penguin, Catwoman, Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy while Harvey Dent himself would suffer a horrific incident that would transform him into the villainous Two-Face.

Bruce continued to have bad memories of Jack Napier killing his parents for the next several years.