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Made with DeviantArt muro

The words I chose for this title have little to do with DC Comics' Convergence event and the one-shot related to the Darkseid War arc, but I chose the words "Divergence and Convergence" both because they fit the subject of this picture and because of the apropos "DC" initialism those two words form.

This picture is to express my thoughts on the concepts established in Three Jokers and Superman Reborn that the Joker had been three different people all along and that all incarnations of Mr. Mxyzptlk are the same person. Two interestingly contrasted ideas that are also very controversial.

THREE JOKERS

The revelation that there were three Jokers was hinted at during the events of the Darkseid War arc, which wrapped up both the New 52 run of the Justice League and the New 52 in general before DC moved on with the Rebirth era (which mainly served to restore the DC Universe to how it was before the New 52 while still retaining some characters and elements from). The context was that Batman used the Mobius Chair to ask for the Joker's real name. What he learns surprises him, but it isn't until the very end of the arc that Batman reveals that he learned there were three Jokers.

This plot point wasn't resolved until Geoff Johns' Three Jokers miniseries. which proved to be one of his most polarizing works. I initially wasn't thrilled by this retcon, as I feel that one of the things that makes the Joker an interesting villain is how we don't know his actual backstory aside from the detail that he became what he is today from falling into (or deliberately jumping into) a vat of chemicals. In fact, I intended to give the miniseries a chance solely so I could draw a picture devoted to explaining the strengths and shortcomings of Geoff Johns and Brian Azzarello (as I had been a huge fan of Geoff Johns' work on DC, enjoyed Azzarello's works of Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, the Joker graphic novel and Batman: Damned and was aware that the changes Azzarello made to Wonder Woman's origins during the New 52 were widely reviled, so much so that Rebirth explained it away as Diana having her memories altered to try and lead her astray).

My plan on criticizing Geoff Johns and Brain Azzarello was cancelled after I finally read Three Jokers. While still not without its flaws, I still found the story a lot better than I expected it to be.

The premise for the miniseries starts with contradicting the reveal as given in Darkseid War by instead revealing that Batman knew there were three Jokers because the Jokers chose to let the Dark Knight find out. What really impressed me was how the three Jokers each represented a different incarnation of the Joker from DC Comics' lengthy history.

The three Jokers are distinguished by the titles The Criminal, The Clown and The Comedian. The Criminal represents the Golden Age Joker during his first appearance where he was just a humorless murderer and far removed from the quirky and humorous interpretation that started in the late 1940s and became the standard incarnation of him after the Comics Code was established to censor comic books because of some crackpot named Frederick Wertham preaching about how comic books were bad for children.

The Clown is a representation of the Silver Age Joker where he was focused more on being a humorous villain whose crimes were typically large-scale pranks, but since the Comics Code had long been abolished, he's no longer restricted from actually killing people. It's even implied that he was the Joker who killed Jason Todd.

The incarnation of the Joker The Comedian represents is the Joker as depicted in Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, which used elements of the Joker's origin where he used to be a criminal called the Red Hood before the chemical accident that turned him into the Joker, but made the changes of the Joker originally being a failed comedian who was manipulated into being the Red Hood to serve as a fall guy for a pair of crooks and was driven off the deep end not just because of the chemical bath, but also because of his pregnant wife dying in a freak accident shortly before he was coerced into becoming the Red Hood. Famously, this story started the idea of the Joker having a multiple choice past, with what was originally Alan Moore's efforts in rationalizing the discrepancies the Joker's established origin had with the original Red Hood story and escalated to other comics coming up with multiple theories on how the Joker came to be, serving to make him all the more mysterious, sinister and unpredictable.

Obviously (at least to those of you who've read The Killing Joke or at least seen the butchered animated film whose only saving graces where Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their roles from the DC Animated Universe as Batman and the Joker as well as its splendid take on the Looney Song), this means The Comedian was the Joker who crippled Barbara Gordon.

One part of Three Jokers that didn't particularly sit well with the fans was that The Comedian had the change that his wife and child were still alive and had simply been living far away from Gotham because the Joker was apparently abusive and cruel even before he became the Joker. Anyway, the outcome of the story is that The Criminal and The Clown both die, with The Comedian being the only surviving Joker and presumably the Joker we see in all subsequent stories featuring the Clown Prince of Crime. Batman also reveals that he had already figured out The Comedian's real name a long time ago.

The Flashpoint Beyond miniseries would later go even further and reveal the actual name of the surviving Joker. One of the most famous details known about the Flashpoint timeline was that the timeline that resulted from the Barry Allen Flash preventing his mother's death was that Bruce Wayne was shot that fateful night in Crime Alley instead of his parents, which led to Thomas Wayne becoming Batman and Martha Wayne becoming the Flashpoint Joker because losing her son took a serious toll on her sanity.

Flashpoint Beyond came out during the most recent Dark Crisis storyline and had Thomas Wayne puzzled that his reality still exists after Barry Allen undid his altering of history and then going on to investigate a series of murders of people known to be able to time-travel in the standard DC Universe. The culprit turns out to be the Flashpoint Joker, who actually survived her apparent death. This was one of the few times that demonstrates that a dark story doesn't have to end on a tragic note. In the end, Martha Wayne is on the road of getting the professional help she needs, plus she and Thomas get another chance at becoming parents again through Judge Harvey Dent's son becoming the Flashpoint Robin and the Flashpoint universe's surviving heroes fighting back against a Kryptonian invasion.

During Flashpoint Martha Wayne's ramble on why she put her plan into motion, she brought up that she found out what became of the standard Joker in this timeline. Considering that the main premise of Flashpoint was the whole DC Universe becoming a hellhole where most of the characters we're familiar with were either killed before meeting their destiny or became twisted and corrupted and THEN dying, the Flashpoint pre-Joker's life is relatively pleasant, simply living a modest life with his family. As for his real name, it's apparently Jack Oswald White. I personally feel that if the Joker should ever have a real name, it should be Jack Napier (possibly because of how my main introductions to the Caped Crusader were the live-action films by Tim Burton and the late Joel Schumacher as well as the DCAU), but whatever.

EVERY MXYZPTLK IS THE SAME

The revelation of every incarnation of Mr. Mxyzptlk being one and the same was revealed in Superman Reborn, a storyline that tied in to Rebirth and established that the pre-Flashpoint Superman and the New 52 Superman were actually two halves of the same whole (yet another retreading of the famous Superman Blue and Superman Red concept).

I really liked reading Superman Reborn and it is one of my favorite Superman comics, aside from Brian Azzarello's Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow and The Oz Effect. Reading it really warmed me up to Superman's son Jonathan Samuel Kent (to this day, I am neutral on Batman's biological son Damian Wayne) and it was a great story with Mxyzptlk as the antagonist (he's basically trying to erase Jon because he's jealous of Superman not having much time for his games now that he's a dad).

As for the revelation of every version of Mxyzptlk being the same individual, I don't find it nearly as acceptable as the twist of there being three Jokers. Even regarding the fact that a core part of Mxyzptlk's character is that he's a reality-warping prankster from another dimension and presumably isn't bound by the laws of the tangible world, there are a few holes in this idea.

One is how there have been discrepancies towards the pronunciation of Mxyzptlk's name (while the most accepted pronunciations are Mix-yes-spit-lick or Mix-yes-pittle-lick with Kill-tip-zee-zim for his reversed name Kltpzyxm, his Super Friends incarnation went with pronouncing Mxyzptlk as Mix-ill-plick and Kltpzyxm as Klip-ill-skim). It's also a major headache how the stipulation of Mxy having to stay in the fifth dimension for 90 days after being tricked into saying his name backwards fits into this idea.

Two other glaring oversights are how Mxyzptlk was killed in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow and how his Smallville incarnation Mikhail Mxyzptlk has little in common with his standard depiction at all.

The next major DC-related project I plan to get around to that isn't a request would be an overview of all the times DC used crossover events to rationalize the changes they periodically made to try and keep their stories accessible to new readers, as that is one aspect of the DC Universe I've always found fascinating. I will be ready to start once I get around to catching up on Dark Crisis.

Batman, Superman and all related characters (c) DC Comics

Description

Made with DeviantArt muro

The words I chose for this title have little to do with DC Comics' Convergence event and the one-shot related to the Darkseid War arc, but I chose the words "Divergence and Convergence" both because they fit the subject of this picture and because of the apropos "DC" initialism those two words form.

This picture is to express my thoughts on the concepts established in Three Jokers and Superman Reborn that the Joker had been three different people all along and that all incarnations of Mr. Mxyzptlk are the same person. Two interestingly contrasted ideas that are also very controversial.

THREE JOKERS

The revelation that there were three Jokers was hinted at during the events of the Darkseid War arc, which wrapped up both the New 52 run of the Justice League and the New 52 in general before DC moved on with the Rebirth era (which mainly served to restore the DC Universe to how it was before the New 52 while still retaining some characters and elements from). The context was that Batman used the Mobius Chair to ask for the Joker's real name. What he learns surprises him, but it isn't until the very end of the arc that Batman reveals that he learned there were three Jokers.

This plot point wasn't resolved until Geoff Johns' Three Jokers miniseries. which proved to be one of his most polarizing works. I initially wasn't thrilled by this retcon, as I feel that one of the things that makes the Joker an interesting villain is how we don't know his actual backstory aside from the detail that he became what he is today from falling into (or deliberately jumping into) a vat of chemicals. In fact, I intended to give the miniseries a chance solely so I could draw a picture devoted to explaining the strengths and shortcomings of Geoff Johns and Brian Azzarello (as I had been a huge fan of Geoff Johns' work on DC, enjoyed Azzarello's works of Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, the Joker graphic novel and Batman: Damned and was aware that the changes Azzarello made to Wonder Woman's origins during the New 52 were widely reviled, so much so that Rebirth explained it away as Diana having her memories altered to try and lead her astray).

My plan on criticizing Geoff Johns and Brain Azzarello was cancelled after I finally read Three Jokers. While still not without its flaws, I still found the story a lot better than I expected it to be.

The premise for the miniseries starts with contradicting the reveal as given in Darkseid War by instead revealing that Batman knew there were three Jokers because the Jokers chose to let the Dark Knight find out. What really impressed me was how the three Jokers each represented a different incarnation of the Joker from DC Comics' lengthy history.

The three Jokers are distinguished by the titles The Criminal, The Clown and The Comedian. The Criminal represents the Golden Age Joker during his first appearance where he was just a humorless murderer and far removed from the quirky and humorous interpretation that started in the late 1940s and became the standard incarnation of him after the Comics Code was established to censor comic books because of some crackpot named Frederick Wertham preaching about how comic books were bad for children.

The Clown is a representation of the Silver Age Joker where he was focused more on being a humorous villain whose crimes were typically large-scale pranks, but since the Comics Code had long been abolished, he's no longer restricted from actually killing people. It's even implied that he was the Joker who killed Jason Todd.

The incarnation of the Joker The Comedian represents is the Joker as depicted in Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, which used elements of the Joker's origin where he used to be a criminal called the Red Hood before the chemical accident that turned him into the Joker, but made the changes of the Joker originally being a failed comedian who was manipulated into being the Red Hood to serve as a fall guy for a pair of crooks and was driven off the deep end not just because of the chemical bath, but also because of his pregnant wife dying in a freak accident shortly before he was coerced into becoming the Red Hood. Famously, this story started the idea of the Joker having a multiple choice past, with what was originally Alan Moore's efforts in rationalizing the discrepancies the Joker's established origin had with the original Red Hood story and escalated to other comics coming up with multiple theories on how the Joker came to be, serving to make him all the more mysterious, sinister and unpredictable.

Obviously (at least to those of you who've read The Killing Joke or at least seen the butchered animated film whose only saving graces where Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their roles from the DC Animated Universe as Batman and the Joker as well as its splendid take on the Looney Song), this means The Comedian was the Joker who crippled Barbara Gordon.

One part of Three Jokers that didn't particularly sit well with the fans was that The Comedian had the change that his wife and child were still alive and had simply been living far away from Gotham because the Joker was apparently abusive and cruel even before he became the Joker. Anyway, the outcome of the story is that The Criminal and The Clown both die, with The Comedian being the only surviving Joker and presumably the Joker we see in all subsequent stories featuring the Clown Prince of Crime. Batman also reveals that he had already figured out The Comedian's real name a long time ago.

The Flashpoint Beyond miniseries would later go even further and reveal the actual name of the surviving Joker. One of the most famous details known about the Flashpoint timeline was that the timeline that resulted from the Barry Allen Flash preventing his mother's death was that Bruce Wayne was shot that fateful night in Crime Alley instead of his parents, which led to Thomas Wayne becoming Batman and Martha Wayne becoming the Flashpoint Joker because losing her son took a serious toll on her sanity.

Flashpoint Beyond came out during the most recent Dark Crisis storyline and had Thomas Wayne puzzled that his reality still exists after Barry Allen undid his altering of history and then going on to investigate a series of murders of people known to be able to time-travel in the standard DC Universe. The culprit turns out to be the Flashpoint Joker, who actually survived her apparent death. This was one of the few times that demonstrates that a dark story doesn't have to end on a tragic note. In the end, Martha Wayne is on the road of getting the professional help she needs, plus she and Thomas get another chance at becoming parents again through Judge Harvey Dent's son becoming the Flashpoint Robin and the Flashpoint universe's surviving heroes fighting back against a Kryptonian invasion.

During Flashpoint Martha Wayne's ramble on why she put her plan into motion, she brought up that she found out what became of the standard Joker in this timeline. Considering that the main premise of Flashpoint was the whole DC Universe becoming a hellhole where most of the characters we're familiar with were either killed before meeting their destiny or became twisted and corrupted and THEN dying, the Flashpoint pre-Joker's life is relatively pleasant, simply living a modest life with his family. As for his real name, it's apparently Jack Oswald White. I personally feel that if the Joker should ever have a real name, it should be Jack Napier (possibly because of how my main introductions to the Caped Crusader were the live-action films by Tim Burton and the late Joel Schumacher as well as the DCAU), but whatever.

EVERY MXYZPTLK IS THE SAME

The revelation of every incarnation of Mr. Mxyzptlk being one and the same was revealed in Superman Reborn, a storyline that tied in to Rebirth and established that the pre-Flashpoint Superman and the New 52 Superman were actually two halves of the same whole (yet another retreading of the famous Superman Blue and Superman Red concept).

I really liked reading Superman Reborn and it is one of my favorite Superman comics, aside from Brian Azzarello's Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow and The Oz Effect. Reading it really warmed me up to Superman's son Jonathan Samuel Kent (to this day, I am neutral on Batman's biological son Damian Wayne) and it was a great story with Mxyzptlk as the antagonist (he's basically trying to erase Jon because he's jealous of Superman not having much time for his games now that he's a dad).

As for the revelation of every version of Mxyzptlk being the same individual, I don't find it nearly as acceptable as the twist of there being three Jokers. Even regarding the fact that a core part of Mxyzptlk's character is that he's a reality-warping prankster from another dimension and presumably isn't bound by the laws of the tangible world, there are a few holes in this idea.

One is how there have been discrepancies towards the pronunciation of Mxyzptlk's name (while the most accepted pronunciations are Mix-yes-spit-lick or Mix-yes-pittle-lick with Kill-tip-zee-zim for his reversed name Kltpzyxm, his Super Friends incarnation went with pronouncing Mxyzptlk as Mix-ill-plick and Kltpzyxm as Klip-ill-skim). It's also a major headache how the stipulation of Mxy having to stay in the fifth dimension for 90 days after being tricked into saying his name backwards fits into this idea.

Two other glaring oversights are how Mxyzptlk was killed in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow and how his Smallville incarnation Mikhail Mxyzptlk has little in common with his standard depiction at all.

The next major DC-related project I plan to get around to that isn't a request would be an overview of all the times DC used crossover events to rationalize the changes they periodically made to try and keep their stories accessible to new readers, as that is one aspect of the DC Universe I've always found fascinating. I will be ready to start once I get around to catching up on Dark Crisis.

Batman, Superman and all related characters (c) DC Comics