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This is a collage series deep dive I made explaining the mysterious planned return of the Jack Nicholson Joker in sequels... alive. Because, the Joker being Joker, nothing is ever as it seems. As the Jack Nicholson Joker said in Batman (1989), "I've been dead once already. It's very liberating." The Joker's death scene was intended to be another fake-out. But Tim Burton didn't end up making a second sequel with Jack Nicholson's Joker because of the moral panic against Batman Returns (1992). Jack was furious that he wasn't given a Joker sequel.

The Burtonverse Earth-89 Gotham City Gazette newspaper says "BATMAN CAPTURES JOKER" that Robert Wuhl's Alexander Knox is reading in the Supergirl crossover TV episode "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part One" [season 5, 2019] so that means the Joker isn't really dead from the helicopter fall in Batman (1989). The newspaper didn't say "Batman Kills Joker," "Captures" means Joker Jack must be alive of course, because really permanently killing off the Joker is a stupid waste of a great character. The Joker co-creator Bill Finger explained in The Steranko History of Comics volume 1 (1970) that originally he had written the Joker dying in Batman #1 (1940) until editor Whitney Ellsworth intervened, "Whit Ellsworth said 'Bill, are you crazy: we have a great character here.' So the last panel was redrawn with an ambulance and a line of dialogue that said he would live, thanks to Ellsworth."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcFKvz…

Batman #135 (2023) "The Bat-Man of Gotham: Conclusion" written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Mike Hawthorne, Jorge Jimenez, and Mikel Janin. The Michael Keaton Batman appears and shows Joker Jack Napier Nicholson alive, with Burtonverse Gotham City's Action News reporting "Deadly 'Joker' Is Back: Commissioner Gordon confirms body of Jack Napier missing", which I recolored to make the colors pop more stronger.

Dark Crisis: Big Bang (2023), written by Mark Waid and art by Dan Jurgens, created a new Earth-789 hybrid of Burtonverse Earth-89 and Donnerverse Earth-78, which shows Joker Jack Napier Nicholson alive, which I recolored to make the colors pop more stronger.

MTV reported in 2007, "Jack Nicholson Furious Over Heath Ledger Playing The Joker." MTV: "What do you think of another actor, Heath Ledger, playing the Joker in 'The Dark Knight'?" Nicholson: "Let me be the way I'm not in interviews. I'm furious. I'm furious. They never asked me about a sequel with the Joker. I know how to do that! Nobody ever asked me." MTV: "Will you see the new film?" Nicholson: "I'm not inclined to watch it because of what I said. I don't think they ever really captured Tim Burton's spirit. They drove the franchise into the ground. Tim Burton's a genius. He had the right take on it. That's why I did the movie. I did the movie based on a single conversation with him. We both come from the cartoon world originally [Jack Nicholson worked in the MGM Animation Studio mail room in 1955-1957 where Jack was offered a job as an animator, but declined, before Jack's movie career started with The Cry Baby Killer (1958) and Tim Burton was an animator for the Walt Disney Animation Studio in 1979-1982 for The Fox and the Hound (1981) and The Black Cauldron (1985) before Tim's directing career started with Vincent (1982)]. We had similar ideas. Tim said the Joker should have a humorous dark side to him. Burton is one of the great moviemakers. I think the world of him. He's the most unassuming man. And he doesn't feel pressure. That's what I love about him. Once he's in there, he's smiling making the movie. That's it!" Jack Nicholson also said, "Well, the Joker comes from my childhood. That's how I got involved with it in the first place. It's a part I always thought I should play. ...I'd like to do about three sequels right in a row... but to be candid, I'm furious."

www.mtv.com/news/f7dfnd/jack-n…

The Sacramento Bee [July 2nd 1989] commented, "I would like to comment on a particular scene that Baltake [film critic Joe Baltake] found disturbing. I felt the museum scene was an integral part of the evolution of Jack Nicholson's character. The blatant defacing and destruction of paintings and sculptures {representing gentility and civilization) defined the Joker's anarchic delusions in a rather graphic visual outburst. I, too, found the scene disturbing but felt that showing the intentional and purposeless destruction of such symbols demonstrated the extent of the Joker's psychosis. I also hope the scene doesn't generate copy-cat vandalism, but it significantly added to my mental image of the Joker."

The Santa Fe New Mexican [June 30th 1989] reported, "Hideously maimed when Batman tosses him into a vat of toxic goo, The Joker hatches a diabolical scheme for revenge. He poisons an entire line of beauty products, causing hundreds of unsuspecting victims to die, grotesquely smiling just like him. The outcome of his confrontation with Batman is never in doubt. But as played by the crafty shameless Nicholson, The Joker has plenty of tricks up his sleeves."

In Amazing Heroes #159 (1989) Andy Mangles asked, "You've actually given the Joker a name: Jack Napier." Batman (1989) writer Sam Hamm explained, "Right. This is not a nod to Jack Nicholson, for any readers who may be wondering. It's actually a play on the word jackanapes [a mischievous person], in the same [vein] that the Riddler's name was E. Nigma [a play on the word enigma]. Giving him a name was a great pleasure to my mind. Whether that will become part of the ongoing mythos in regular comic continuity, I have no idea. It was something I was sort of keen on doing though."

About the Joker's death scene, Tim Burton explained in his Batman [1989] DVD commentary [from 2005], "The thing is, with the Joker, not that he's like Freddy Krueger [from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise] or Jason from the Friday the 13th [franchise], with the Joker there's always a way (to bring him back: surviving the apparent death fall)." It looked like the Joker died many times in the comics since Batman #1 (1940). The Joker always returned.

It looked like the Joker died three times in Batman (1989). It looked like Jack Napier died at Axis Chemicals when he dropped into the vat of acid chemicals, before we see his chalk-white hand rise up. It looked like the Joker died when Batman bombed Axis Chemicals [because the Joker used Axis Chemicals as his hideout], before we see the Joker escaped in his helicopter. It looked like the Joker died when he fell from his helicopter ladder to the pavement, until Batman (1989) writer Sam Hamm explained, “I pitched a scene where the sequel would open with the trial of the Joker, who it turns out has survived his fall from the top of the cathedral,” Hamm says. “He gets wheeled into a courtroom in a full body cast [and] he announces that he wants to take the witness stand."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=22nqcq…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KFJbB…

www.denofgeek.com/movies/batma…

The San Francisco Examiner [February 19th 1989] explained, "There is the sudden flaring of klieg lights, the deafening whirr of propeller blades and Nicholson hitting his mark -- dangling from the copter and bellowing his lines with all the wild-eyed mania of Daryl Van Horne in 'The Witches of Eastwick' or the mad ravings of Jack Torrance in 'The Shining.' Luridly etched in purple and white against the velvet night, Nicholson is none other than The Joker -- that comic book clown prince of crime and the keystone of the upcoming film 'Batman.'"

The book Jack's Life: A Biography (2015) explained that "Talking with Batman creator [co--creator] Bob Kane, Nicholson learned that Kane [actually Bill Finger] had based the Joker, in part, on a character played by Conrad Veidt in a 1928 movie, The Man Who Laughs. The Veidt character [Gwynplaine] wears a perpetual freakish grin because as a boy his check muscles were slit. The actor [Jack Nicholson] made an effort to track down the silent picture, directed by the German Expressionist Paul Leni, and watched it for pointers." That's why Joker Jack has that perpetual freakish grin with his check muscle nerves severed.

Fred Willard's Stuffleby in the Wizards of Waverly Place episodes "Make It Happen" [season 2, 2009] and "Monster Hunter" [season 3, 2009] had the same perpetual grin as Conrad Veidt's Gwynplaine in The Man Who Laughs (1928) and Jack Nicholson's Joker in Batman (1989).

There's an obscure Batmania #14 (1967) lost media article titled "Con-Cave '66 Batmanias Assemble!" by Tom Fagan where Bill Finger explained at the New York Academy Convention in 1966, "Joker? Well, I got a call from Bob Kane, he asked me to come up. He had a new villain. When I arrived he was holding a playing card. Apparently Jerry Robinson or Bob, I don't recall who, looked at the card and they had an idea for a character ... the Joker. Bob made a rough sketch of it. At first it didn't look much like the Joker. It looked more like a clown. But I remembered that Grosset & Dunlap formerly issued very cheap editions of classics by Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo ... The volume I had was The Man Who Laughs — his face had been permanently operated on so that he will always have this perpetual grin. And it looked absolutely weird. I cut the picture out of the book and gave it to Bob, who drew the profile and gave it a more sinister aspect. Then he worked on the face; made him look a little clown-like, which accounted for his white face, red lips, green hair. And that was the Joker!" Bill Finger died of atherosclerosis [clogged arteries] in 1974 and Bob Kane stole all the credit for the creation of the Joker, the Batman, Vicki Vale, the Penguin, the Catwoman, etc. Bill Finger deserves a large share of the credit.

comicbookplus.com/?dlid=11970

Jim Steranko wrote in The Steranko History of Comics volume 1 (1970), "The first Batman issue was even more notable due to the appearance of the comics' first major villain, The Joker. As the clown prince of crime he was almost a star in his own right. The Joker was, in fact, the sole creation [co--creation] of Jerry Robinson, 'I felt the time had come when Batman needed a superior villain with which to cope. I wanted a character that embodied the qualities of intrigue and mystery, yet with a great visual flair. He should be sardonic yet possess humor, an element important in his characterization. I got the idea from a playing card.'" Jim Steranko wrote, "From the beginning, the insanest of glints twinkled in the eyes of Batman's adversaries. Dr. Death and Hugo Strange were forerunners of the super foes that would repeatedly plague the cowled crimefighter. Monopolizing DC's best villains, Batman's rogues gallery was populated with criminals bearing pulp lineage. But first and foremost was The Joker. Taken from the playing card almost intact, this chalk-faced harlequin with his psychotic grin and mossy green hair injected his sleeping victims with a drug that caused death in 24 hours. Then hew publicly predicted their fates. Victims expired with sardonic death-grins stamped on their faces, the calling card of The Joker. The Joker operated in bizarre irrational patterns, the logic of which never became evident until the conclusion of the story. Leaving a trail of mordant laughter and madness, the cagey clown could only be defeated by the dynamic duo once one of his grim jokes turned out to be on him. The Joker was number one, and everyone knew it. Finger had written both Joker tales that appeared in issue 1 and confessed that the ghoulish jester had originality died in the second story." Bill Finger explained, "Whit Ellsworth said, 'Bill, are you crazy; we have a great character here. So the last panel was redrawn with an ambulance and a line of dialogue that said he would live, thanks to Ellsworth." Jim Steranko wrote, "Finger also remembers calling Kane's attention to a picture he had torn from Grosset and Dunlap's book version of The Man Who Laughs [The Man Who Laughs Photoplay Edition (1928)]. It was a perfect reference from the showing Conrad Veidt's mouth pulled bizarrely back into a twisted, horrific grin." Like Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson also took all the credit for the creation of the Joker and Robin away from Bill Finger. Bill Finger deserves a large share of the credit.

In Amazing Heroes #159 (1989) Batman (1989) writer Sam Hamm explained, "The origin sequence is very similar to what is seen in the Red Hood comic book back-story for the Joker in 1951 and the Killing Joke. He is surprised by the police at a robbery at Axis Chemical -- which was changed from Ace Chemical to Axis for legal reasons -- and Batman intervenes. Jack Napier -- becoming the Joker, is dumped into a vat of toxic waste and dumped into the river. He emerges there in his full horrific glory."

The Arizona Republic [June 25th 1989] reported, "The movie pays homage to the very first Joker comic book story. In Batman, No. 1 [1940], The Joker was a vicious psychopath who killed remorselessly. The chemical he used to kill his victims left their corpses smiling. Jack Nicholson's Joker does the same thing."

The Age [October 21st 1990] reported, "Joker Jack, looking more macabre and menacing than ever before, worried if he'd gone over the top in some scenes. Later, though he said: 'You couldn't go over the top in that part. There was no top.' He strutted through some of the most memorable scenes of the '80s, such as his animated discussion with a charred corpse and his wonderfully childish pique over the theft of his poison gas balloons by Batman. 'I did anything that came to mind,' he said, really relishing the part."

Calgary Herald [July 29th 1989] stated, "How else do you play a man who considers himself to be dead except to go over the top? In a performance that includes summoning up gales of demonic laughter, dancing like a lunatic, trashing an art museum, telling deliberately bad jokes, reciting sentimental poetry and electrocuting an enemy with a deadly joy buzzer, Nicholson does some amazingly revelatory work."

In The News and Observer [January 20th 1989] Jack Nicholson said, "What I liked about the Joker is that he has no taste in his humor," Mr. Nicholson said.
www.newspapers.com/image/65598…

The Orlando Sentinel [July 21st 1989] noted, "'Over the top' is a phrase that has been widely used to describe Jack Nicholson's performance in Batman. This usually pejorative phrase suggests that an actor has gone further than is wise. As the Joker, Nicholson does go over the top -- way over the top. But he also gets under our skins by revealing something about his character and himself. The Joker's pain is right on the surface, in his awful smile and lost handsomeness."

"Jack went over the top." That was the point- he went nuts. Jack Nicholson gave the performance of a lifetime.

The Spokesman-Review [June 23rd 1989] noted, "This is the role you've been leading up to for your whole career, Jack. This is where you were headed from the moment you played that squirming nutcase dental patient back in 1960 in the original 'Little Shop of Horrors.' www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAli9a…

Your madman in 'The Shining' www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmY4k8…

and your devil in 'The Witches of Eastwick' www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIzNF4…

were building blocks for the Joker. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hasipu…

'Batman' is your cathedral."

The Age [October 21st 1990] reported, "Meanwhile, Nicholson has ascended to a level of popularity even he could never have imagined. Fan reaction in the past, he said, was 'pretty steady', adding: 'If I go somewhere and I have to stand still, I collect your average celebrity crowd.' Not any longer. At 53 with thinning hair and the makings of a pot belly, he has become the idol of an army of Joker fans. They seek him out and shout 'Joker!' over and over at the tops of their lungs. They want autographs, they want to touch, and most of all they want to hear that maniacal laugh again. They want Jack Nicholson to play the Joker forever."

The Leader-Post [August 10th 1990] reported, "If there is a 'Batman 2' in his future, he said he doesn't know about it. But he admitted it sounds more right than not since the original was such a success. He would be a more svelte Joker, since Nicholson looks slimmer than he has in a decade. He proudly showed off his trim look but is adamant about not discussing it. 'My diet is a state secret. I resent people who want to talk about your diet instead of your movie.'"

The Sydney Morning Herald [January 14th 1990] reported, "As the year begins, Dustin Hoffman is contemplating a rumoured $9 million offer to play the Penguin opposite Jack Nicholson's Joker in the sequel to Batman. He is also wrapping up a New York season of The Merchant Of Venice. and planning even more Shakespeare after that."

Obviously Dustin Hoffman turned down the Penguin offer and starred as Captain Hook in Hook (1991) and Bernie LaPlante in Hero (1992) instead of the Penguin in Batman Returns (1992) and the return of Jack Nicholson's Joker alive didn't end up being written into Batman Returns by the writers Sam Hamm, Daniel Waters nor Wesley Strick, so Jack starred as corrupt Marine Colonel Jessup in A Few Good Men (1992) instead.

Tony Slattery on Saturday Night at the Movies in 1989 reported from the Gotham City Broad Avenue set at Pinewood Studios in England, "Batman II is set to go into production towards the end of next year [1990]. The word is that Michael Keaton will again don his cape and codpiece to play the title role. According to some reports, Dustin Hoffman will play the part of the Penguin, picking up a cool 5 million pounds in the process. Hoffman is alleged to have beaten off stiff competition from the likes of Danny DeVito and Robert De Niro. Cher is the hot favorite to play the part of Catwoman. And Jack Nicholson is set to repeat his beautifully understated performance as the Joker."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6IPeC…

Batman Returns went into production toards the end of 1991. Annette Bening got the part of Catwoman instead of Cher, but Annette became pregnant by Warren Beatty, so obviously Michelle Pfeiffer became Catwoman. Obviously Dustin Hoffman did Hook and Hero instead of Batman Returns and Jack Nicholson's Joker didn't end up being included in Batman Returns so Jack starred in A Few Good Men instead.

Comic Book Resources reported in 2001, "Will Jack Nicholson reprise his role as the Joker in either of the upcoming Batman movies? Probably not, but if the actor had his way he would do it. In his weekly column for E! Online, Anderson Jones heard from the actor at a press junket for his upcoming movie The Pledge. Nicholson told reporters he'd love to play the Joker on the big screen again. 'Baby, I've promoted it endless times,' Nicholson is quoted as saying. 'I've got the title. I wrote the scene. I know how to bring him back to life. They're hung up on: I died in the first picture. Are they kidding? The guy was in radioactive waste over his head in the opening scene.'"

www.cbr.com/331631-2/?utm_sour…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcv9BR…

Warner Home Video in 2005 released the Batman (1989) special edition DVD/Blu-ray featurette "Villains: The Joker" where Jack Nicholson explained, "This would be the character, whose core -- while totally determinate of the part -- was the least limiting of any I would ever encounter. This is a more literary way of approaching than I might have had as a kid reading the comics, but you have to get specific... He's not wired up the same way. This guy has survived nuclear waste immersion here."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uYyPn…

www.mentalfloss.com/article/56…

Jack Nicholson conformed to Esquire in 2016, "I was particularly proud of my performance as The Joker. I considered it a piece of pop art."
www.esquire.com/uk/culture/fil…

The Leader-Post [June 4th 1999] reported, "Jack Nicholson may return as The Joker."
www.newspapers.com/image/49739…

In the Poughkeepsie Journal [April 19th 1990] reported, "Speaking of 'Batman' people, Jack Nicholson, who played the Caped Crusader's arch-enemy The Joker in the first film, says he hasn't even thought about any other roles during the two years he's worked on 'Chinatown' sequel 'The Two Jakes,' which winds up production April 30. Now that he's done with that, he says a 'Batman II' might be a possibility. 'It depends on the part and the script,' Nicholson said. 'I won't do it for the tremendous amount of money. I never did it for that.'"

www.newspapers.com/image/11460…

Prevue [August 1992] reported, "Meanwhile, rumors bred faster than rats in Gotham: two sequels would be lensed simultaneously, possibly in Mexico; Catwoman and the Penguin would villainize the first, followed by Two-Face, DA Harvey Dent's acid-maimed alter ego, in the second; Robin would return to his rightful place in the masked mythos; and Jack Nicholson's Joker would be revived for another Gotham go-round."

www.1989batman.com/2014/10/vin…

The Poughkeepsie Journal [July 13th 1989] reported, "Nicholson also talks about a sequel, telling Daily Variety that 'They'd be fools not to do another.' Would Nicholson return for second go-round as The Joker, last seen making a big dent in a Gotham City sidewalk? 'I would not discuss (the possibilities) with anybody,' Nicholson said. 'There is too much money involved.'"
www.newspapers.com/image/11434…

The Talk Town newspaper [July 15th 1990] reported, "At one point, Jack Nicholson told Hollywood Freeway that he would not return as the Joker, 'I'm dead,' Nicholson said. But even the dead return in Hollywood, and Nicholson has been telling people he might consider a comeback. Who could blame him? His take from 'Batman' has been at least $25 million."

The Rutland Daily Herald [August 20th 1989] said, "-- Dead (but we don't believe it): Jack Nicholson's Joker, who undoubtedly will show up in 'Batman II.'"
www.newspapers.com/image/53473…

Batman (1989) scriptwriter Sam Hamm joked in the Comics Interview Batman Super Special (1989), "Oh, yeah, absolutely - there's a huge confrontation, the Batman gets killed and the Joker goes on to make sequel after sequel. (Laughter.)" Sam Hamm explained, "People who have either seen the screenplay or heard about it get very concerned because we seem to be killing off one of the major characters [the Joker], but as I point out, they did that to Dracula and the Wolfman in every installment of the [1931-1948 Universal monsters] series and it didn't bother their consciences too much to bring them back."
Comics Interview's Jeff Gelb replied, "Which is the exact same in the comics, by the way."
Sam Hamm points out, "Yeah, you're dead until somebody gets stuck for a story and says, 'Hey, wouldn't it be great if we brought back Clayface?'"
www.1989batman.com/2013/05/vin…

A 1989 article from Los Angeles Times titled "Cliffhanger" by Pat H. Broeske from April 2nd, 1989, reported, "How serious is that talk about a 'Batman' sequel? According to one source close to the mega-budgeted summer pic, it’s so serious that the film makers are mulling two different endings. As scripted, Batman’s dastardly nemesis, The Joker--played by Jack Nicholson--meets his demise when he falls off a bell tower, following a climactic battle with the Caped Crusader. 'But they shot the ending two different ways because they may want to bring Jack back,' revealed our source."

What was the different way Tim Burton shot the ending of Batman (1989) as a cliffhanger to bring Jack back? Release the Burton cut with the alternate cliffhanger ending.

www.latimes.com/archives/la-xp…

The writer of the first Batman movie, Sam Hamm, tells us on the episode of DC Standom, “The head of Warner Bros. production at the time was Mark Cannon, and he said ‘If we could find some way to get Jack Nicholson's Joker back it would be incredible.'"

“I pitched a scene where the sequel would open with the trial of the Joker, who it turns out has survived his fall from the top of the cathedral,” Hamm says. “He gets wheeled into a courtroom in a full body cast [and] he announces that he wants to take the witness stand. The guy who’s prosecuting him is, of course, Harvey Dent.”

"The Joker says, ‘Okay, I’ve done some terrible things, but I wanted to be here today just to tell you that I know that Batman, whoever you are, you are somewhere here in this audience, because there’s no way that I would come into court and you wouldn’t be there.’ And so, with the one part of his body that’s still working, he presses a little trigger…and that’s how Harvey’s face gets scarred.”

Sam Hamm's sequel pitch idea could have been great except for the one major flaw in Sam Hamm's pitch was if the Joker "blows himself, the witnesses, the judge, and everything else to smithereens…and that’s how Harvey’s face gets scarred.” If the Joker suicide bombs the courtroom then the Joker and both Batman and Harvey Dent, all in the courtroom, would all be dead from the explosion. The sequel pitch could have easily been fixed in the script stage to Joker pressing a little trigger to his acid flower instead that squirts acid in Harvey's face…and that’s how Harvey’s face gets scarred. Easy fix. But then WB obviously decided they wanted the sequel to feature the Penguin and Catwoman, instead of Billy Dee's Two-Face.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=22nqcq…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KFJbB…

www.denofgeek.com/movies/batma…

Description

This is a collage series deep dive I made explaining the mysterious planned return of the Jack Nicholson Joker in sequels... alive. Because, the Joker being Joker, nothing is ever as it seems. As the Jack Nicholson Joker said in Batman (1989), "I've been dead once already. It's very liberating." The Joker's death scene was intended to be another fake-out. But Tim Burton didn't end up making a second sequel with Jack Nicholson's Joker because of the moral panic against Batman Returns (1992). Jack was furious that he wasn't given a Joker sequel.

The Burtonverse Earth-89 Gotham City Gazette newspaper says "BATMAN CAPTURES JOKER" that Robert Wuhl's Alexander Knox is reading in the Supergirl crossover TV episode "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part One" [season 5, 2019] so that means the Joker isn't really dead from the helicopter fall in Batman (1989). The newspaper didn't say "Batman Kills Joker," "Captures" means Joker Jack must be alive of course, because really permanently killing off the Joker is a stupid waste of a great character. The Joker co-creator Bill Finger explained in The Steranko History of Comics volume 1 (1970) that originally he had written the Joker dying in Batman #1 (1940) until editor Whitney Ellsworth intervened, "Whit Ellsworth said 'Bill, are you crazy: we have a great character here.' So the last panel was redrawn with an ambulance and a line of dialogue that said he would live, thanks to Ellsworth."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcFKvz…

Batman #135 (2023) "The Bat-Man of Gotham: Conclusion" written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Mike Hawthorne, Jorge Jimenez, and Mikel Janin. The Michael Keaton Batman appears and shows Joker Jack Napier Nicholson alive, with Burtonverse Gotham City's Action News reporting "Deadly 'Joker' Is Back: Commissioner Gordon confirms body of Jack Napier missing", which I recolored to make the colors pop more stronger.

Dark Crisis: Big Bang (2023), written by Mark Waid and art by Dan Jurgens, created a new Earth-789 hybrid of Burtonverse Earth-89 and Donnerverse Earth-78, which shows Joker Jack Napier Nicholson alive, which I recolored to make the colors pop more stronger.

MTV reported in 2007, "Jack Nicholson Furious Over Heath Ledger Playing The Joker." MTV: "What do you think of another actor, Heath Ledger, playing the Joker in 'The Dark Knight'?" Nicholson: "Let me be the way I'm not in interviews. I'm furious. I'm furious. They never asked me about a sequel with the Joker. I know how to do that! Nobody ever asked me." MTV: "Will you see the new film?" Nicholson: "I'm not inclined to watch it because of what I said. I don't think they ever really captured Tim Burton's spirit. They drove the franchise into the ground. Tim Burton's a genius. He had the right take on it. That's why I did the movie. I did the movie based on a single conversation with him. We both come from the cartoon world originally [Jack Nicholson worked in the MGM Animation Studio mail room in 1955-1957 where Jack was offered a job as an animator, but declined, before Jack's movie career started with The Cry Baby Killer (1958) and Tim Burton was an animator for the Walt Disney Animation Studio in 1979-1982 for The Fox and the Hound (1981) and The Black Cauldron (1985) before Tim's directing career started with Vincent (1982)]. We had similar ideas. Tim said the Joker should have a humorous dark side to him. Burton is one of the great moviemakers. I think the world of him. He's the most unassuming man. And he doesn't feel pressure. That's what I love about him. Once he's in there, he's smiling making the movie. That's it!" Jack Nicholson also said, "Well, the Joker comes from my childhood. That's how I got involved with it in the first place. It's a part I always thought I should play. ...I'd like to do about three sequels right in a row... but to be candid, I'm furious."

www.mtv.com/news/f7dfnd/jack-n…

The Sacramento Bee [July 2nd 1989] commented, "I would like to comment on a particular scene that Baltake [film critic Joe Baltake] found disturbing. I felt the museum scene was an integral part of the evolution of Jack Nicholson's character. The blatant defacing and destruction of paintings and sculptures {representing gentility and civilization) defined the Joker's anarchic delusions in a rather graphic visual outburst. I, too, found the scene disturbing but felt that showing the intentional and purposeless destruction of such symbols demonstrated the extent of the Joker's psychosis. I also hope the scene doesn't generate copy-cat vandalism, but it significantly added to my mental image of the Joker."

The Santa Fe New Mexican [June 30th 1989] reported, "Hideously maimed when Batman tosses him into a vat of toxic goo, The Joker hatches a diabolical scheme for revenge. He poisons an entire line of beauty products, causing hundreds of unsuspecting victims to die, grotesquely smiling just like him. The outcome of his confrontation with Batman is never in doubt. But as played by the crafty shameless Nicholson, The Joker has plenty of tricks up his sleeves."

In Amazing Heroes #159 (1989) Andy Mangles asked, "You've actually given the Joker a name: Jack Napier." Batman (1989) writer Sam Hamm explained, "Right. This is not a nod to Jack Nicholson, for any readers who may be wondering. It's actually a play on the word jackanapes [a mischievous person], in the same [vein] that the Riddler's name was E. Nigma [a play on the word enigma]. Giving him a name was a great pleasure to my mind. Whether that will become part of the ongoing mythos in regular comic continuity, I have no idea. It was something I was sort of keen on doing though."

About the Joker's death scene, Tim Burton explained in his Batman [1989] DVD commentary [from 2005], "The thing is, with the Joker, not that he's like Freddy Krueger [from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise] or Jason from the Friday the 13th [franchise], with the Joker there's always a way (to bring him back: surviving the apparent death fall)." It looked like the Joker died many times in the comics since Batman #1 (1940). The Joker always returned.

It looked like the Joker died three times in Batman (1989). It looked like Jack Napier died at Axis Chemicals when he dropped into the vat of acid chemicals, before we see his chalk-white hand rise up. It looked like the Joker died when Batman bombed Axis Chemicals [because the Joker used Axis Chemicals as his hideout], before we see the Joker escaped in his helicopter. It looked like the Joker died when he fell from his helicopter ladder to the pavement, until Batman (1989) writer Sam Hamm explained, “I pitched a scene where the sequel would open with the trial of the Joker, who it turns out has survived his fall from the top of the cathedral,” Hamm says. “He gets wheeled into a courtroom in a full body cast [and] he announces that he wants to take the witness stand."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=22nqcq…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KFJbB…

www.denofgeek.com/movies/batma…

The San Francisco Examiner [February 19th 1989] explained, "There is the sudden flaring of klieg lights, the deafening whirr of propeller blades and Nicholson hitting his mark -- dangling from the copter and bellowing his lines with all the wild-eyed mania of Daryl Van Horne in 'The Witches of Eastwick' or the mad ravings of Jack Torrance in 'The Shining.' Luridly etched in purple and white against the velvet night, Nicholson is none other than The Joker -- that comic book clown prince of crime and the keystone of the upcoming film 'Batman.'"

The book Jack's Life: A Biography (2015) explained that "Talking with Batman creator [co--creator] Bob Kane, Nicholson learned that Kane [actually Bill Finger] had based the Joker, in part, on a character played by Conrad Veidt in a 1928 movie, The Man Who Laughs. The Veidt character [Gwynplaine] wears a perpetual freakish grin because as a boy his check muscles were slit. The actor [Jack Nicholson] made an effort to track down the silent picture, directed by the German Expressionist Paul Leni, and watched it for pointers." That's why Joker Jack has that perpetual freakish grin with his check muscle nerves severed.

Fred Willard's Stuffleby in the Wizards of Waverly Place episodes "Make It Happen" [season 2, 2009] and "Monster Hunter" [season 3, 2009] had the same perpetual grin as Conrad Veidt's Gwynplaine in The Man Who Laughs (1928) and Jack Nicholson's Joker in Batman (1989).

There's an obscure Batmania #14 (1967) lost media article titled "Con-Cave '66 Batmanias Assemble!" by Tom Fagan where Bill Finger explained at the New York Academy Convention in 1966, "Joker? Well, I got a call from Bob Kane, he asked me to come up. He had a new villain. When I arrived he was holding a playing card. Apparently Jerry Robinson or Bob, I don't recall who, looked at the card and they had an idea for a character ... the Joker. Bob made a rough sketch of it. At first it didn't look much like the Joker. It looked more like a clown. But I remembered that Grosset & Dunlap formerly issued very cheap editions of classics by Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo ... The volume I had was The Man Who Laughs — his face had been permanently operated on so that he will always have this perpetual grin. And it looked absolutely weird. I cut the picture out of the book and gave it to Bob, who drew the profile and gave it a more sinister aspect. Then he worked on the face; made him look a little clown-like, which accounted for his white face, red lips, green hair. And that was the Joker!" Bill Finger died of atherosclerosis [clogged arteries] in 1974 and Bob Kane stole all the credit for the creation of the Joker, the Batman, Vicki Vale, the Penguin, the Catwoman, etc. Bill Finger deserves a large share of the credit.

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Jim Steranko wrote in The Steranko History of Comics volume 1 (1970), "The first Batman issue was even more notable due to the appearance of the comics' first major villain, The Joker. As the clown prince of crime he was almost a star in his own right. The Joker was, in fact, the sole creation [co--creation] of Jerry Robinson, 'I felt the time had come when Batman needed a superior villain with which to cope. I wanted a character that embodied the qualities of intrigue and mystery, yet with a great visual flair. He should be sardonic yet possess humor, an element important in his characterization. I got the idea from a playing card.'" Jim Steranko wrote, "From the beginning, the insanest of glints twinkled in the eyes of Batman's adversaries. Dr. Death and Hugo Strange were forerunners of the super foes that would repeatedly plague the cowled crimefighter. Monopolizing DC's best villains, Batman's rogues gallery was populated with criminals bearing pulp lineage. But first and foremost was The Joker. Taken from the playing card almost intact, this chalk-faced harlequin with his psychotic grin and mossy green hair injected his sleeping victims with a drug that caused death in 24 hours. Then hew publicly predicted their fates. Victims expired with sardonic death-grins stamped on their faces, the calling card of The Joker. The Joker operated in bizarre irrational patterns, the logic of which never became evident until the conclusion of the story. Leaving a trail of mordant laughter and madness, the cagey clown could only be defeated by the dynamic duo once one of his grim jokes turned out to be on him. The Joker was number one, and everyone knew it. Finger had written both Joker tales that appeared in issue 1 and confessed that the ghoulish jester had originality died in the second story." Bill Finger explained, "Whit Ellsworth said, 'Bill, are you crazy; we have a great character here. So the last panel was redrawn with an ambulance and a line of dialogue that said he would live, thanks to Ellsworth." Jim Steranko wrote, "Finger also remembers calling Kane's attention to a picture he had torn from Grosset and Dunlap's book version of The Man Who Laughs [The Man Who Laughs Photoplay Edition (1928)]. It was a perfect reference from the showing Conrad Veidt's mouth pulled bizarrely back into a twisted, horrific grin." Like Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson also took all the credit for the creation of the Joker and Robin away from Bill Finger. Bill Finger deserves a large share of the credit.

In Amazing Heroes #159 (1989) Batman (1989) writer Sam Hamm explained, "The origin sequence is very similar to what is seen in the Red Hood comic book back-story for the Joker in 1951 and the Killing Joke. He is surprised by the police at a robbery at Axis Chemical -- which was changed from Ace Chemical to Axis for legal reasons -- and Batman intervenes. Jack Napier -- becoming the Joker, is dumped into a vat of toxic waste and dumped into the river. He emerges there in his full horrific glory."

The Arizona Republic [June 25th 1989] reported, "The movie pays homage to the very first Joker comic book story. In Batman, No. 1 [1940], The Joker was a vicious psychopath who killed remorselessly. The chemical he used to kill his victims left their corpses smiling. Jack Nicholson's Joker does the same thing."

The Age [October 21st 1990] reported, "Joker Jack, looking more macabre and menacing than ever before, worried if he'd gone over the top in some scenes. Later, though he said: 'You couldn't go over the top in that part. There was no top.' He strutted through some of the most memorable scenes of the '80s, such as his animated discussion with a charred corpse and his wonderfully childish pique over the theft of his poison gas balloons by Batman. 'I did anything that came to mind,' he said, really relishing the part."

Calgary Herald [July 29th 1989] stated, "How else do you play a man who considers himself to be dead except to go over the top? In a performance that includes summoning up gales of demonic laughter, dancing like a lunatic, trashing an art museum, telling deliberately bad jokes, reciting sentimental poetry and electrocuting an enemy with a deadly joy buzzer, Nicholson does some amazingly revelatory work."

In The News and Observer [January 20th 1989] Jack Nicholson said, "What I liked about the Joker is that he has no taste in his humor," Mr. Nicholson said.
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The Orlando Sentinel [July 21st 1989] noted, "'Over the top' is a phrase that has been widely used to describe Jack Nicholson's performance in Batman. This usually pejorative phrase suggests that an actor has gone further than is wise. As the Joker, Nicholson does go over the top -- way over the top. But he also gets under our skins by revealing something about his character and himself. The Joker's pain is right on the surface, in his awful smile and lost handsomeness."

"Jack went over the top." That was the point- he went nuts. Jack Nicholson gave the performance of a lifetime.

The Spokesman-Review [June 23rd 1989] noted, "This is the role you've been leading up to for your whole career, Jack. This is where you were headed from the moment you played that squirming nutcase dental patient back in 1960 in the original 'Little Shop of Horrors.' www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAli9a…

Your madman in 'The Shining' www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmY4k8…

and your devil in 'The Witches of Eastwick' www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIzNF4…

were building blocks for the Joker. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hasipu…

'Batman' is your cathedral."

The Age [October 21st 1990] reported, "Meanwhile, Nicholson has ascended to a level of popularity even he could never have imagined. Fan reaction in the past, he said, was 'pretty steady', adding: 'If I go somewhere and I have to stand still, I collect your average celebrity crowd.' Not any longer. At 53 with thinning hair and the makings of a pot belly, he has become the idol of an army of Joker fans. They seek him out and shout 'Joker!' over and over at the tops of their lungs. They want autographs, they want to touch, and most of all they want to hear that maniacal laugh again. They want Jack Nicholson to play the Joker forever."

The Leader-Post [August 10th 1990] reported, "If there is a 'Batman 2' in his future, he said he doesn't know about it. But he admitted it sounds more right than not since the original was such a success. He would be a more svelte Joker, since Nicholson looks slimmer than he has in a decade. He proudly showed off his trim look but is adamant about not discussing it. 'My diet is a state secret. I resent people who want to talk about your diet instead of your movie.'"

The Sydney Morning Herald [January 14th 1990] reported, "As the year begins, Dustin Hoffman is contemplating a rumoured $9 million offer to play the Penguin opposite Jack Nicholson's Joker in the sequel to Batman. He is also wrapping up a New York season of The Merchant Of Venice. and planning even more Shakespeare after that."

Obviously Dustin Hoffman turned down the Penguin offer and starred as Captain Hook in Hook (1991) and Bernie LaPlante in Hero (1992) instead of the Penguin in Batman Returns (1992) and the return of Jack Nicholson's Joker alive didn't end up being written into Batman Returns by the writers Sam Hamm, Daniel Waters nor Wesley Strick, so Jack starred as corrupt Marine Colonel Jessup in A Few Good Men (1992) instead.

Tony Slattery on Saturday Night at the Movies in 1989 reported from the Gotham City Broad Avenue set at Pinewood Studios in England, "Batman II is set to go into production towards the end of next year [1990]. The word is that Michael Keaton will again don his cape and codpiece to play the title role. According to some reports, Dustin Hoffman will play the part of the Penguin, picking up a cool 5 million pounds in the process. Hoffman is alleged to have beaten off stiff competition from the likes of Danny DeVito and Robert De Niro. Cher is the hot favorite to play the part of Catwoman. And Jack Nicholson is set to repeat his beautifully understated performance as the Joker."

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Batman Returns went into production toards the end of 1991. Annette Bening got the part of Catwoman instead of Cher, but Annette became pregnant by Warren Beatty, so obviously Michelle Pfeiffer became Catwoman. Obviously Dustin Hoffman did Hook and Hero instead of Batman Returns and Jack Nicholson's Joker didn't end up being included in Batman Returns so Jack starred in A Few Good Men instead.

Comic Book Resources reported in 2001, "Will Jack Nicholson reprise his role as the Joker in either of the upcoming Batman movies? Probably not, but if the actor had his way he would do it. In his weekly column for E! Online, Anderson Jones heard from the actor at a press junket for his upcoming movie The Pledge. Nicholson told reporters he'd love to play the Joker on the big screen again. 'Baby, I've promoted it endless times,' Nicholson is quoted as saying. 'I've got the title. I wrote the scene. I know how to bring him back to life. They're hung up on: I died in the first picture. Are they kidding? The guy was in radioactive waste over his head in the opening scene.'"

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Warner Home Video in 2005 released the Batman (1989) special edition DVD/Blu-ray featurette "Villains: The Joker" where Jack Nicholson explained, "This would be the character, whose core -- while totally determinate of the part -- was the least limiting of any I would ever encounter. This is a more literary way of approaching than I might have had as a kid reading the comics, but you have to get specific... He's not wired up the same way. This guy has survived nuclear waste immersion here."

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Jack Nicholson conformed to Esquire in 2016, "I was particularly proud of my performance as The Joker. I considered it a piece of pop art."
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The Leader-Post [June 4th 1999] reported, "Jack Nicholson may return as The Joker."
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In the Poughkeepsie Journal [April 19th 1990] reported, "Speaking of 'Batman' people, Jack Nicholson, who played the Caped Crusader's arch-enemy The Joker in the first film, says he hasn't even thought about any other roles during the two years he's worked on 'Chinatown' sequel 'The Two Jakes,' which winds up production April 30. Now that he's done with that, he says a 'Batman II' might be a possibility. 'It depends on the part and the script,' Nicholson said. 'I won't do it for the tremendous amount of money. I never did it for that.'"

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Prevue [August 1992] reported, "Meanwhile, rumors bred faster than rats in Gotham: two sequels would be lensed simultaneously, possibly in Mexico; Catwoman and the Penguin would villainize the first, followed by Two-Face, DA Harvey Dent's acid-maimed alter ego, in the second; Robin would return to his rightful place in the masked mythos; and Jack Nicholson's Joker would be revived for another Gotham go-round."

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The Poughkeepsie Journal [July 13th 1989] reported, "Nicholson also talks about a sequel, telling Daily Variety that 'They'd be fools not to do another.' Would Nicholson return for second go-round as The Joker, last seen making a big dent in a Gotham City sidewalk? 'I would not discuss (the possibilities) with anybody,' Nicholson said. 'There is too much money involved.'"
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The Talk Town newspaper [July 15th 1990] reported, "At one point, Jack Nicholson told Hollywood Freeway that he would not return as the Joker, 'I'm dead,' Nicholson said. But even the dead return in Hollywood, and Nicholson has been telling people he might consider a comeback. Who could blame him? His take from 'Batman' has been at least $25 million."

The Rutland Daily Herald [August 20th 1989] said, "-- Dead (but we don't believe it): Jack Nicholson's Joker, who undoubtedly will show up in 'Batman II.'"
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Batman (1989) scriptwriter Sam Hamm joked in the Comics Interview Batman Super Special (1989), "Oh, yeah, absolutely - there's a huge confrontation, the Batman gets killed and the Joker goes on to make sequel after sequel. (Laughter.)" Sam Hamm explained, "People who have either seen the screenplay or heard about it get very concerned because we seem to be killing off one of the major characters [the Joker], but as I point out, they did that to Dracula and the Wolfman in every installment of the [1931-1948 Universal monsters] series and it didn't bother their consciences too much to bring them back."
Comics Interview's Jeff Gelb replied, "Which is the exact same in the comics, by the way."
Sam Hamm points out, "Yeah, you're dead until somebody gets stuck for a story and says, 'Hey, wouldn't it be great if we brought back Clayface?'"
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A 1989 article from Los Angeles Times titled "Cliffhanger" by Pat H. Broeske from April 2nd, 1989, reported, "How serious is that talk about a 'Batman' sequel? According to one source close to the mega-budgeted summer pic, it’s so serious that the film makers are mulling two different endings. As scripted, Batman’s dastardly nemesis, The Joker--played by Jack Nicholson--meets his demise when he falls off a bell tower, following a climactic battle with the Caped Crusader. 'But they shot the ending two different ways because they may want to bring Jack back,' revealed our source."

What was the different way Tim Burton shot the ending of Batman (1989) as a cliffhanger to bring Jack back? Release the Burton cut with the alternate cliffhanger ending.

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The writer of the first Batman movie, Sam Hamm, tells us on the episode of DC Standom, “The head of Warner Bros. production at the time was Mark Cannon, and he said ‘If we could find some way to get Jack Nicholson's Joker back it would be incredible.'"

“I pitched a scene where the sequel would open with the trial of the Joker, who it turns out has survived his fall from the top of the cathedral,” Hamm says. “He gets wheeled into a courtroom in a full body cast [and] he announces that he wants to take the witness stand. The guy who’s prosecuting him is, of course, Harvey Dent.”

"The Joker says, ‘Okay, I’ve done some terrible things, but I wanted to be here today just to tell you that I know that Batman, whoever you are, you are somewhere here in this audience, because there’s no way that I would come into court and you wouldn’t be there.’ And so, with the one part of his body that’s still working, he presses a little trigger…and that’s how Harvey’s face gets scarred.”

Sam Hamm's sequel pitch idea could have been great except for the one major flaw in Sam Hamm's pitch was if the Joker "blows himself, the witnesses, the judge, and everything else to smithereens…and that’s how Harvey’s face gets scarred.” If the Joker suicide bombs the courtroom then the Joker and both Batman and Harvey Dent, all in the courtroom, would all be dead from the explosion. The sequel pitch could have easily been fixed in the script stage to Joker pressing a little trigger to his acid flower instead that squirts acid in Harvey's face…and that’s how Harvey’s face gets scarred. Easy fix. But then WB obviously decided they wanted the sequel to feature the Penguin and Catwoman, instead of Billy Dee's Two-Face.

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