DC Comics‘ Absolute Batman #15 finally revealed the origin of the Absolute Universe Joker, and — spoilers past this point — you probably could have figured out by now that writer Scott Snyder is positioning him as Bruce Wayne in a way that the AU’s Bruce Wayne is not. But the bigger surprise from the issue? It’s a pretty explicit riff on the classic The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland.
Before you worry about what happens to Absolute Batgirl or Absolute Jim Gordon in the issue, that’s not exactly the part of Killing Joke I’m referencing. Instead, Snyder, alongside artist Jock, riffs on the idea proposed by the graphic novel that The Joker doesn’t have a definitive origin because he’s a force of nature. While in the DC main universe story that was more metaphorical — we’ll never really know who the Joker is, despite hearing three different tales of his origin — in the Absolute Universe these seems to be more literal.
The structure of the book is Alfred Pennyworth telling Bruce about the man he’s been tracking for years. And first we hear about him, he’s called Joseph Grimm, and is a clown working on the streets of Gotham. Over time, his various descendants, also known as Joseph Grimm, build a media empire that stretches from cable news to social media. The current Jospeh Grimm is a billionaire philanthropist playboy (sound familiar) who travels the world and helps shape the course of history.
That’s not the full story, though, and this is where we get the riff from Killing Joke. Over the course of the issue, Pennyworth tells the story multiple times. And each time, Jock parallels the art structure of his pages to make things get darker and nastier, until Alfred reveals what he thinks but cannot back up: there is only one Joseph Grimm, and he is something unimaginably demonic.
While Pennyworth has no evidence for that, we readers do. We see Joker has been holding a man on an island for thirty years. The man recognizes Joker. And then Joker turns into the hideous dragon beast we see on the cover for the issue, and hunts the man down. Absolute Joker is a monstrosity, but just like in Moore and Bolland’s book, we don’t know what he is really, or how he came to be. Maybe he’s been there since Darkseid created the Absolute Universe. Maybe he’s something else. Or perhaps the lineage of Joseph Grimm has used scientific means to turn into monsters and keep themselves looking young.
We’ll likely never know, and that’s the point where Snyder and Moore intersect: The Joker is just better that way.
However, there is the other side of things… Snyder has discussed how Joker in the AU is order, while Batman is chaos; a flip of their dynamic in the main universe. And fans have picked up on how the slick, well put together Joker looks a whole lot like Bruce Wayne. Add in that the dragon Joker form has clear notes of “bat” from poking up ears to leathery wings, and you can definitely see what Snyder is getting at.
But in case you missed it? The issue ends with Joker returning to his stately Grimm Manor, saying hello to his butler, and then going behind the clock in his study to his cave. So yeah, Absolute Batman may have been sold literally with the tagline, “Without the mansion…without the money…without the butler…what’s left is the Absolute Dark Knight!” But that’s exactly what Joker has: the mansion, the money, the butler. He has everything Absolute Bruce Wayne does not, and he’s an eerie and disturbing mirror for “our” Batman.
What’s next, now that the Joker is revealed? That truly may be the killing joke.
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