Has there been or could there be a sympathetic Joker comic?

[Swiss Ultimate]

Tim Burton's Joker was the slightest bit sympathetic. He started off as an arrogant, serious thug and got double-crossed. He was a survivor dammit!

Then you know he went insane and wanted to kill all of Gotham and stuff.

Nolan's Joker wasn't sympathetic at all. He's just a eccentric socio/psychopath.

I don't recall ever reading a comic with Joker in it that made him look sympathetic or even relatable on any level. Has there been? Could there be? How would you do it?

[Kane Knight]

I can certainly see why you'd want to sympathise with a ruthless sociopath. Finally, someone you can root for!

[Swiss Ultimate]

What's the point of posting in threads like this one where you can't read the post at all and no one else has posted yet?

[Swiss Ultimate]

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-R9nuRyZo_OY/TYU61RarErI/AAAAAAAAAXI/40q43xGg7dU/panslabyrinthint1.jpg

[Fignuts]

The end of The Killing Joke makes him slightly sympathetic. Very slightly, considering what he did in that story.

I don't think you can really take it further than that without losing who the Joker is. Besides, you need villains like him, who are just unabashedly evil.

[Fignuts]

What's the point of posting in threads like this one where you can't read the post at all and no one else has posted yet?

The point is, he has nothing better to do at the moment.

[Swiss Ultimate]

True, but is Joker evil or just criminally insane? I'm not saying make him "sympathetic" while he kills some guy's family, just give him a backstory where he wasn't a psycho douche the whole time...like in Young Hannibal.

[Swiss Ultimate]

Like what if he's a prisoner in his own mind and is unable to control his compulsions or interact like a normal human being, not unlike Kane Knight for that matter but I digress, what if the Joker is just a persona that has taken over his mind, like how Batman has installed a default Batman into his brain in case he has a mental breakdown, what if The Joker has something similar or is his own version of Tyler Durden?

Imagine a character arc like in Fight Club only with The Joker. At first he's seduced into becoming more and more like him until he gets so deep into insanity that he can't control it.

[Swiss Ultimate]

That sounds a lot like Two-Face now that I think about it. :(

[Fignuts]

A little from column A, and a little from Column B.

One of the best parts about the Joker is that he has n established back story, and what little there is, is not sympathetic.

Just like in The Dark Knight, it works because you don't know. It makes him more frightening, in a way.

[Swiss Ultimate]

Yeah, I guess it is pretty fucked up. It's like Michael Myers was an evil cunt from birth and when he became a homicidal maniac everyone knew it was inevitable.

[Fignuts]

It's been suggested that The Joker isn't quite as crazy as he seems to be, and that he acts that way to justify the vicious things he does, in his own mind.

[Swiss Ultimate]

Interesting thought.

[Fignuts]

It's something that individual writers have thrown around, from time to time, but it's never been really confirmed as true.

[McLegend]

The Killing Joke would be the closest to what you are looking for. I really wouldn't want want a definitive origin story, because that could really ruin the character.

I do think eventually we will see a orgin for the Joker from the Dark Knight. I think he's too popular of a character.

I do wonder what Heath Ledger Joker did before he was The Joker. I think he was some sort explosives expert in the military or some goverment organization.

[Skippord]

he was in A Knights Tale

[Swiss Ultimate]

Yeah, that was a decent film.

[The Rogerer]

There was the Batman & Captain America comic...

http://www.comics101.com/archives/comics101/images/2004/jan28/jokerskull.jpg

http://www.texasdude.com/9-11-01/america_eagle2[1].jpg

[Swiss Ultimate]

It's not his repugnant racial beliefs that pisses Joker off, it's his national pride.

[Vastardikai]

"Going Sane" has Joker thinking he killed Batman, and as a result causes him to return to normality.

[Swiss Ultimate]

Nice one, V.

[Fignuts]

There was the Batman & Captain America comic...

http://www.comics101.com/archives/comics101/images/2004/jan28/jokerskull.jpg

http://www.texasdude.com/9-11-01/america_eagle2[1].jpg

Ugh. This was awful.

[Swiss Ultimate]

He looks awful too.