The JOKER Once Became DC’s Trickster God (For Real)

When it comes to trickster gods, most think of Marvel’s Loki. Maybe it’s Tom Hiddleston’s cheekbones that make Loki so enchanting in the eyes of so many nerds, but there was brief period in the year 2000 where Thor’s little brother was only the second greatest trickster god in all of comics. There was a time in DC’s history where the Joker became a full-fledged celestial being and rewrote the world in his own demented image.

Emperor Joker was a miniseries that ran through all four of DC’s Superman titles in 2000. It’s the type of fever dream writing DC was known for during the late 1990s era. And even though its antagonist was Batman’s greatest nemesis, it’s actually a pretty good Superman story. It effectively flipped the power dynamics of the two characters–the Joker, a mortal man who relies exclusively on his wits is granted godlike power, while Superman, a godlike man is forced to rely exclusively on his wits.

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To use a term from the Marvel Universe, Emperor Joker is an Omega Level threat. He has the power to warp reality, limited only by his sadistic imagination. He transforms the Justice League into insulting parodies of themselves, he turns Lois Lane into a version of Lex Luthor, and Lex Luthor into his personal court jester (who retains all his memories from the unaltered timeline). He also makes Bizarro Earth’s number one hero and Jimmy Olsen his sidekick, Gravedigger Lad. He also turns Arkham Asylum into a giant flying saucer.

And that’s just the start of the evil wackiness Emperor Joker inflicts on reality. He repeatedly kills characters, brings them back to life, and then kills them again. On a whim, the Joker commits his most devastating act by annihilating the People’s Republic of China and then gobbling their piled-up skulls like Galactus (literally just to make a bad joke). As a divine being, Emperor Joker takes a sledgehammer to both the laws of physics and morality, creating a zany land of darkness. In essence, it’s Cool World meets A Nightmare On Elm Street.

Emperor Joker is so powerful, even other divine beings are forced to submit to his will. When Darkseid consults with the Quintessence (a super pact of the universe’s most powerful celestial beings), the lord god of Apololips is horrified to discover that Joker has already infected the minds of the Wizard SHAZAM, Ganthet, Zeus, the Phantom Stranger, and All Father–with a 2000 Budweiser commercial reference (Wazzup!). Even the Spectre (the embodiment of God’s Old Testament wrath) and literal Satan eventually succumb to the Joker’s vision. As far as trickster gods go, Emperor Joker puts Loki to shame just on the sheer level of chaos he envokes.

So how did the Joker become so obscenely powerful? And more importantly, how did Superman eventually defeat him? The answer to both questions is the same–Mr. Mxyzptlk. Most people who are familiar with the 5th Dimensional Imp know him from Superman: the Animated Series, where he was voiced by Gilbert Gottfried. Long story short, he’s a godlike being who resembles a Keebler Elf dressed as a Jetsons character and he uses his reality-warping abilities to cross dimensions every 90s days to pester Superman, and only leaves when tricked into saying his name backwards.

Make no mistake, Mxy is an Omega Level threat on his own. However, 5th Dimensional Imps are great at not causing permanent damage to the fabric of reality and usually clean up after themselves when they leave. But one day Mxy got careless with his mischief and offered the Joker a sliver of his reality-warping powers. Underestimating someone like the Joker is always a bad idea, and Mxy’s arrogance cost him nearly all his 5th Dimensional abilities. Infused with the power of a trickster god, the Joker crowned himself Emperor of the universe and banished Mxy to the moon.

Initially, the Joker was mostly content with just torturing Batman, brutally killing the Dark Knight every night and then immediately resurrecting him. He later toys with the Man of Steel as well, turning him into a super criminal imprisoned for the murder of Lex Luthor (who is in fact, not actually dead), forced to relive the same day over and over. But since most of Joker’s focus is on poor old Batsy, Mxy uses the last of his powers to awaken Superman’s memories, believing him to be the only being capable of defeating Emperor Joker.

The Imp warns Superman that Joker can’t be killed by physical means, but that doesn’t stop Big Blue from flying through his kaiju-sized skull in battle. After losing several battles, Mxy explains how reality-bending actually works–that the universe is just a network of collective consciousnesses that form an agreed upon reality. Joker was simply forcing everyone to experience his individual reality simultaneously, thus altering the fabric of the universe.

Mxy adds that even reality-bending gods have to follow the rules of the universes they create. Realizing that even as a god Joker can’t stop fixating on Batman, Superman figures out a way to create a devastating paradox within Joker’s universe. He tells the clown god that he’s nothing without Batman, which eventually goads Joker into negating Batman’s very existence–with no Batman there is no Joker, and with no Joker there is no Jokerverse.

Effectively glitching out his own reality, Joker is transformed back into a mortal being and left babbling his own name backwards in a trance-like state. Batman was left so traumatized by the horrors inflicted upon him that the Spectre has to pluck out the memories of it just to keep him sane. Mxy gets his powers back, but Superman makes him promise never to return to Earth again. Though Joker’s actions as a god were eventually nullified, they are still referenced in comics from time to time.

While the Joker’s ascension to godhood was brief, it remains a staple of its era, even being adapted into an episode of Batman: Brave and the Bold. Admittedly, it is a very dated comic book, referencing TV shows and celebrities that many Gen-Z nerds likely won’t understand (and eating China would likely be considered problematic today), but Emperor Joker is basically the perfect time-capsule for DC’s Y2K stories. It’s wacky, it’s gory, and it’s surprisingly high concept for what it is.

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