Is the Joker really insane? He's definitely a sociopath

Depends on what the writer believes. Frank Miller, for example, believes the Joker is not crazy, but satanic.

Isn't the Joker being insane the reason the Spectre won't kill him? Because he fits the legal definition of insanity?

>>91407480
The Spectre only kills people God tells him to kill.
God is a writer, he doesn't want his main characters dead.

>>91407480
But the Spectre is a supernatural force. Why does American criminal law change his ability to kill sinners?

>>91407432
Right. I'm just wondering what people on here think.

>>91407546
I guess the implication would be that someone who is insane literally can't help themselves and therefore aren't evil? I don't know what story Anon is referencing though.

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So unrelated but somewhat topical question. When was the last time the joker was legitimately funny?


>>91407546
>But the Spectre is a supernatural force. Why does American criminal law change his ability to kill sinners?
because comic writers are hacks and have to point out why the literal hand of god never makes anything better in the setting

>>91407839

Probably Batman and Robin. I also really liked that Villains month issue where he raises a gorilla as his child.

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There's two interpretations:

One that Joker is sane, just an extreme edgelord anarchist who's really a genius and has everyone fooled into thinking he's a loony tune with no control over his actions. This is the interpretation closest to his original depiction and was used a lot in the 70's gritty crime stories, and is how he's depicted in The Dark Knight movie.

The other is that he's just so bananas that his mind doesn't operate on any describable level, that he sees events like he's reading a comic book or following a script, that life is a big show he's putting on where he's the villain and has to create a grand challenge for Batman. This is why, for example, in Morrison's Arkham Asylum he has never been accurately diagnosed and doctors have tried in vain to figure out what his psychosis is, because his actions seem to contradict each other and he seems to constantly reinvent himself. Morrison described this as "supersanity". This was popularized in the 90's with the Nicholson Joker and by Morrison, because it serves as a good counter to the Batgod Batman depiction that had become common.

>>91408140
Jackanapes, another Morrison creation. Also made me finally realize that "Jack Napier" is a reference to the word jackanape.

>>91407510
>>91407480
>The Spectre only kills people God tells him to kill.
The Spectre kills whomever he feels like killing, if he gets too crazy with his kills Micheal may intervene, but he considered wiping an entire country children included a fair judgement, so i doubt he would care much if he kill the Joker or any super-villain, insane or not.

>>91408218
Oh, and also my belief is that the first one is pre-Crisis Joker and the latter is post-Crisis. This is probably the impetus behind the upcoming "Three Jokers" thing: everyone has their favorite interpretation of the Joker but they all contradict each other.

>>91407839
God is just as shitty of a deity in real life as he is in DC.

All he does is ignore shit and go "nah man it's all part of my plan, just trust me".

>>91407196
insanity is a legal definition with no basis in scientific fact. we get the system we deserve.

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>>91407196
The real villain is the first lawyer who pleaded Joker for Insanity in the first place.

>>91409332
You have a constitutional right to an attorney, anon.

>>91408218
You forgot the third one, which was so popular Alex Ross did a short story "debunking" it.

Basically Joker is not insane, but basically was a super-bored, super-smart sadist mob boss. After killing and scheming his way to the top of Gotham's underworld, he realized he could no longer engage in the sort of petty murders and crimes that amused him so much.

The Red Hood ID was created explicitly so he could kill and maim for fun until his encounter with Batman got him thrown into a chemical vat and disfigured him.

In retaliation, Joker came up with the whole "insanity" gimmick. Basically since Batman disfigured him, Joker would torment Batman by constantly getting found insane in court, so he would never face the consequences for his actions. The lawyers who argue for his insanity defense, are the same army of lawyers he used as a mob boss.

The "debunking" came with the reveal that the report revealing this about Joker, was written by Harley Quinn prior to Joker seducing her. Meaning Joker lied about it as part of his seduction of Harley or Harley wrote it and filed it away in Arkham's records in order to mess with Batman's head over how Joker kept bullshitting him for YEARS.

As for Spectre; it should be noted that it wasn't Spectre himself that said that Joker should not be held responsible for his crimes but Hal Jordan as Spectre and even then, only after Martian Manhunter told him Joker is not to blame.

When Hal first became the Spectre, he started ranting about wanting to punish EVERYONE who did evil regardless of the mess that would make. So MM forced Hal into Joker's head without telling him who it was and they met non-insane Joker, who was the sad and pathetic comic that was seen in The Killing Joke. It was stated that Joker's true sane self is buried so deep into Joker's head that it was like he was buried alive in an underground cell. When Hal realized that he had been talking to Joker, he backed down.