Summary

Before his appearance in mainstream DC canon , Smallvilleexplored the idea of aBatmanwho had gone mad and become the Joker , originating one of the most fascinating recent DC villains : The Batman Who Laughs . The iconic CW serial , and it tie - in media , have a permanent bequest among DC fandom ; its launching of the Batman Who Laughs concept is one more reason to reflect on the importance ofSmallville .

Smallville : Alien#11 – by Bryan Q. Miller , Edgar Salazar , Dym , Rob Lean , Carrie Strachan , and Saida Temofonte – was a espouse - up comic to the CW Superman origin story , which aired for over a X . After it ended , the fib continued in comic book form ; true to the show ’s nature , plenty of unequaled return on quality were explored .

This included a reading of Bruce Wayne who took on the character of the Joker . While this role was n’t used much , DC would revisit the thought ten years later in its main continuity .

Batman and the Joker Both with Joker Smiles

The Joker has been adjudicate to get a laugh out of Batman for years — and part of that might be because Batman severalise Joker his favorite put-on year ago .

Smallville’s Twisted, Jokerized Batman Killed His Own Parents

InSmallville : Alien#11 , when a monitor lizard crashes on Earth , Superman leaves to investigate how this could ’ve happen . Meanwhile , Batman investigates the mysterious death of a human , Clark Kent , who had appeared in Gotham City . His investigation eventually leads him to the killer , an alternate - universe Bruce Wayne . While reader are never really given a full background on this Bruce , he’sdepicted as having taken up the ideals of the Joker , with dyed hair and cutis , along with a lasting smiling . The only thing readers be intimate is that he was theJoker who attacked Barbara Gordonon his planet .

While this merger of Batman and Joker was n’t explored much , it did cross off one of the first multiplication this idea was seriously read in cartoon strip . A decade by and by , DC would play in the idea ofThe Batman Who Laughs , which was very similar . While Smallville ’s twisted Batman backstory was n’t explored , only mentioning that he kill his parents , the Batman Who Laughs backstory survive far mystifying . On his Earth , he kill the Joker and was infected by a Joker Toxin , which rewrote his brain , plough him into a brutal serial slayer . He eventually kill the Justice League and everyone else on his major planet .

When the Batman Who Laughs was introduced , he was voted to be the most popular villain of the year . It is clear that fans like the mind of Batman and Joker being flux into one character . WhileSmallville : Alien#11 only used this fiber for one engagement , the Batman Who Laughs eventually look to show just how well this idea could make for . ThoughSmallville’scomic Word continuation went on to focus more on Lex Luthor and the cosmic side of thing , the serial could have done a lot more with the the first Joker - twisted version ofBatman .

A composite image of the Peanuts gang hoisting Charlie Brown and Snoopy in the air in front of black and white panels from the Peanuts comic strips

Close-up of Wes Chatham as Amos in The Expanse TV Show

Tom Welling’s Superman with DC Comics Batman custom news image

Smallville: Alien #11, the first version of “the Batman Who Laughs” concept, a Jokerized Batman

Smallville: Alien #11, Batman confronts an alternate version of himself who has become the Joker

Smallville: Alien #11, the Jokerized Batman variant admits he killed his own parents

Batman

Smallville