The Joker's Worst Actions Ever: A Complete Ranked Guide to the Clown Prince of Crime's Most Evil Moments
The Joker's worst moments in comics and film have fascinated audiences for decades. As DC's most iconic villain — and one of the greatest fictional antagonists ever created — the Joker has done things across comics, movies, television, and animated series that range from cartoonishly sinister to genuinely disturbing. This guide ranks the most notorious and defining acts of evil from the Clown Prince of Crime across every major medium, giving you the full, dark picture.
Why the Joker Endures as the Greatest Comic Book Villain
The Joker has existed since Batman #1 in 1940, and his longevity speaks to something fundamental about his design as a character. Unlike most villains, he has no consistent origin, no singular motivation, and no code — which makes him terrifyingly unpredictable. Every writer who has tackled the character brings a different interpretation, and yet he remains immediately recognizable across all of them.
What makes him uniquely compelling:
- He operates on a philosophy, not a goal — chaos as its own end
- His crimes are theatrical, designed to make a point, not just cause damage
- He specifically targets what Batman values most — the people around him, and Batman's own refusal to kill
- Different versions allow him to function as a mirror for different social anxieties
The Joker's Most Defining Acts of Evil — Ranked
1. Shooting and Paralyzing Barbara Gordon — The Killing Joke (1988)
In Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, the Joker shoots Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) through the spine, paralyzing her, then uses photographs of her suffering to psychologically torture her father, Commissioner Gordon. The intent is to prove that "one bad day" is all it takes to break any sane person.
The act is the Joker at his most surgical — not random chaos, but targeted psychological terrorism designed to destroy two people and make a philosophical point at the same time. Barbara's journey after this moment — becoming Oracle, one of DC's most important heroes — is one of comics' great silver linings born from tragedy.
2. The Murder of Jason Todd — A Death in the Family (1988)
In Batman: A Death in the Family, the Joker beats the second Robin — Jason Todd — with a crowbar, then blows up the building he's trapped in. DC infamously let readers vote by phone on whether Jason lived or died. They chose death by a slim margin. Jason died. The Joker laughed.
This act permanently destabilized Batman's character, introducing a trauma that the character has never fully resolved. Jason's later resurrection as the Red Hood — a villain specifically built on his unresolved rage at Batman — is one of the most compelling character arcs in modern DC Comics.
3. Torturing the Bat-Family — Death of the Family (New 52)
In Scott Snyder's Death of the Family storyline, the Joker returns after years of absence to launch a coordinated psychological attack on every member of the Bat-Family. His claim: that Batman's companions have weakened him, and he intends to give Batman back his edge by removing them. The horror isn't just physical — it's the sustained psychological assault on people who thought they knew what the Joker was capable of.
4. Poisoning Gotham's Water Supply — Multiple Adaptations
Across comics and film, the Joker has repeatedly targeted Gotham's infrastructure with his trademark Joker venom — a toxin that causes victims to die laughing, faces locked in a grotesque grin. The scale of mass casualty that this implies, combined with its theatrical nature, makes it one of his most consistently recurring worst acts. In Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film, this becomes a central plot point as the Joker targets Gotham's parade, killing and disfiguring hundreds.
5. The Arkham Asylum Takeover — Batman: Arkham Asylum (Comics)
Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth sees the Joker take control of the asylum on April Fools' Day and release every patient, demanding Batman enter alone. The graphic novel operates as a psychological descent — Batman confronting every dark element of his own psyche while the Joker essentially holds Gotham's worst criminals as a hostage bargaining chip.
6. Senator's Pencil Trick — The Dark Knight (2008)
In Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, the Joker (Heath Ledger) introduces himself to Gotham's mob bosses with a magic trick involving a pencil and a man's skull. It takes about two seconds. It says everything. This moment established Heath Ledger's Joker as something genuinely new — menace delivered with casual amusement, violence as entertainment for the perpetrator.
7. Killing Commissioner Gordon's Wife — The Killing Joke
Often overshadowed by what he does to Barbara, the Joker also murders Commissioner Gordon's wife during the same Killing Joke sequence. Her death is a narrative device — to isolate Gordon, remove his support, and make his psychological torture total. It's collateral cruelty elevated to systematic methodology.
8. Revealing Batman's Identity to Gotham — Various Continuities
In several storylines, the Joker has either discovered or come close to revealing Bruce Wayne's identity as Batman — and chosen not to use it, because doing so would "ruin the game." This choice is in some ways more disturbing than if he had revealed it: the Joker understands Batman so completely that he controls the terms of their relationship, and prefers the chase to the kill.
9. The LEGO Batman Movie — Releasing Every Villain from the Phantom Zone
On the lighter end of the Joker's villainous resume: in The LEGO Batman Movie, the Joker (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) orchestrates a plan to free every major fictional villain — Sauron, Voldemort, King Kong, and others — from Superman's Phantom Zone, driven primarily by heartbreak that Batman won't acknowledge him as his greatest enemy. It's played for comedy, but it reveals something real about the character: the Joker's crimes are often as much about Batman's attention as they are about chaos.
10. His Entire Relationship with Harley Quinn — Comics and Animation
The Joker's manipulation and psychological abuse of Dr. Harleen Quinzel — transforming her into Harley Quinn — represents one of his most insidious long-form crimes. He didn't just create an accomplice; he systematically dismantled the identity of a trained psychiatrist through manipulation, false intimacy, and psychological coercion. Modern DC Comics have increasingly examined this relationship for the abuse it is, and Harley's escape and transformation into an independent antihero is one of the medium's most important recent arcs.
Joker Across Media — A Quick Comparison
| Medium | Best Joker Portrayal | What Made It Distinctive |
|---|---|---|
| Comics | Killing Joke / Death of the Family | Surgical psychological evil |
| Film (1989) | Jack Nicholson | Flamboyant theatrical menace |
| Film (2008) | Heath Ledger | Chaos as genuine philosophy |
| Film (2019) | Joaquin Phoenix | Societal failure as origin |
| Animation | Mark Hamill (Batman: TAS) | Perfect balance of funny and terrifying |
| LEGO | Zach Galifianakis | Comic tragedy as character insight |
Fans searching for Joker's most evil moments in DC Comics, what did the Joker do to Barbara Gordon, Heath Ledger Joker best scenes explained, or Joker psychological terrorism in Batman comics will find this guide addresses all of them. For readers interested in Joker vs Batman philosophy in The Dark Knight, the pencil trick and the hospital scene remain the most analyzed moments in modern superhero cinema.
FAQ: The Joker's Worst Acts
Q: What is the single worst thing the Joker has ever done? A: Most comic fans point to The Killing Joke — shooting Barbara Gordon and using her suffering to break her father. Jason Todd's murder in A Death in the Family is a close second.
Q: Has the Joker ever killed Batman? A: Not in main canon continuity. Various Elseworlds and alternate universe stories have explored this, but the core of their relationship is that the Joker keeps Batman alive because killing him would end the game.
Q: What is the Joker's origin story? A: It intentionally varies. The Killing Joke offers one (a failed comedian on one bad day), but the Joker himself suggests that he prefers his past to be "multiple choice." Joaquin Phoenix's 2019 film presents its own standalone origin.
Q: Is the Joker insane or in control? A: Most modern interpretations suggest the Joker is far more in control than he appears. His chaos is curated, theatrical, and purposeful — making him more frightening than a purely irrational actor.
Q: What is the best Joker story to read if you're new to DC Comics? A: Batman: The Killing Joke for a short, accessible entry. Batman: Death of the Family (Scott Snyder) for a longer, more modern take. Joker (Brian Azzarello) for something grimly literary.
External Authority Links
- Wikipedia: The Joker — character history and origins
- DC Comics Official Site — canonical source for story details
- Comic Book Resources — ongoing comic analysis
- Box Office Mojo: Joker (2019) — box office history and context
- The Library of Congress on Comics — comic book cultural history