This is a cache dedicated to the Joker. The cache
is a tupperware box, full of swaps and a FTF joker card.
The Joker is a comic-book character that often
appears in Batman comics. His real name has never been revealed,
althought in the 1989 movie, Batman, it was Jack Napier. He has
been portrayed as lying so often about his former life that he
himself is confused as to what actually happened. The first origin
account, Detective Comics #168 (February 1951), revealed
that the Joker had once been a criminal known as the Red Hood. In
the story, he was a scientist looking to steal from the company
that employs him and adopts the persona of Red Hood. After
committing the theft, which Batman thwarts, Red Hood falls into a
vat of chemical waste. He emerges with bleached white skin, red
lips, green hair, and a permanent grin.
The most widely cited backstory, which the official
DC Comics publication, Who's who in the DC
universe credits as the most widely believed account, can
be seen in The Killing Joke. It depicts him as originally
being an engineer at a chemical plant who quits his job to become a
stand-up comedian, only to fail miserably. Desperate to
support his pregant wife, Jeannie, the man agrees to help two
criminals break into the plant where he was formerly employed. In
this version of the story, the Red Hood persona is given to the
inside man of every job (thus it is never the same man twice); this
makes the man appear to be the ringleader, allowing the two
criminals to escape. During the planning, police contact him and
inform him that his wife and unborn child have died in a household
accident. Stricken with greif, he attempts to back out of the plan,
but the criminals strong-arm him into keeping his promise. As soon
as they enter the plant, however, they are immediately caught by
security and a shoot-out ensues, in which the two criminals are
killed. As the engineer tries to escape, he is confronted by
Batman, who is investigating the disturbance. Terrified, the
engineer leaps over a rail and plummets into a vat of chemicals.
When he surfaces in the nearby reservoir, he removes the hood and
sees his reflection: bleached chalk-white skin, ruby-red lips, and
bright green hair. These events, coupled with his other misfortunes
that day, drive the engineer completely insane, resulting in the
birth of the Joker.
The Joker commits crimes with countless "comedic" weapons (such
as razor-sharp playing cards, acid-spewing flowers,
cynanide pies, and lethally electric joy buzzers) and Joker
venom, sometimes referred to as "Joker Juice", a deadly poison that
infects his victims with a ghoulish rictus grin as they die while
laughing uncontrollably. All of his equipment and comedic weaponry
are ingeniously designed to look at first harmless, (so as to not
raise suspicion) and then kill unwarned enemies. They are so
ingenious to the point where they can even outsmart the
Batman. The venom
comes in many forms, from gas to darts to liquid poison, and has
been his primary calling card from his first appearance. The Joker
is immune to his venom, as stated in Batman #663 when
Morrison writes that "being an avid consumer of his products,
Joker's immunity to poisons has been built up over years of
dedicated abuse. He is a genius and is peerlessly and
exceptionally skilled in the fields of chemistry and engineering,
as well a master expert with explosives, and creating deadly traps
and other sorts of weapons. In a miniseries featuring Tim Drake,
the third Robin, the Joker kidnaps a computer genius, admitting
that he doesn't know much about computers, although later writers
have portrayed him as very computer literate.
Joker's skills in hand-to-hand combat vary considerably
depending on the writer. Some writers have shown Joker to be quite
the skilled fighter, capable of holding his own against Batman in a
fight. Other writers prefer portraying Joker as being physically
frail to the point that he can be defeated with a single punch. He
is, however, consistently described as agile.
The Joker has cheated death numerous times, even in seemingly
inescapable and lethal situations. He has been seen caught in
explosions, been shot repeatedly, dropped from lethal heights,
electrocuted, and so on, but he always returns to once again wreak
havoc.
The Joker has appeared in many film, cartoons and live-action
programmes. My three favourites are Cesar Romero, who appeared in
1960's Batman television series. The Joker of this series is
characterized by a cackling laugh and comedy-themed crimes that
were silly in nature, such as turning the city's water supply into
jelly, beating Batman in a surfing competition, and pulling off a
bank heist based off a stand-up comedy routine. Romero refused to
shave his distinctive mustache for the role, and it was partially
visible beneath his white face makeup. Romero reprised his role in
the 1966 film Batman. My second favourite was Jack Nicholson in
1989's Batman. In the film, the character was a gangster named Jack
Napier who is disfigured by a bullet ricochet to the mouth and has
his skin discolored when he falls into a vat of chemicals during a
confrontation with Batman. His trademark grin is the result of a
botched plastic surgery attempt to repair the damage to his face.
When Wayne learns about the Joker, he recalls that his parents were
murdered by two thugs, one of whom was a young Jack Napier,
realizing that the Joker is indirectly responsible for the origin
of Batman. Nicholson's Joker ranks #45 in the American Film
Institutes list of the top 50 villains of all time. My favourite
was Heath Ledger in 2008's the Dark Knight. Heath Ledger told
Sarah Lyall of New York Times that he viewed that film's version of
the Joker as a "pyschopathic, mass murdering,
schizophrenic clown with zero empathy." Costume designer Lindy
Hemming described the Joker's look as being based around his
personality, in which "he doesn't care about himself at all." She
avoided his design being vagrant, but nonetheless it is
"scruffier, grungier and therefore when you see him move, he's
slightly twitchier or edgy." I have decided that you can put a joke
in the log, if you wish. Good Luck and Happy Caching!
FTF:The Chens