In honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of Joker, we're doing a countdown of your favorite Joker stories of all-time.

You all voted, now here are the results of what you chose as the 75 Greatest Joker Stories! Click here for a master list of all 75 stories.

Enjoy!

20. "Man Under the Red Hood" (1950's Detective Comics #168)

This one is an odd one, since the Joker doesn't show up until the end of the story (and I feel weird showing the ending, by the way, so I'm avoiding it, thus we're not seeing Joker at all in this excerpt), but this story by Bill Finger, Lew Schwartz and Charles Paris gave us the Joker's origin for the very first time, so it is a very important part of Joker (and Batman) history!







It's a fun tale, to boot.

19. "Endgame" (1999's Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #126, Batman #574 and Detective Comics #741)

No Man's Land was a year-long Batman story that took place in all of the Batman titles, with the books in a perpetual state of crossover. Instead of, say, a three-part storyline in Batman and a three-part storyline in Detective Comics, there were three-four part storylines in all four Batman titles (including Batman: Shadow of the Bat and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight) by rotating creative teams. So, say, one month all the books would be written by Greg Rucka and one month all the books would be written by Devin Grayson. There would be one-shots sprinkled in there, as well. Gotham City has been essentially quarantined from the rest of the United States due to massive earthquakes that have more or less destroyed the city's infrastructure. A large group of people were unable to get off the island, so now it is basically mob rule, except for some Gotham City Police Department members who stayed behind and, of course, Batman and his allies. Over time, Batman slowly returns order to the island and, due to a deal with Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne manages to fix the city by the end of the year, just in time for New Year's Day, 2000. However, the Joker (who helped rule the city along with other villains) had one last "hurrah," and on Christmas Eve, he went around kidnapping the remaining infants of Gotham to, en masse, extinguish all hope on Gotham City. Batman figured out where he was holding the babies and the only person nearby to stop him was Commissioner Gordon's wife, Sarah Essen...









A dark ending to No Man's Land by Greg Rucka, Devin Grayson, Damion Scott, Dale Eaglesham and John Floyd.

18. "Batman and Robin Must Die!" (2010's Batman and Robin #13-15)

We reach the end game of Grant Morrison's initial run on Batman and Robin (I guess you could call it Book Two of Morrison's Three-Book Batman run, with Book One being his initial run up until Batman's "death" in Final Crisis, Book Two being Batman and Robin/Return of Bruce Wayne and Book Three being both volumes of Batman Incorporated) as Morrison is joined by Frazer Irving as the Joker is revealed to be the great detective Oberon Sexton, and as he is left in police custody, Robin chooses to get some answers his way and turns the table on the Joker, crowbar-wise...









Frazer Irving drew the heck out of this storyline.

Go to the next page for #17-14!

17. "Clown at Midnight" (2005's Batman #663)

In this unique mostly prose story by Grant Morrison and artist John Van Fleet, we meet Morrison's new take on the Joker for the first time (the Joker appears in the opening on Morrison's run, but he's then promptly shot in the head by a fake Batman, which leads to THIS Joker)...









That is a chilling new visual for the Joker. This was Morrison's homage to Denny O'Neil's famous "Death Strikes at Midnight and Three," which was a similar approach (a prose story by O'Neil with artwork by Marshall Rogers). That was voted as one of the Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told.

16. "Joker" (2008's Joker Original Graphic Novel)

In this striking graphic novel by Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo and Mick Gray, we follow the Joker on his first day out of Arkham Asylum, through the eyes of the driver assigned to take him around town (while secretly working for one of Joker's rivals, but will his driver be won over to the Joker's side by the end of the story?). Azzarello re-envisions the criminal world of Gotham City in this dark but enthralling tale. And Bermejo? Well, he delivers a visual masterpiece...









Bermejo's vision apparently only coincidentally mirrored Heath Ledger's take on the Joker in The Dark Knight, released that same year.

15. "Endgame" (2014-15's Batman #35-40)

After the events of the previous Joker-related storyline, "Death of the Family," the Joker has essentially made a dramatic turn in his relationship with Batman. Where once his obsession was sort of a twisted attachment thing, now it has turned into a deep hatred, a hatred that has led to the Joker spreading his Venom across Gotham City (including, in the opener of this story, notably to Batman's own Justice League allies, including Superman!), tearing the City apart. Essentially, the Joker feels that Batman has spurned him, and thus he has begun his, well, you know, "end game." Check out this fantastic reveal of the Joker by the story's creators, Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and Danny Miki...









Gives me goosebumps.

14. "Devil's Advocate" (1996's Joker: Devil's Advocate Original Graphic Novel)

In this graphic novel, Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan and Scott Hanna (who were, together, the longtime creative team on Detective Comics - Nolan and Hanna took a break to work on this graphic novel) pursue a topic that many Batman writers since the Bronze Age have explored, namely, "SHOULD the Joker be killed for his crimes?" and moreover, "If the Joker is being sent to death row for a crime he did NOT commit, does Batman have a responsibility to prove Joker innocent, even if Batman actively knows that the Joker 'deserves' the death penalty for many other crimes, including murdering Batman's own partner, Robin?"

The set-up is exquisite, as the Joker finds himself on trial for a series of murders using postage stamps that he knows he didn't do. He doesn't take the case seriously, as he has always been found to be not guilty due to insanity in the past. His reaction when things don't go according to plan is awesome...









Dixon really nails Batman's anguish throughout the story in deciding what to do. He really would prefer to ignore the whole thing but, well, then he wouldn't be Batman, would he?

Go to the next page for #13-11!

13. "Death of the Family" (2012-13's Batman #13-17)

Before we could get to the Joker's "Endgame," first Scott Snyder had to have Joker get over his sort of love fixation on Batman, which occurred during "Death of the Fmaily," where Joker's obsession for Batman took a strange turn where the Joker reveals that he apparently knows not only Batman's secret identity but that of all of Batman's allies!







Is Batman inadvertently responsible for the deaths of all of his closest allies? Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion explore that idea in this taut, psychologically-driven storyline.

12. "The Man Who Laughs" (2005's Batman: The Man Who Laughs Original Graphic Novel)

This graphic novel by Ed Brubaker and Doug Mahnke adapts and updates the Joker's first appearance...







While many writers have done the approach of re-writing classic stories, few have pulled it off with such care as Ed Brubaker does in this story, where he adds enough to make the story really stand on its own. One particularly novel addition is to have Bruce Wayne be one of the men that the Joker says that he will kill. How Bruce Wayne gets out of it is something so outrageous that you really need to check it out yourself.

Doug Mahnke, as you can see above, does a marvelous job on the artwork - just really stand-out, dynamic work.

11. "Soft Targets" (2003's Gotham Central #12-15)

In this classic storyline, writers Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka and artists Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano explore what one of Joker's killing sprees are like from the perspective of the regular citizens who are caught in the middle of it. Not just the horror of tit all, but the annoyance of knowing that the Batman is often two steps ahead of their investigation in his own, off-the-books investigation into the Joker's crimes. So not only do you have the dissatisfaction of having to deal with the Joker being at large, killing people, but you don't even get the satisfaction of ultimately stopping him. It's a terribly frustrating ordeal for members of the GCPD, and Brubaker and Rucka handle that extremely well.









The crime itself, the Joker counting down to sniper attacks that are broadcasted live, is very reminiscent (intentionally, of course) of the Joker's very first crimes. I just showed you that Brubaker notably re-did that story, and he is partially behind this tale, as well. Lark and Gaudiano also gave us a unique re-design of the Joker, sort of merging the comic version with the Batman TV series version, or at least a take that looked like a real person wearing the makeup. It was fascinating.