WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Batman #49 by Tom King, Mikel Janin and June Chung, in stores now.


Batman is getting married, and the Joker isn't happy about it. However, the exact reason why hadn't exactly been made clear, until Batman #49 by Tom King and Mikel Janin. After defeating the Dark Knight, the Joker faces off against Catwoman in order to 'save' Batman from a life of monogamous bliss. The two end up taking each other down, so what can these two former Batman rogues do but reminisce about the old days?

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While Catwoman and the Joker bleed to death on the floor, they touch on many different topics about Batman, villainy, and the roles they play in Gotham City. It starts off innocent enough, regarding Penguin's use of an umbrella, how Two-Face was the linchpin of the Batman rogues, and what the Riddler thinks of the Joker. Things take on a deeper meaning when the two attempt to understand what they were trying to accomplish for all those years, and what kind of relationship they truly have with Batman.

When both put their cards on the table, we get the sense that this is the final Joker story ever told. This is the moment where the truths are revealed, and the Joker's endgame comes into the picture. There's no going back from here.

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Batman shares a special bond with Selina Kyle, but the Joker isn't exactly sure why it's with Catwoman and not him. He tells her, "We all loved him. We wanted him to love us. That's...everything," explaining just why all of Batman's villains targeted him throughout the years. Still, Joker admits, "But he never loved us. He always loved you," and he doesn't believe that Catwoman offers the Dark Knight anything that he cannot offer himself.

From the very beginning, Batman and Joker have been locked in a never ending battle between opposite forces. Good and evil, chaos and order, they operate as different sides of the same coin. In that way, they are irrevocably connected, and to the Joker, it's in a way that Selina can never match. Even if she believes that "All of you spent your lives obsessing over him. But all of you, you never knew him," as in the man underneath the mask, the Joker disagrees.

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To the Joker, he serves a fundamental purpose in the life of Batman, since "He created me. Chaos for his order," and it's this reason that Batman truly loves him and needs him, unlike what Catwoman can provide. Over the years, the Joker has caused chaos and destruction across Gotham City, he killed Jason Todd, hurt thousands of innocent people, tortured Commissioner Gordon. In The Killing Joke, they shared a laugh in the rain. In the end, "I hurt him. I know him" is how the Joker explains his love for Batman.

It is here that we learn the single greatest secret of Batman's crime fighting career. Selina tells the Joker that all he did was create more misery for an already miserable person. Instead, what the Dark Knight really needed was some happiness to pull him back out of the shadows. Joker knows this, of course, and he believes he could have made him very happy.

In an instant, the Joker could just kill every other villain in Gotham City, give him nothing more to fight against, and give him the peace he deserves, but he knows that Batman "Can't be happy. And also be Batman." It has to be one or the other, and in that realization, the Joker makes a selfish (even for him) decision.

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In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Trial," Batman's enemies put the Dark Knight on trial, blaming him as the reason that any of them exist in the first place. They force anti-Batman district attorney Janet Van Dorn to defend the Dark Knight in the trial of his life. Despite her preconceived notions about Batman and the flood of super crime that has followed him, she realizes that he cannot be blamed for the crimes of the Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, and the others. In the end, even without Batman, they would have turned out to be the exact same way, because bad people do bad things.

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The Joker's journey in Batman #49 leads us to the same conclusion we learned back in 1994. As much as we like to talk about how much Batman needs his villains in order to exist, it's equally true that the Joker actually needs Batman more than anything else in the world. Without Batman, the Joker could do any unspeakable thing imaginable, but he needs "Him to stand between me and...everything. I need him to stop me."

In one last effort to ensure that Catwoman will not take Batman away from him, he lets go of his cut throat and goes to reload his gun. He allows himself to bleed to death in order to get one last chance to kill Selina and ensure that Batman will always be there to beat him, hurt him, and most importantly, stop him. He may have initially remarked that he was the chaos to Batman's order, but at the very end, Joker admits that Batman is what keeps him in check. Batman is the order to his chaos.

Like any good last stand, the plan doesn't work out. Joker loses too much blood before he can shoot Catwoman, and he passes out instead. He goes out in the most appropriate way, too, saying that if Batman is allowed to get married, and there is no more Batman, and without him, "It's just not fun." Joker may not be truly dead, but for the effectiveness of this story, he might as well be. In this tale, the Joker dies confessing the truth and attempting to take control of Batman's life. If he can't be happy, no one can.

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The whole issue is perfectly orchestrated, with Batman coming to just as the Joker falls. Catwoman cradles the villain's 'lifeless' body while Batman tells her, "I don't know what the Joker wanted. But he didn't get it." In this perfect ending, Selina lets out a laugh, and we're left to wonder what it all means. The Joker may be gone, but his legacy lives on. Did he get what he wanted? Has his 'demise' infected Catwoman with some unknown, dark understanding of the universe, or has she finally defeated the Joker, and since she can "only laugh when I win," could this be her ultimate triumph?

The Joker is 'gone,' Selina has survived, and nothing can stop her from marrying Batman. She is misery, just like Batman, so in some way all she wants his happiness. In a sense, she has it now, but at what cost?