The Joker doesn’t exactly like anyone, and respecting the abilities of a fellow villain is one of the few versions of positive feelings the Joker can have towards someone. He isn’t one for long-standing friendships nor relationships, and his most famous companion’s relationship is nothing short of toxic. The thing we all know and love about Joker is that his madness is limitless, since his motivations and goals are impossible to pin down. Other villains, with specific goals and limits, will ultimately get under the Joker’s skin when their interests no longer align.
But, the Joker knows a good ally when he sees one and has even teamed up with other villains throughout his lore. For better or for worse, he has built some teams and had long-standing allies, since many of them share common goals. It's obvious that Joker works better with some villains more than others, as there are those who respect his methods and desires, and those who’s own outlandish methods don't quite line up with his. There have been more infamous team ups that have been longer standing, but in his true fashion, Joker tends to mess them up. It’s hard to tell who he truly likes or dislikes, since Joker has almost no loyalty, and what’s worse, is guided by pure chaos and has a propensity towards unforgiving attacks. Like the Trickster once said, when villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories.
Here are 10 Villains Joker Gets Along With and 10 That Annoy Him.
21 LIKES: HARLEY QUINN
It’s no secret that one of the best relationships in Joker’s life is his situation with Harley Quinn, which, quite honestly, doesn’t say a lot about the Joker’s ability to have a relationship. Often dubbed, “Joker’s Girlfriend,” Harley first appeared in Batman: The Animated Series as Joker’s Arkham Asylum doctor. She falls for her patient and then takes on the moniker.
Harley has come and gone from Joker, begging for his attention while he blows her off, and leaving him to lean into an “anti-hero” role. But despite his toxic behavior and mistreatment of Harley, in his own way, he loves her, and the pair get along.
20 HATES: LEX LUTHOR
It’s weird, because Joker is probably one of the best friend’s that Luthor has. They’ve been business partners, team mates, and have plotted together against some of DC’s favorite superheroes. They’ve teamed up and fought each other throughout the comics lore, but in upcoming Justice League comics, they’re actually going to war.
Joker signed up with the Legion of Doom, under the strict requirement that Luthor wouldn’t team up with The Batman Who Laughs. But, Luthor’s selfishness gets the best of him, and he sours on his word with Joker, setting the Clown Prince off, dismantling the Legion, and coming for Luthor. This is probably a relationship that can't be fixed.
19 LIKES: PENGUIN
Joker might have his own wats of doing things, but he is not opposed to a good team up when it is called for. The first time this iconic duo paired up was after a battle to see who was the best villain in Batman #25: Knights of Knavery.
The two realized that they were both great at the art of being a villain and teamed up. The rest is, as they say, history. The two have had a history of team ups from The Long Halloween to Brave and the Bold #68, and Penguin has been Joker’s connection to the mob, and he shed a tear one time when learning of Penguin’s demise.
18 HATES: BANE
Bane’s claim to fame is that he is the one who took down the Bat, or, more commonly, broke his back. The thing about the Joker and Batman dichotomy is that Joker truly does like Batman and his treatment is likely founded in wanting to bring Batman closer to him. So, we can assume he wouldn’t sit too well with Bane's actions.
They have limited interactions in the Knightfall saga, though it’s Bane’s release of the villains of Arkham that sets Batman on a rampage that piques in one of his most violent assaults of the Joker. That might have been partly Scarecrow’s fault, though.
17 LIKES: THE RIDDLER
Riddler and Joker would seem to have things in common based only on title, however, as Tom King so well puts it, they both seem like gags, but a joke is about chaos, and a riddle has a definitive answer.
The two have often teamed up, and Joker once saved Riddler from Hush in a battle that lost him his henchman (and almost his own life). In The War of Jokes and Riddles, the two divide Gotham’s most powerful villains in an attempt to be the one to beat Batman. Though the two are literally at war, what they have in common is their inability to be their core selves, and relying on each other as adversaries allows them to live up to their potential.
16 HATES: DOLLMAKER
Dollmaker is one of the Batman villains who feels the most inspired by real life bad guys. He feels most like a TV adaptation of a real serial attacker origin, having gone on hunting trips and learning different methods at a young age. Like Batman, he witnessed the demise of a parent and swears revenger on the perpetrator, though his father’s demise was at the hands of Jim Gordon.
The two have a lot in common and could have otherwise gotten along as two psychos with some common enemies. But, you know, there was the time Dollmaker removed Joker’s face, so they probably won’t reconcile.
15 LIKES: TWO-FACE
It’s hard to say that Two-Face and the Joker are likely to team up, but that doesn’t mean they have never gotten along. After the Joker was left in the first installment, Two-Face and Riddler teamed up in Batman Forever, and one can only guess if they would have melded with that iteration of Mr. J.
But, though their history is often tumultuous, Joker seems to get along with the former District Attorney. In Batman: The Animated Series, the two are often battling in a trio along with Penguin, and although they bicker, they have a common enemy in Strange, and well, Batman.
14 HATES: HARVEY DENT
While the Joker has often teamed up with Two-Face, his relationship with the other side of the proverbial coin is a lot more tumultuous. Harvey becomes Two-Face after an accident leaves his face disfigured and creates his personality disorder, but he doesn’t remain the split-decision and suit-wearing villain throughout his life. In the Hush storyline, Two-Face has his face repaired and reverts back to Harvey Dent. At one point, he shoots Hush to save Batman and asks Jim Gordon to prevent Batman from ending the Joker.
There’s also the time in The Dark Knight, where Joker’s plot to thwart Batman results in the injuries that turn Dent into Two-Face, so we’d say they probably don’t get along.
13 LIKES: BLACK GLOVE/ DOCTOR HURT
The mind-bending Batman R.I.P. storyline gave us the Doctor Hurt character and his covert congregation, the Black Glove. Joker is somewhat of a pawn to the immense wealth and power of Hurt and his organization. Hurt gambles with Batman’s life and Joker’s handle on it in a plot that helps the Joker escape from Arkham.
But, Joker’s feelings towards allies are often complex. Later, after Hurt is presumed gone, Joker acts as his ally when he pops up in Mexico with a new alias. Hurt doesn’t exactly trust this new ally, which was probably based on good intuition, since Joker eventually doses him with Joker toxin and buries him alive.
12 HATES: RED SKULL
In a “rare” Marvel/DC comics crossover, the Joker partners with the notable Captain America foe, Red Skull. Believing Red Skull’s villainous symbol to be a tasteless and scary costume detail, Joker lets it slide (maybe like he did with Bruno, who he didn’t seem to like much anyway). When Red Skull reveals himself to be a real WWII monster, Joker is horrified. He ultimately fights him and thwarts his plan to drop a bomb on Washington D.C., because he “may be a criminal lunatic, but I am an American criminal lunatic.”
Yes, guys, even Joker knows you should universally hate those guys.
11 LIKES: RED HOOD
It’s hard to say that the Joker wasn’t “annoyed” by the time Red Hood defeated him with a crowbar, but, I mean, Joker respects a good full circle story and revenge plot.
Though Red Hood is set on avenging his own demise at the hands of Joker, Joker never turns on his accidental creation. In Under the Red Hood, when Black Mask frees Joker to end Red Hood, Joker instead captures Black Mask. Red Hood beats Joker almost to his end and tasks Batman with ending him, but Batman refuses. Red Hood threatens to do it himself, resulting in Batman injuring Red Hood to spare Joker’s life. Though not the friendliest of interactions, Joker respects any attempt to push Batman to the edge of ending him.
10 HATES: HOLIDAY
Holiday is a mysterious villain who shows up for the run of The Long Halloween, a massive epic that brings some of the best villains together. All hands are on deck in Gotham to find Holiday, from the mafia, to the Gotham City Police Department, to Batman, and Joker himself.
Joker believes there isn’t room for two homicidal maniacs in Gotham and sets out to find and end Holiday. This consumes him to the point of amalgamating some of the most notorious villains to find this newcomer. He undoubtedly hates Holiday, but this hatred isn’t so simply of one person.
9 LIKES: IVY
The truth is, the guy doesn’t like a lot of people and isn’t so easy to get along with. It’s hard to imagine he would want to spend a lot of time with his former girlfriend’s new girlfriend, but Joker does seem to get along with Poison Ivy.
One of the largest of all of his team-ups was the time Joker banded with some baddies in The Long Halloween. In the mess created by Holiday, Joker sets off against the mysterious villain and the most powerful of Gotham’s crime bosses. In doing so, Ivy is indispensable to the team and they otherwise get along.
8 HATES: DOCTOR WOLPER
In Frank Miller’s acclaimed The Dark Knight Returns, Dr. Wolper represents the “sound-minded” resistance to Batman and his methods. Wolper antagonizes Batman in his own way and, seeking fame in television and taking shots at Batman through the media.
Believing Joker to be a casualty of Batman’s methods, he works to cure him, believing to have done so, and orchestrating his release from Arkham Asylum. Believing he has found a friend in Joker, he is one of the most surprised when in a late night TV appearance, Joker turns the key and has one of his dolls end the doc. What, you expected Joker to fall for all of his psychiatrists?
7 LIKES: KILLER CROC
They haven’t had a tonne of direct interaction, but there is reason to believe the Joker isn’t opposed to sharing in schemes with Killer Croc. Croc is often motivated by money and fame, things the Joker rarely had a shortage of. At one time, after the events of Arkham City, Harley Quinn hired Croc to protect the Joker’s toxic gas, and when Batman came after it, Croc defended it with his life.
However, their relationship wasn’t always strong, like the time Croc captured the Joker knowing his debt to Croc wouldn’t likely get paid, and the other time he assisted in Joker’s capture at Arkham, but who among us has all perfect friendships?
6 HATES: DEKKER
In the Endgame storyline, it’s discovered that it might be impossible to end the Joker. Dr. Paul Dekker, or Crazy Quilt, aided in some sinister medical procedures that focused on extreme healing and possible resurrecting or rendering people immortal. Dekker, and Batman, discover that Joker’s spinal fluid appears to contain a stronger substance similar to that of the resurrecting matter in Lazarus Pits, suggesting the Joker could be immortal.
In attacking Dekker, Batman learns that Joker is a Dionysian man, immortal and having existed for centuries. Dekker injects himself with Joker’s sample, hoping he had been selected to join him as a Dionysian man, but the plan doesn’t work out for Dekker, whose remains are brought to pieces. That’ll teach him to test and reveal Joker’s hidden information.
5 HATES: FALCONE
Carmine Falcone is one of the more notable mafia characters in the Batman comics and represents Joker’s ties to the criminal underworld. In the events of The Long Halloween, Falcone hatches a revenge plot alongside Maroni against Harvey Dent, whom he believes to be Holiday. Though Joker is, himself, bent on hunting down Holiday, the two do not have a common enemy. Becoming TwTHo-Face after the acid attack by Maroni, Dent assembles the famous villains, including the Joker, who assists Two-Face in finding and ending Falcone.
More recently, after the events of Zero Year, Joker demands that Falcone end the Riddler, and when he fails, he ends him. So, probably not the best of friends.
4 LIKES: MAD HATTER
Another of Joker’s more famous allies is the storybook mirroring Mad Hatter. They’ve had multiple team-ups across Batman media and one of our favorites is in Arkham Asylum, where the Joker taps into Mad Hatter, who delivers some cryptic, on-brand dialogue to assist with a plan to bring Batman to the asylum once and for all.
In Batman: The Animated Series, Mad Hatter aided joker in his attack on the comedians who wronged him. Joker is willing to see the madness in anyone to find their common ground, and the madness in the Hatter is easy for him to see.
3 HATES: HUSH
Hush, a similar character to Bruce Wayne himself, proves to be one of the most powerful residents of Gotham. In trying to recruit the baddest villains in town, Hush ends some, hurts some, and drives Joker out of town. But, Joker does not go quietly into that good night and returns to Gotham in Batman: Gotham Knights to capture and sedate Hush, installing a pace maker to control his heart, and thus, his life.
Hush ultimately goes to Batman for help, seeking permission to end the Joker, which he believes Batman has granted. But, Batman leaves Hush at the mercy of the Clown Prince, who seems pretty annoyed by Hush at this point.
2 LIKES: SCARECROW
In film, Joker and Scarecrow existed in the same Nolan-verse, but never interacted. However, in the comics, the pair have teamed up on multiple occasions and Scarecrow appears in the famous villain scene in The Long Halloween.
Their most notable team up came in Knightfall. After a confrontation, Crane asks for a resolution and a partnership, to which Joker agrees. The two have a mostly successful caper, but Crane grows increasingly angered by Joker’s chaotic ways. They really tried to keep it amicable, but then Joker, unfazed by Crane’s fear toxin attack, defeats him with a chair while insulting him.