The following contains spoilers for "No More Mr. Nice Guys!" in The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #8, on sale now from DC Comics.
The Joker is capable of killing not only Superman, but every hero in the DC Universe.
The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #8 provides readers with another out-of-continuity backup story, "No More Mr. Nice Guys!" by writer Matthew Rosenberg and artist Francesco Francavilla. In this Silver Age style tale, the Joker decides he is sick of being laughed at and beaten by "good guys." So, he designs a "machine that can read brain wave patterns and detect whether someone is a good person or a bad person." This machine explodes the heads of heroes whether they are invulnerable or not, allowing Joker to easily murder Superman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Plastic Man and others with just the push of a button.
Eventually, Joker gets on live television and broadcasts the device's signal across the world, killing any remaining heroes and do-gooders. It is implied that he murders Batman prior to this, being that during his broadcast, a news ticker reads, "Bruce Wayne found dead in a Batman costume." While the short story is not canon to the main DC Universe, it shows one way Joker can take out all of Earth's heroes, and that he is still unsatisfied after doing so.
The Joker's Silver Age Stories Turn Him Pregnant and More
"No More Mr. Nice Guys!" is the latest in a series of backup stories from The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing. Each backup recreates the wackiness of Silver Age comics while teaming Joker up with his sidekick Gaggy and gorilla ally Jackanapes. Though none are connected to each other, some previous backup stories see Joker try to win the affections of various superheroes, including Power Girl, Big Barda, Giganta and Zatanna. Issue #4's story with Zatanna drew a lot of different reactions from fans and media outlets due to it making the Joker pregnant.
Following the reactions to pregnant Joker, Rosenberg explained that the series' backup stories "are made to be sort of Silver Age style fever dreams of the Joker that explore different, non-continuity explanations of how there could be multiple Jokers and other themes of the main book." Outside the backups, The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing deals with the mystery of how two different Jokers are running around the DC Universe. While one Joker has moved to Los Angeles, the other is still in Gotham City. The latter keeps being told that he is not the real Joker though, despite him believing himself to be.
Along with Rosenberg and Francavilla, "No More Mr. Nice Guys!" is lettered by Tom Napolitano. The main story in The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #8 is written by Rosenberg, drawn by Carmine Di Giandomenico, colored by Romulo Fajardo Jr. and also lettered by Napolitano. Main cover art for the issue is by Giandomenico, with variant cover artwork contributed to by Francesco Mattina, Ivan Tao, Clay Mann and Tomeu Morey. The issue is now on sale from DC Comics.
Source: DC