The following contains spoilers for The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #6, now on sale from DC Comics.

The Joker is usually regarded as one of, if not the best villain in the comics. The Clown Prince of Crime has been around since Batman's early days and has gone through just as much evolution and change as his perpetual foe -- gradually becoming a more consistently frightening figure. While other mass media versions of the character have found surprisingly endearing beats with different takes on the Joker, the comic book version just got a fun breath of fresh air.

The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #6 (by Matthew Rosenberg, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Arif Prianto and Tom Napolitano) sees the Joker start a violent riot that most stories would take seriously. However, the creative team behind this series takes the opportunity to play the issue largely for laughs, making it a comedy instead of a thriller or horror story. It's a great reminder of the Joker's versatility as a character.

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The Joker Heads Back to Gotham With an Explosive Exit

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For most of The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing, the plot has been largely dramatic. While there have been some bursts of dark comedy, the series has been a character study of a mysterious man who believes himself to be the Joker -- and the "real" Joker, who relocated to Los Angeles after growing tired of Gotham. But with the news that his counterpart is on the streets and surprisingly difficult to put down, he decides it's time to go home. But before he does, he unleashes an attack on LA, destroying multiple police precincts at once and causing a riot. Initially, Joker is pleased with this turn of events and he has a private plane waiting to fly him out of the chaos. But then it turns out that instead of flying out of the airport in Burbank (where he was), his henchmen sent the plane to LAX

What follows is a hilarious story as the Joker has to try and make his way through a burning Los Angeles, fully aware that he lit the match. A premise like that could play out in many ways -- the comic could embrace the horror elements that defined its predecessor and even its previous issues. It could be a thrilling action story, where Joker is always trying to stay a step ahead of everyone around him. It could have even been a drama, focusing on how a city unconditioned to supervillains deals with such an attack. But instead, the issue plays up the chaos for a pure dark comedy filled with deaths and punchlines -- and it works.

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DC Made the Joker Fun Again

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The Joker has been a lot of things. Capable of switching between dangerous, funny, pathetic, and terrifying all within a single scene, the Joker can be whatever a story needs him to be -- a strength that partially explains his adaptability and endurance in pop culture. But in the last decade especially, the Joker has become defined by his ability to inspire fear. Most Joker stories have focused on how frightening the character is, and his ability to disrupt entire cities with a single plan or simply appear out of the shadows. By contrast, The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #6 provided a breath of fresh air with its central premise.

He complains about traffic but is impressed when he witnesses the chaos of LA. He's reluctantly dragged into taking pictures with a guy in a Batman costume on Sunset Boulevard, entertaining unassuming tourists until he decides enough is enough and kills "Batman." Even his attempt to get a taxi is met with comical failure. Joker stories like this help distinguish him from all the other remorseless serial killers of Gotham. It gives him a personality that villains like Professor Pyg, Zsasz, and others can't match That bizarre depth of character afforded to a very straightforward villain is one of the reasons he's so compelling. The Joker having fun is something that's been missing in modern stories, and it's great to see him rediscovering that energy.