Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for the DC Comics’ Doomsday Clock #1. Enter at your own risk…
It has been a while since a story moved the comic books like the way Watchmen did a few years ago. The plot was outright epic, the DC characters as deep as the ocean and the narrative was sheer brilliance. Alan Moore had unwittingly created a monster of a master piece that will be revered by scores of fans for generations to come.
But Alan Moore’s adaptation ended in a not so subtle way. It left us wanting for more. The questions thus raised left the viewers uncomfortable and asking one single question relentlessly – What happens next after Rorscharch’s death?? No one knew.
No one knew until last month. Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s Doomsday Clock was launched last month to rave reviews. The story was heavily praised for bringing the DC superheroes and the Watchmen (that until now belonged to a separate universe) into a single time and dimensional frame. But the first issue left us right where we ended up after Alan Moore’s Watchmen comics. There were far more questions than we could care to elaborate. Too many of them yet there was one that will catch your attention – one concerning the Joker himself.
And the answer will leave you dumb founded.
In the Darkseid War saga, Batman ended up on the Mobius Chair and became his universe’s God of Knowledge. The Mobius Chair has the answer to anything you can ask. Naturally Batman asked the chair to things – Who killed his parents and what is the Joker’s real name.
The former question’s answer was pretty obviously Joe Chill and we all knew that (except Bruce of course). But the latter question’s answer was so earth shattering that it even ade The Batman flinch in surprise. The chair did not give one but three names.
There were three Jokers in the DC universe
There is not one Joker in the DC Universe anymore. The mantle of the Clown Prince of Crime now belongs to three maniacs, all of them true heirs to the Joker Throne.
There is Dick Sprang’s Golden Age Joker, next is the one from The Killing joke and the latest version os from the New 52Endgame iteration. All of them equally horrifying, petrifying and terrifying. The DC Rebirth kicked off to a wonderful start but this revelation kicked the fans right where it hurts the most – in the nuts. The fact that there was one of him wasn’t enough. Now we got a triple bonanza!!
“Geoff [Johns] was great about walking us through what the plan is for upcoming ‘Three Jokers’ storyline and giving us the breathing room for what we wanted to do,” Snyder says. “Just to be clear to readers, this is not going to answer the ‘Three Jokers’ question. That’s really for Geoff — he has a big story planned for that — but what it will do is show us the way that The Joker, like he did during my entire time on Batman, is always there as the Greek chorus of the book, saying to Batman, in one way or another, ‘You’re doing it wrong,’ or, ‘You’re doing it right. This is what needs to happen. This is who you are.”
Geoff Johns is mostly busy with forwarding DCEU’s causes in the cinematic front. But that does not mean the comics won’t be addressing the “The Three Jokers” enigma. Gary Frank and Geoff Johns are hard at work to make that happen, if sources are to be believed. And one of the 3 Jokers’ identities has already been revealed.
In Doomsday Clock #1, Rorschach helps Mime and Marionette out of prison. For those of you who do not know who these characters are, Mime and Marionette were widely considered to be Joker’s and Harley’s counterpart in the Watchmen-Verse. But that has been debunked to be false.
They are actually the counterparts of another two DC characters Punch and Jewelee. But the theory doesn’t die out just yet. Mime and Marionette have a child.
Rorschach claims the picture to be too old. Mind you the story arc takes place in the 90s. So the infant in the picture must be in his thirties by now. In addition to that Mime and Marionette’ relationship is as maniacal and psychopathic as the Joker and Harley’s.
Ozymandias has an important connection to Marionette and once made a reference about laughing uncontrollably until death. The clues may be minor but they are certainly too many and too hard to ignore.
Doomsday Clock #2 comes out soon. The premise states there will be “Killer clowns” running amok in the city in search of a Madman. It will take an entire year for the story arc to complete. Considering they don’t have much of a window left, may be the comics will paint the infant as one of the three Clown Princes of Crime after all.
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