Joker venom
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Joker venom is a fictional toxin, a favorite murder weapon used by The Joker in the Batman franchise of movies, comics, and cartoons.
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[edit] Analysis
Joker venom can exist in liquid and gas states and has been used to great effect. The gas form is slightly denser than air and in some portrayals dissipates over time.
In a 1980s comic book, the Joker facilitates one of his many escapes from Arkham Asylum using the venom - by mixing together the common cleaning chemicals found in a janitor's closet.
[edit] The DC Technical Manual: S.T.A.R. Labs 1993 Annual Report
The DC Technical Manual: S.T.A.R. Labs 1993 Annual Report (a sourcebook for Mayfair's DC Heroes Roleplaying Game) stated that Joker Venom is "a hellish mixture of hydrogen cyanide and Strychnodide (a strychnine derivative), the toxin causes immediate cessation of heart and brain functions. As a side effect, the victim's muscles contract in such a way as to severely tighten and discolor the victim's skin, especially in the facial area. This leaves the victim's corpse permanently scarred with a clown-like grin in tribute to his killer. Since the Joker Venom is just as deadly if absorbed through the pores as it is if inhaled, the Joker occasionally releases it in gas form throughout the central heating/cooling vents of a building."
[edit] Batman: The Killing Joke
How exactly Joker knows how to make the venom varies by story. In the graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, it was revealed that the man who would become the Joker once worked in a chemical plant, and may have had some chemical education as a result.
[edit] Batman (1989 film)
In the 1989 movie, when Bruce Wayne reads through the police file on Jack Napier, he learns that Napier, despite his criminal ways, is extremely intelligent and especially gifted in chemistry. One shot of the film shows a tableau of photographs and file folders on the Joker's desks: the photos all show dead soldiers with crazy grins on their faces, and the words "C.I.A." and "ABANDONED" are visible on the file folders: this indicates that the Joker has reproduced or refined a nerve gas experiment conducted by the U.S. Government.
Joker venom is the means by which Joker terrorizes Gotham City when he first appears in his new guise, slipping components of the toxin into household products such as cosmetics and cleaning fluids, in such a way that when used together, the products become deadly.
[edit] Batman: The Man Who Laughs
The 2004 graphic novel Batman: The Man Who Laughs revealed that Joker, who was created by falling into a vat of chemicals, had stolen them in a plan to poison Gotham City's reservoir, but the plan was foiled by Batman. In this particular story, the venom also turns the victim's entire skin white, and their hair and eyes green, an effect that is unique to the usage in this novel (and which is probably merely a visual tie to the Joker himself).
A story arc in Legends of the Dark Knight revealed that a cousin of the man who became the Joker, Melvin Reipan, an autistic savant with a gift for chemistry, is persuaded to create the Joker Venom as a way to "make people laugh", in exchange for becoming "handsome". However, Reipan is in fact physically very attractive, only having been told by his abusive mother he was ugly. This story appeared in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #50 and not only revealed the origins of Joker Venom, but also told the first battle between Batman and the Joker after his first attempt to destroy the city.
[edit] Red Skull's "dust of death"
Marvel Comics has an apparent equivalent to Joker venom in the form of Red Skull's "dust of death", a chemical which turns the head of its victim into a "red skull" resembling that of Red Skull. In a crossover, the Red Skull and the Joker face off against one another, the Joker angry he had unwittingly worked for a Nazi ("I may be a lunatic, but I'm an American lunatic!"), and employ their favorite toxins on each other. They realize the toxins are useless against each other, as both combatants are immune to their own, and both toxins are strikingly similar at a chemical level.
[edit] Effects
- Lethal version
Contact with Joker venom causes uncontrollable spasms of laughter, followed by a painful death. Some have speculated that the venom hyperstimulates the laughter functions of the brain, leaving the victim unable to breathe.
- Non-lethal version
The venom causes uncontrollable laughter, but instead of dying, their faces are usually pulled into an unusually large grin. Artists often stylize the effects, adding yellowed teeth, bulging eyes, etc. similar to the features of the Joker himself.
Prolonged exposure to the non-fatal forms can cause permanent brain damage.
[edit] Usage
[edit] Comics
Joker venom has been a part of the Joker's arsenal since his first appearance in Batman #1 (1940). The venom is often deployed as an airborne agent, but can also be used in its liquid form (used both to poison victims through their unwitting consumption of it, or in special darts). In The Killing Joke, Joker uses a spike worn in his palm (similar to a Joy Buzzer) to administer the drug in a handshake. In Jeph Loeb's and Tim Sale's Catwoman: When in Rome Joker venom is duplicted by the Riddler to blame Catwoman for the murder of a Sicilian Mafia kingpin. It is referred to as Joker Juice by both Catwoman and The Riddler.
[edit] Batman: The Animated Series
In the 1990s animated series, Joker venom was almost exclusively a non-lethal gas, or, as seen more often, infected individuals are almost always revived before death (the venom doesn't kill as quickly in the series). It was also used as part of a binary compound in an episode called "The Laughing Fish", in which selected targets were exposed to part of the compound and later gassed with the second part, thus the venom would only affect the intended party. That same episode also featured a diluted version of the toxin, which only affected fish to make them smile (though as Joker later revealed in "Mad Love", the toxin is ineffective on piranha), as part of Joker's plan to sell "Joker Fish" and earn money off product sales (Joker also indicated a possible plan to alter the toxin to affect cattle should the fish plan not work — a hint that Joker could alter the toxin to affect any specific species of life he wished). In later movies and episodes, the venom became lethal (it was used to kill, among others, Sal Valestra in Mask of the Phantasm, a security guard in "Holiday Knights" and a government agent in the Justice League episode "Wild Cards"), although Joker also used the non-lethal variant as well. Joker did not appear to be immune to it, as evidenced by his protective helmet in "The Last Laugh". In the episode "Harley & Ivy", Poison Ivy displays immunity towards it due to her immune system's resistance to toxins.
[edit] Batman (1989 film)
Dubbed Smilex (sometimes spelled Smylex) by the Joker, the venom originates as an agent known as DDID nerve gas, an experimental bioweapon developed by the U.S. Army and discontinued in 1977, according to a file seen in the Joker's lair. Smilex is distributed both as a gas and in liquid form, mixed as separate components in various beauty and hygiene products which only takes effect when the victim uses a number of them in tandem, thus making the toxin nearly impossible to trace until Batman discovers the Joker's methods and finds out which products hold the toxins. The Joker shows no immunity to it, but can be seen donning a gas mask during the mass gassing during Gotham City's 200th anniversary parade scene.
[edit] The Batman (new TV series)
Both versions of the venom are used in the new cartoon. The non-lethal version is weaponized as a gas and seems to dissipate over time. The gas is called "laughing gas," and puts its victims into a coma. Batman provided an antidote to this laughing gas. However, Joker also has a lethal version which is a liquid. The effects of this venom are the same as the one used in the Joker's first appearance in the comics (a venom which takes 24 hours to kill). In the meantime, the victim slowly has increasing bouts of uncontrollable laughter until they are unable to breathe and die with Joker's trademark grin. Batman was infected with the venom, but was able to create a cure before it was too late.
[edit] Aliases
Joker Venom has had a variety of names depending on the writer. They include: Smilex, Smylex, Laughing Gas, Joker Gas, Joker Juice, Laughing Toxin, Laugh-A-loads, and Perma-Smile.
[edit] Pop Culture
Joker venom is mentioned several times by various musicians, artists, and authors such as:
The Unthinking Majority by Serj Tankian. In this video, Smilex represents one of the antidepressants used by the masses to dull their minds to the real world.
