30 Years Later, Admit This Iconic Joker Moment Remains a Stain on the Character

A sudden break with the Red Skull

John Byrne’s 1996 Batman & Captain America brings Batman and Captain America together and briefly pairs the Joker with the Red Skull. When the Joker learns his partner is a Nazi, he rejects the alliance and declares, “I may be a criminal lunatic, but I’m an American criminal lunatic!” The two villains attack each other, but their signature toxic gases have no effect on one another. The Joker also disrupts the Red Skull’s plan to drop an atomic bomb on Washington, D.C.

The patriotic rationale questioned

The scene can make a villain’s refusal to work with a Nazi seem like a striking line in the sand. Later comics echoed the sentiment: in Injustice: Year Zero #4, the Joker says, “I’m a homicidal maniac, not a traitorous bigot!” He also rejects membership in the Aryan Alliance while incarcerated.

But patriotism has not been a meaningful commitment for the Joker. In the Death in the Family storyline, he becomes Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations to obtain diplomatic immunity, while also killing Jason Todd.

A record of mass violence

The stronger objection is the scale of the Joker’s own cruelty. In the 2000 Emperor Joker crossover, he gains reality-warping power from Mister Mxyzptlk and destroys and eats China’s entire population as part of a joke.

Without that power, the Joker has used poison gas to kill large groups. He has also tortured, killed, manipulated and psychologically abused adults and children, making his supposed moral distinction from genocidal villains difficult to sustain.

Other explanations for his opposition

The Joker’s devotion to chaos could put him at odds with Nazi fascism and its pursuit of order and control. His nihilism might also lead him to despise efforts to impose a single national or racial identity.

These readings offer alternatives to patriotism, but neither fully resolves the contradiction. The Joker’s own actions show that his opposition to the Red Skull does not establish a consistent moral boundary.