Joker venom

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The Joker with a victim of Joker venom, in the OverPower card game

Joker venom is a fictional toxin, a favourite murder weapon utilised by The Joker in the Batman franchise of movies, comics, and cartoons.

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.

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 has his/her 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."

How exactly Joker knows how to make the venom varies by story. For example, in 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. 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.

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.

Effects

Lethal version

Contact with Joker venom causes uncontrollable spasms of laughter and then causes a painful death. Some have speculated that the venom hyperstimulates the laughter functions of the brain and the victim is unable to breathe.

Non-lethal version

Prolonged exposure to the non-fatal forms can cause permanent brain damage.

The faces of victims are usually pulled into a huge grin. Artists often stylize the effects, adding yellowed teeth, bulging eyes, etc. similar to the features of the Joker himself.

Usage

Comics

In the comics, Joker venom is often deployed as an airborne agent, and also as a liquid (used both to poison victims through their unwitting consumption of it, or in special darts. In The Killing Joke, Joker was also seen to use a spike worn in his palm to administer the drug in a handshake manner).

In the 1990s animated series, Joker venom was almost exclusively a non-lethal gas. 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 was 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 Sal Valestra in Mask of the Phantasm and a security guard in Holiday Knights), 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.

Batman (1989 film)

In the first Batman film, Joker venom originated as Ddid nerve gas, an experimental bioweapon tested on soldiers and discontinued in the 1970s; no information is given as to how the Joker attained knowledge of the chemical. Renamed Smylex, exposure to Joker venom in this example was fatal. It was distributed both as a gas and in liquid form, mixed as separate components in various beauty and hygiene products which only took effect when the victim used a number of them in tandom, thus making the toxin impossible to trace.

The Batman (new TV series)

The venom in the new cartoon is weaponised as a gas and seems to dissipate over time.

It has been stated that the Joker constantly alters the formula to the Venom (which he is immune to) so no antidote can be prepared for it.

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