Surprise New 52 announcement: The Joker's Daughter

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April 18, 2013

This morning, DC Comics updated their new blog "What's New in The New 52" with this character design for "The Joker's Daughter" accompanied only by the phrase "Something evil lurks under Gotham City and it wears the Joker's face."

No other information is given about what comic the character will appear in but this picture in particular looks to be drawn by Brett Booth, who started working on the New 52 Nightwing series with issue #19.

What do I think about The Joker's Daughter? Well, it's not a new idea.

We've seen a character called Duella Dent AKA The Joker's Daughter before and she's actually in the non-New 52 title Ame-Comi Girls at this very moment. Any Son of ___ or Daughter of ____ villain is usually going to lead to something pretty lame. Anarchy, the Son of the Joker, was a rather boring villain. Then there was the terrible daughter of Riddler named Enigma, Eli the son of Hugo Strange, and I'm sure there are a few others that I have totally blocked from memory because they were awful or I forgot about them because they weren't worth remembering in the first place. It just seems like a really cheap way to make an attention-grabbing villain. Instead of coming up with a solid origin story and unique personality, just say that they are the child of this other more popular character, give them the same schtick, and you're good-to-go. Never mind that the child was never referenced before in any other comic, just suddenly give villain X a teenage son/daughter. So my expectations aren't very high about this character. At all. And how is Joker's face still around? Does flesh not decompose in the New 52? I guess if we can accept that Harvey Dent can't die of infection, Joker's severed skin can go ages without ever rotting.

Show Spoiler

And how do you think this girl found the Joker's face? Last we saw, it was washed away somewhere in the batcave.

What are your thoughts on The Joker's Daughter?

SOURCE: What's New in the New 52

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40 comments

Jonathan Tvrdik
April 18, 2013
This looks god awful.
Andrew Hegele
April 18, 2013
They could have gone with an angle where the fall into the vat of chemicals preserved his skin instead of decomposing it but that kind of went out the window with the last few "Death of the Family" issues where it was rotting.
Honestly, this sounds more fitting for a sequel to the Arkham games than the New 52. Though since Damien died, no idea can really be too stupid or surprising for me anymore, let alone a daughter of Joker.
Branden Lau
April 18, 2013
Why must we keep bringing back the Joker's severed face? Can't he just...have his face back?
1. Sideshow
  April 18, 2013
  Couldn't Agree More,This gave me a good laugh.
Derek Bown
April 18, 2013
WHAT!?!!?!?!?!?!!!?
Alex Getts
April 18, 2013
I have two theories:
1. Harley freaks out and tries to kill Joker's daughter by another woman, or,
2. Due to them both taking acid baths (disgruntled sigh) this is the daughter of Joker AND Harley, who has aged at an advanced level because the acid altered their minds and bodies, because why screw up one character's history when you can do it to two?
Seraphix
April 18, 2013
This seems like a terrible idea. I think I'd much rather prefer a daughter of the Joker to be something like a normal person or something, just to add flavor to the story, or SOMETHING different if we even had to have such a bad idea in the first place. This is just stupid.
Javon Cooper
April 18, 2013
WHOA!!! AND IM ACTUALLY REALLY NOT MAD AT THE IDEA. PRETTY BAD ASS. IF THEY GET THE DRAWING RIGHT. BUT EVEN THIS IS COOL.
lethargicj
April 18, 2013
Wait...what's this about Anarky being Joker's son? He's one of my favorite villains ever. I'm pretty sure I have all his stories and I've never heard anything about him being Joker's son. His parents were in all his early stories. I can't find nothing about this on Google. Please don't tell me DC ruined Anarky with this.
1. AndrewBatReview
  April 18, 2013
  I'm surprised that the character's Wikipedia article is so big and yet has no mention of this. I found a little info on ComicVine's page: http://www.comicvine.com/an...
  "After moving his base of operations to Washington D.C., Anarky learned that he may have been adopted and that his natural mother was possibly a Vegas showgirl and his father was potentially the Joker. This only furthered Anarky's resolve to wreak havoc on the industrialized world, in the hope of triggering worldwide revolution. However, once Joker confirmed their connection, Anarky disappeared, presumably to rediscover himself."
  1. lethargicj
    April 18, 2013
    And I thought it sucked when they made him the guy in the coma who talks through a computer.
  2. boots
    April 18, 2013
    far as i know, this was never confirmed. the storyline got axed mid-investigation and the truth was never established.
  3. Cast
    September 16, 2013
    You need to take a closer look. The character's wikipedia page has only a summary of the character's longer publication history, which has it's own article. Yes, there was too much for the original character's page to handle. Further, there is an article on the character's 1999 series, "Anarky", which goes into greater detail about the incident, given that it took place as a subplot of that series. Both articles explain the whole situation fully; that it was a plot concept conceived by Norm Breyfogle, and passed on to Alan Grant, writer of the "Anarky" series. Breyfogle wanted to created tension in the character with a plot twist, while Grant just thought it would draw attention to the character briefly, before it was retconned. Dennis O'Neil, editor of the Bat-Family of comic books at the time dismissed the idea, but agreed on the basis that it wouldn't be cannon. The subplot was to playout over the course of several issues, remain vaguely revealed for a period of time, and then be revealed as false. However, when the series was cancelled, they need to scramble to resolve the dangling plot thread. It was resolved in the final issue by revealing the Joker was Anarky's father, but with multple plot holes intentionally put in place to use as escape hatches. One was that the Joker hadn't been the Joker long enough to be Anarky's father. Another was that the supposed mother never confirmed she gave birth to Anarky, as she was mentally insane. There were other elements. The point is, this was never cannon, but it was simply never addressed either.
RandomAHole
April 18, 2013
Lame.
Brett Booth should never ever design costumes again.
Nick Gonzalez
April 18, 2013
Has potential. I don't really have TOO much faith in the Nightwing writer to produce something really engaging that moves beyond the typical "son of ____" story.
Elijah Hummel
April 18, 2013
What happened to his face?
Riordan Kynes
April 18, 2013
If they wanted to be original they would've made her look normal.
Black Adam
April 18, 2013
I love the joker. To the point I've spent lots of money on statues, and art all featuring him...but I kind of hate this. I don't like the daughter angle at all, and I HATE the hair. Nevermind the face. It seems to be a bad idea on the whole. The only time I think I liked the daughter thing was Duella in tiny titans.
meamwayne
April 18, 2013
If she is supposed to literally be the actual daughter of the Joker, then we come up once more against the complication of Batman's back story being compressed into six years without being simplified or properly rebooted. This would mean that she was the daughter of some normal slob who would eventually become the Joker for most of her life. So what's her problem? Daddy not around when you needed him? Lots of kids have that problem; it doesn't really cut it as an origin for a mass murdering sociopath. If she's just some jerk kid who thinks the Joker is cool, ho hum. We've seen that so many times before it's getting dull.
1. lethargicj
  April 18, 2013
  I wouldn't be surprised if it's just some crazy girl who found Joker's face after it floated out of the cave and washed up somewhere.
Ando
April 18, 2013
Talia Al Ghul is the only exception to the son/daughter of X villain.
Mrjay
April 18, 2013
I'd hit it
Dave
April 18, 2013
HAHAHAHAHAHAH. Wait, they're serious. -starts crying instead-
Davey
April 18, 2013
We need to design a daughter for the Joker. -draws Joker with a skirt- BRILLIANT! GIVE THIS MAN A RAISE
ej123
April 18, 2013
Terrible character design. What's so great about the joker is he looks over the top without crossing the line of being silly. This just looks silly. Lets hope her story is better than her look (though I don't have much faith that it will).
Gregor Amos
April 18, 2013
This is an April fools. Don't panic.
1. BryanCUFF
  April 19, 2013
  If this was posted on April 1 I might agree with you. I wish you were right but I really think they're serious.
  Things like this make me question why I started to bother with comic books again.
Guest
April 18, 2013
I kind of want her shirt to say Slut. Is it just me?
1. ED
  April 18, 2013
  *Face Palm*
ED
April 18, 2013
Maybe if it turns out that it's really just Harley "channelling" the Joker through his face, it might turn out interesting.
Emperor Joker
April 18, 2013
I don't think this is actually the joker's daughter but rather some troubled miscreant who happens to of found joker's face and has used it as an outlet for stress release, like the jokerz gang from beyond. maybe she'll be a villian in Layman's Detective Comics where joker's influence has already been delved into. Or maybe it'll be the return of Dula Dent and we'll have a crappy story arc with her. You never know
Andrea
April 18, 2013
Inexcusably, irrevocably lame. Haven't they learned their lesson?
diogo02000
April 18, 2013
Im coll with her debut in 'New 52', my problem is if they use her not as a original character, but a poor replace until the Joker returns.
Josh
April 18, 2013
Whoever thought of this, whether it was snyder, Tomasi, morrison, Higgins, tynion, or hurritz...... You are dumb as F**K for coming up with this
Brennub
April 18, 2013
My roommate showed this to me and I actually thought he was joking at first. I mean.... the character design is just so bad. I think I remember a punk kid in the Captain Planet cartoon opening having hair like that. Ugh.
I hope this leads to something good, but it likely won't. You really hit the nail on the head.
boots
April 18, 2013
the joker has no children. this needs to die in the creative womb.
Ratman
April 19, 2013
This is one of the worst ideas ever... Please Dc, go home, you're drunk.
Giancarlos Calderon
April 19, 2013
This is just plain stupid! I just don't like a lot of things of New 52.

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This is an archive of Batman-News.com from 2010 to 2025. For the latest news, check out BatmanNews.com