No, Batman and Joker are not related. Official confirmation will be required before we can consider Todd Phillips' Joker to be the brother of the much younger Bruce Wayne. Until then, they aren't officially related. In other comic updates, check out what Pink Kryptonite does to Superman.
Are Batman and Joker related in the comics? The answer to this is more straightforward: no, they're not. While DC has rebooted its continuity multiple times since Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson unleashed Joker on the world in 1940, no mainstream version of the baddie shares blood ties with Bruce Wayne.
Later, Arthur goes to Arkham State Hospital and steals his mother's records, and finds out that he was in fact adopted, and that Thomas Wayne is not his father and that Penny is not his true mother.
Due to their similar aesthetics and their eschewing the more grandiose nature of recent comic book movies, many audiences might believe that the two DC Comics adaptations are related. In reality, however, the two couldn't be more different and separate from each other.
As Batman's nemesis, the Joker has been part of the superhero's defining stories, including the murder of Jason Todd—the second Robin and Batman's ward—and the paralysis of one of Batman's allies, Barbara Gordon.
The most common backstory for The Joker is that he was a failed comedian who took a job for the mob in order to pay bills that involved stealing from a chemical plant. In a confrontation with Batman, he accidentally slipped into some chemicals which bleached his skin and caused him to go insane.
During this storyline, The Joker and Batman have a confrontation, and The Joker temporarily takes on the mantle of Batman while Batman becomes something akin to The Joker. It is an intense and psychologically gripping storyline that explores the twisted relationship between the two iconic characters.
In most Batman adaptations, Bruce leaves Gotham city at 18 and returns as Batman around the age of 25. This would make Joker over 50 when Bruce returns, which is a little old for a chaos-causing crime boss.
Arthur Fleck, later known as the Joker, is a failed comedian who, following his great lack of success and respect, loses his mental stability until he becomes a nihilistic, sociopathic killer calling himself Joker, aiming himself to make Gotham smile in his way.
I asked Todd how Thomas Wayne would've know Arthur's mother. The backstory was that Arthur's mother had worked for Thomas in his home, and she was a beautiful woman who Thomas was attracted to and it led to a physical relationship. Later in life, she's in and out of mental institutions.
The psychopathology Arthur exhibits is unclear, preventing diagnosis of psychotic disorder or schizophrenia; the unusual combination of symptoms suggests a complex mix of features of certain personality traits, namely psychopathy and narcissism (he meets DSM-5 criteria for narcissistic personality disorder).
In the process, he begins the training that shapes his destiny as a feared vigilante, known as Batman. In Pennyworth, Bruce is revealed to have had an older sister, Samantha, who disappeared long before he was born.
One of the mysteries in director Todd Phillips' Joker is whether Arthur Fleck really is the son of Thomas Wayne as his mother Penny Fleck claimed. Both Wayne himself and Alfred Pennyworth said it was untrue and that Penny was delusional, hence her eventual stay in Arkham Asylum.
Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, the character first appeared in Detective Comics #33 (November 1939). Batman: Three Jokers #1 (August 2020). In Batman's origin story, Joe Chill is the mugger who murders young Bruce Wayne's parents, Dr. Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne.
The Joker commits a crime and, cornered by the Batman at the Monarch Playing Card Company, throws himself into a vat of chemical waste. He survives, but becomes horribly disfigured in the process. This is the first and earliest attempt at providing a background for the Joker, written in 1951.
Most comic fans agree that Batman is absolutely the Joker's nemesis. But that minimizes Harley Quinn and the journey she's been on in the three decades since her debut. She might have started out as Joker's girlfriend, but as time went on, Harley recognized how poisonous Joker really was before leaving him for good.
Mad Love introduces Harley Quinn as a former psychologist named Harleen Quinzel who fell in love with the Joker during her internship at Gotham City's Arkham Asylum and details her transformation into the Joker's villainous accomplice Harley Quinn, as well as the Joker's lack of respect for Harley.
In that series, Joker's name was revealed as Jack Oswald White, while other worlds and stories have given him names like Jack Napier. Inconsistency has always been a part of the Joker's brand, but maybe these varying identities have revealed a secret truth about the iconic villain.
Nicholson's Joker was a criminal who was physically and mentally altered after falling into a vat of hazardous chemicals. Heath Ledger's iconic take reinvented the character for a new age, permanently imbuing the clown with angst.
Everything seems to be going swimmingly until Arthur lets himself into Sophie's apartment after his mother's death, and she barely recognizes him. Viewers then see alternate versions of Sophie's scenes where Arthur is interacting with thin air, clearly indicating that the entire relationship was a fabrication.
In The New Batman Adventures animated show, part of the DC Animated Universe, the Joker tells Harley Quinn about his abusive father, who constantly abused him with or without reasons.
