Joker: Last Laugh

It may have seemed like Our Worlds at War was DC's annual company-wide crossover, but a month after it DC had another crossover.  In the format that had been the norm since Zero Hour, Joker: Last Laugh was a 6-issue weekly series that tied into every ongoing series at the time.  This would be the last crossover ever in this format, and the last line-wide crossover until Infinite Crisis in 2005.

Like most of the crossovers in this compressed format, the story had to be easily adaptable to all of the single issue tie-in books without interfering too much in the story lines that were already in place.  The premise of Joker: Last Laugh was that the Joker is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, so he decides to go on one final crime spree, breaking most of the major DC villains out of prison, and infecting them with Joker gas.  This would let every tie-in participate with their character's regular villains without having to have the Joker everywhere in the universe at once.  Nevertheless, while previous crossovers were able to loosely incorporate elements like the sun going dark in the Final Night or a wave of depression in Genesis, shoe-horning the Joker's face into every issue this month seemed editorially intrusive.

Superman #175

On the anniversary of Superman's death, Doomsday comes back from his own recent death a few months ago, only now infected by the Joker.  The Jokerized Doomsday attacks the White House, forcing the Martian Manhunter to drop his disguise as Luthor's aide after the President reveals he knew all along.  Superman defeats Doomsday in this rematch, and later President Luthor secretly delivers the restrained monster to Darkseid who takes Doomsday to Apokolips.

Seeing the fight on TV, Pa Kent regains his memory and returns home to Smallville for a happy family reunion.

The tie-ins featured guest covers each week by Ed McGuiness, Tim Sale, Jim Lee, or Bill Sienkiewicz.  While Ed McGuiness did multiple covers for other books this month, he's also the only one of those artists who had his own ongoing series at the time too.

Both Superman and Wonder Woman had extra-sized 175th issues this month, which was not very common for tie-ins.  President Luthor also features prominently in the Wonder Woman tie-in, although he's transformed by the witch Circe and the Joker story seems more of an afterthought.

Adventures of Superman #597

Like Donald Trump, President Luthor launches his re-election campaign years ahead of the next election.  But unlike in the real world, the press in the DC Universe takes this as a sign that the President may not be well.  

As Luthor's campaign train speeds through the country, Superman sees that the President and his bodyguards Hope and Mercy have been infected by the Joker.  Vice President Ross and Second Lady Lana watch in horror as Superman stops the Jokerized Luthor, and in the President's absence Pete Ross orders the Joker's death.

This issue was filled in by Derec Aucoin, who would become the regular series artist almost a year later, with a guest cover by Tim Sale.

Superman: The Man of Steel #119

A Jokerized Killer Frost leads to the other freeze-powered villains of the DCU to attack the Steelworks so they can access its absolute zero chamber.  Unfortunately, this frees the Eradicator, who had been imprisoned in the chamber before Our World's at War.  Still confused by the alternative version of Krypton Superman had shown him, the Eradicator goes to the Fortress of Solitude, which is defended by Kelex and Krypto.  Superman bonds the Eradicator to the Fortress and repairs the destruction, rebuilding the statue of Jor El and Lara to reflect both versions of them now.

A year before Jim Lee would become a regular artist on Batman, his guest covers this month were some of his first work at DC.  This was his first Superman cover, but after his Batman run he would spend a year on Superman.

Action Comics #784

Not just villains are affected, now heroes are falling under the Joker's influence.  Green Lantern Kyle Reiner is infected by the Joker and Batman fears this could be a glimpse of what it would be like if the Joker had god-like power to remake the world in his image.  Superman is having flashbacks from The Reign of Emperor Joker. when the Joker did just that.  Superman and Batman eventually figure out that the Green Lantern they're fighting is just a construct of his ring, and they're able to give Kyle the antidote to the Joker's poison.  Superman finally tells Batman all about what happened during Emperor Joker's reign, but Batman is not happy to learn that Superman tampered with his mind by removing those memories.

This issue's guest cover is by Bill Sienkiewicz

Joker: Last Laugh ended disappointingly with an enraged Nightwing beating the Joker to death, although the villain is immediately resuscitated.  Even worse, it turns out the doctor had just lied to the Joker about having cancer to get revenge, but of course the Joker had the last laugh.  Apparently, the original ending was to have the Joker kill Nightwing, and this would be the only major crossover to abort that plan.  DC would come dangerously close to killing Nightwing again in Infinite Crisis, but would back off from those plans at that time too.