Its no doubt that Joker is Batman's number one nemesis. Whether its something as nonsensical as producing his own brand of Joker fish or something as horrifying as beating a teenager to death and blowing him up, the Clown Prince of Crime's unpredictable nature gives him an air of menace that few of the Bat's rogues gallery can match. But does this unpredictability make him more terrifying than galactic overlords and cosmic abominations?

It's often stated that when super villains in the DCU want to scare each other they tell stories about the Joker. During Infinite Crisis, Alexander Luthor made it a point not to invite Joker to his Secret Society because he was to difficult to control (an affront he paid for dearly). Heck when the Martian Manhunter attempted to rewrite the Joker's thought patterns he almost had a stroke in the first two minutes.

I think what helps Old Jack's rep is that he seems to be one of the more realistic villains in fiction. Guys like Darkseid, Black Adam, Sinestro etc are scary and all but how often would you run into a super-powered despot with a silly name. A mass murdering nihilist with no regard for life on the other hand? That is all too real.

So what do you guys think? Is the Joker the most terrifying villain in the DC Universe?

Not even close.. On human level Professor Pyg is the scariest for me .. But on the cosmic level. It might be parallax or anti-monitor plus black lantern corp

for me yeah him or lex luthor.

Doomsday (Potentially) or Darkseid for me.

It's Darkseid or Parallax for me.

Well, in terms of being a sublime threat he is not very terrifying at all, not in comparison to powerful villains such as Darkseid and Anti-Monitor. However, he might just be the most terrifying on a psychological level due to his unpredictable nature and psychotic disposition.

@shadowswordmaster: Why?

@flameboy298: Parallax is fear incarnate and really dangerous and Darkseid is just one scary dude.

Darkseid

when you have parralax, darkseid and prime then joker is simply an annoyance.

Yeah.

Superman going rogue. Read Irredeemable and tell me Supes isn't the scariest.

If you're talking about the most terrifying then I think Doctor Psycho is worth mentioning.

If the Joker was real, I wouldn't want to live in the city he commits his crimes, he's crazy. Joker is the most scariest villain i've heard of so far as in what he does (super powered villains could kill him fast like Darkseid), when i was young like 5 years old, always had nightmares of Jack Nicholson's Joker.

Yeah definitely. ..others have mentioned Parralax and Darkseid but you really don't need to worry to much about them since they're cosmic threats...with the Joker he could just get bored one day and decide to pick a house at random and torture the people inside to death

The whole story wasn't that great but the first issue of Death of the Family really showed how terrifying people in the DCU find him...when Gordan realized that it was the Joker who was in the precinct he looked like he was going to crap his pants

I'd still have to go with Dr Psycho. He's a high level telepathic misogynistic dwarf who's primary motivation is being a rapist. The Joker is terrifying in a way that fascinates people but Psycho takes to a level that makes everyone very uncomfortable.

He's one of the scariest at least in human levels alongside Scarecrow, but in cosmic levels Parallax takes the cake since he's the freaking living embodiment of fear.

Scarecrow creeps me out D: (In a good way for reading comics, but boy oh boy I would not want to fight him.)

Gotta be Doomsday, he killed hope itself.

Professor Pyg dancing is pretty scary

Im guessing the more suitable word would be most disturbing.

Its pretty terrifying what Anti-Monitor, Darkseid, Black Lantern Corps etc. can do, but the Joker is the by far more disturbing villain when compared to these cosmic level dudes & ladies.

This.

Any Joe Somebody with a pistol could stop the Joker. Joker isn't even close. Assuming you don't have Coulrophobia that is.

Indeed,and Final Crisis Darkseid too,Doomsday as well I guess. These guys are legit scary,Anti-Monitor and Parallax are phony scary.

I'm certain the Black Glove and Deathstroke have considerable arms and ammunition,shame all those guns couldn't stop Joker.

Real world Joker wouldn't be protected by DC's financial advisors.

No he isnt.

This guy is. Time travel very is dangerous..

I'd rather have a conversation with Darkseid than Joker.

i would rather let darkseid blow me up in an instant with his omega beams than to allow joker to beat me to death using crowbar.

If I was Flash I would fear professor Zoom the most, I don't know how he sleeps at night knowing that at any given moment, Thawne could change his entire life by changing his past

Yeah also erasing your best friend from history

It's not like Joker is a super genius or anything.

I definitely wouldn't call him a super genius, no.

Doomsday is in my book, especially if im superman

More like the most overrated villain.

Batman has better villains.

The only difference between Joker and the other Batman villains is that the other villains are motivated by things other than Batman. Ra's al Ghul wants to rule the world, Mr. Freeze wants his wife back, Poison Ivy wants plants to rule the world, while Two-Face, Riddler, Bane, and Penguin are your everyday gangsters.

Joker is not like that. The Joker you see in one arc is different than in another. Sometimes he's more like a pest who goofs around and other days he's a carefully planned murderer. His personality changes depending on which can benefit him the most by damaging Batman as the ultimate goal. He doesn't want money or power unless it helps him to terrorrize Batman. Batman is all about rational while Joker is all about madness at its most literal sense.

If he ever gets hold of any superpower or cosmic powers like in Emperor Joker, we're done for.

Yes, it's Joker for me. Heck, anybody can name Dark Seid, Doomsday, insert any other villain with powers and they'd be terrifying. I think that just follows the status quo, so to speak :super strong villain, evil minded, able to destroy a lot of things on a quest for power, revenge, or something of the like. Joker is the most terrifying to me because he is the most realistic than many villains, in my opinion. He's really fleshed out well, and it's believable. He doesn't have any extraordinary powers, but he's just so volatile, he follows no code, he can't be bought, or bargained with, he's a sadist and a masochist in the worst way. He has no rhyme or reason for anything save destruction. He has both psychopath AND sociopath tendencies. More importantly, as silly as he is, he is probably the one villain that can and has constantly gotten under Batman's skin.

If I were to choose a villain that fits in that particular vein of "status quo" type---Outside of the Joker, the most terrifying, to me, is Onslaught.