The Joker vs Lex Luthor

Joker kicked Luthor's butt.

Lex stomps.

Plot won't save the Joker this time.

Lex wins this every times, he takes on Superman over and over again Joker would be exactly that to him. A joke, Lex would conclude he was insane and have him dead just as soon.

@Dextersinister: Wait, though joker does have a great mind. His intellect rivals Batman's. Batman and Lex are about the same in intellect. So Joker and Lex are about just as smart as each other.

I see Joker and Lex being closely comparable in actual intelligence. Luthor has better resources, while Joker is more twisted and adaptable. Without PIS against him to lose to Batman, he will take this -- no elaborate ruses to prove a non-lethal point. Just a sick idea and a bullet in Lex's head.

I see Joker and Lex being closely comparable in actual intelligence. Luthor has better resources, while Joker is more twisted and adaptable. Without PIS against him to lose to Batman, he will take this -- no elaborate ruses to prove a non-lethal point. Just a sick idea and a bullet in Lex's head.

Lex Luthor easily.

If it's purely fisticuffs, Joker takes it. If it's who is funnier or crazier, then Joker takes it. Lex Luthor for pretty much absolutely everything else. Joker's smart, clever, and can come up with great plans, but Luthor is honestly better and has far superior resources too.

I see joker taking the majority here.

@sandiego008 said:

I see joker taking the majority here.

How?

Gallery

@ComicStooge: Of course the Joker and Lex Luthor go back and forth but I wouldn't under estimate him.

@lilben42 said:

Gallery

@ComicStooge: Of course the Joker and Lex Luthor go back and forth but I wouldn't under estimate him.

Those scans seem like PIS.

Lex has been trained by an Amazonian warrior and is in peak physical condition due to being in a clone body, he should have destroyed Joker.

@ComicStooge: Well Joker doesn't care about pain while Lex does alot.

@lilben42 said:

@ComicStooge: Well Joker doesn't care about pain while Lex does alot.

Pain is only normally a factor when your placed in a hold and made to submit because the adrenaline has ebbed away it's not much of an advantage when your being winded by a guy who has a weight advantage on you and he held up pretty well in the above scans when being tortured.

Is there a reason the Joker was allowed to live after that or was it just conveniently forgotten about?

@Dextersinister said:

@lilben42 said:

@ComicStooge: Well Joker doesn't care about pain while Lex does alot.

Pain is only normally a factor when your placed in a hold and made to submit because the adrenaline has ebbed away it's not much of an advantage when your being winded by a guy who has a weight advantage on you and he held up pretty well in the above scans when being tortured.

Is there a reason the Joker was allowed to live after that or was it just conveniently forgotten about?

Conveniently forgotten about, I think.

@ComicStooge said:

@Dextersinister said:

@lilben42 said:

@ComicStooge: Well Joker doesn't care about pain while Lex does alot.

Pain is only normally a factor when your placed in a hold and made to submit because the adrenaline has ebbed away it's not much of an advantage when your being winded by a guy who has a weight advantage on you and he held up pretty well in the above scans when being tortured.

Is there a reason the Joker was allowed to live after that or was it just conveniently forgotten about?

Conveniently forgotten about, I think.

Maybe he thought that Catwoman remark was enough pay back but the Joker should have taken a bullet to the back of the head when browsing the nudey mags at his local.

@Dextersinister said:

@ComicStooge said:

@Dextersinister said:

@lilben42 said:

@ComicStooge: Well Joker doesn't care about pain while Lex does alot.

Pain is only normally a factor when your placed in a hold and made to submit because the adrenaline has ebbed away it's not much of an advantage when your being winded by a guy who has a weight advantage on you and he held up pretty well in the above scans when being tortured.

Is there a reason the Joker was allowed to live after that or was it just conveniently forgotten about?

Conveniently forgotten about, I think.

Maybe he thought that Catwoman remark was enough pay back but the Joker should have taken a bullet to the back of the head when browsing the nudey mags at his local.

That would've been the best thing ever!

Or Lex would've gotten his Warsuit, casually walked up to Joker and turned his face into jelly with his armored fist.

@WindCloud said:

Lex would win. An organized evil is always more dangerous than a chaotic evil. With the Joker, you already know that he's a nutcase. But with Lex, you would never know if he's playing friendly or being for real. He's cool and calculating, while Joker is expected to lose his cool. Another example is comparing Lex to a mob figure, while the Joker is like a regular street thug. i would say the mob figure is smarter and more dangerous.

I know that your post is 3 years old, but I cannot ressist replying you :D You are wrong. Every mob figure in Gotham is afraid of Joker, and recently Joker killed most members of Gotham crime bosses and is holding Penguin as his bitch.

@Dextersinister: He had no choice but to take it. i guess.

Lex Luthor doesn't really stand a chance. All of his resources are geared towards taking on a direct apparent threat that behaves in specific ways. The Joker is all about indirectly attacking his foes. He'll likely start by gaining leverage over someone close to Luthor like his chef or maid and then he'll have them plant his Joker Venom ending in a checkmate.

During Luthor's presidency, the Joker managed to take over the planet without Luthor being able to do much more than declare war on him. He did all of this from a jail cell with no resources and no prep. Luthor could not do that on his best day.

There is a reason why supervillains call their Ghost Stories, Joker Stories. The guy is the single most terrifying human on the planet, Luthor doesn't even come close.

@DireDrill said:

Lex Luthor doesn't really stand a chance. All of his resources are geared towards taking on a direct apparent threat that behaves in specific ways. The Joker is all about indirectly attacking his foes. He'll likely start by gaining leverage over someone close to Luthor like his chef or maid and then he'll have them plant his Joker Venom ending in a checkmate.

During Luthor's presidency, the Joker managed to take over the planet without Luthor being able to do much more than declare war on him. He did all of this from a jail cell with no resources and no prep. Luthor could not do that on his best day.

There is a reason why supervillains call their Ghost Stories, Joker Stories. The guy is the single most terrifying human on the planet, Luthor doesn't even come close.

scans of Luthor waging war on Joker?

I don't have them but you can read the Joker's Last Laugh story arc. Luthor could do nothing to stop him when he had the entire US government at his command and it was his actual job to stop him.

@lilben42 said:

@Dextersinister: He had no choice but to take it. i guess.

I ment after that was over the Joker should have been assassinated

Batman isn't as batgodly in his own series so his villains can be more down to Earth, Joker works brilliantly as a Batman villain in his own little slice of the DC universe but when he steps out of that portion it's horribly unrealistic that other super powered villains let him get away with the crap that he does.

@DireDrill: This has already been addressed as poor logic as an unpredictable plan is the poor option, something as basic as bribing or threatening the help is a decent plan and easily predictable and do you honestly think Luthor hasn't done the same except he has done it on a level Joker can't he reprogrammed the robotic help.

Joker's unpredictability is getting the Batman with a squirty flower for the 100th time and requires PIS to work as Batman has stopped guns from being fired while his backs turned so how the hell does the flower thing get the drop on him so often? Intelligence is required for true unpredictability because your opponent is unable to think on your level, Joker's rip off his pants in the middle of a gun fight brand just doesn't cut it.

@Dextersinister: Well you can't think like that in comics or else they win't be enjoyable. Why doesn't the spectre kill all the villains?

@lilben42 said:

@Dextersinister: Well you can't think like that in comics or else they win't be enjoyable. Why doesn't the spectre kill all the villains?

Of course you need a high measure to suspend disbelief when reading comics but only so far or it just gets silly, the Joker is an enjoyable character but doesn't fit outside of the bat titles.

@DireDrill said:

I don't have them but you can read the Joker's Last Laugh story arc. Luthor could do nothing to stop him when he had the entire US government at his command and it was his actual job to stop him.

Joker had help from a few dozen different villains, it wasn't a solo effort on his part.

I don't generally call using a specialized form of Joker Venom to essentially mind control them, having help. He used his Joker Venom to unify all of the villains of the Slab so that he could effect his escape and proceed to completely dominate the planet. They had no choice in the matter, ComicStooge, making them essentially tools for him to use. He planned and orchestrated the domination of the planet from a jail cell. He was counting on Black Mass's ability to move the Slab and Multi-Man's abilities to get them back to Earth. He used Chemo as a mobile Joker Venom delivery system. He used Warp to keep his entire force moving so that the heroes couldn't focus in on him. He took all of the available resources of his prison environment and he used them to make Luthor and the JLA look like fools. Does Luthor have anything bordering on that impressive? Heck, who does?

You can't use any confrontation between the Joker and the Bat as evidence of the Joker's abilities. The Joker has a special relationship with Batman as evidenced in Emperor Joker. He wants Batman to kill him so he can't play for keeps with him. He needs Batman to break his one rule so that the world will finally see Batman for what the Joker sees him as, a lunatic. The Joker is essentially playing to lose every time he does battle. His CIS only works on the Bat though, everyone else he will kill without a thought.

Unless Luthor intends to live the rest of his life surrounded by robots, the Joker will manage to slip his poison in. The Joker has the ability to essentially disappear while Luthor, as a prominent public figure, is always easily found.

The Joker is far too much for Luthor to handle.

@DireDrill: The Last Laugh was considered rubbish for how stupid it got as well as just being poorly written, the entire story is dependent on the venom having an effect on the villain's that's never seen before or again which would be PIS and the Z-list villains would later not care that he poisoned them.

The Joker's a highly recognizable mass murderer who's always dressed in Flashy clothing, it's silly to think that he cannot be easily found. Lex Luthor is a genius in the field of biology (all round genius), with loyal henchmen and meticulous so something mundane as poison killing him is not happening.

Joker wins

The Joker has one goal in life, make the Bat kill him. Mind controlling other villains does not help him reach that goal so why would he need to use that again? He needs the Bat to kill him free of any mind control or other such mitigating factors. When he found out he was dying, he knew he had only a little time to make Batman do the deed so he pulled out all the stops. A character is not supposed to be static, this story showed that the Joker was a force to be reckoned with which was later supported during Salvation Run, Injustice League, and a host of other stories. Joker has many devices that he uses once and then never uses again. His super sane ability allows him to improvise insanely well which is why his weapons assortment changes from time to time. Hell, Batman's whole shtick is that he has one off devices in his utility belt that are useful only for a specific situation.

None of those Z-list villains has the balls to take on the Joker. Heck, very few A-list villains would be willing to take on the Joker. Alexander Luthor, a person of higher intellect and power than Lex Luthor, was too afraid to even ask the Joker to join the Secret Society of Supervillains because he knew that the Joker would find a way to take him down and usurp his power. Maybe you don't remember but the Joker took down the Royal Flush Gang by himself and they are Z-listers, one of which a superstrong android.

Batman has access to the same amount of resources, is an all around genius, and is considered to be the world's greatest detective and he only find the Joker after the Joker wants to be found. Oracle is a Computer Genius who is in every damn system on the planet and has a personal stake in knowing where the Joker is at all times and even she can't tell you where he is after he has escaped from Arkham. What makes you think Lex Luthor has any chance of finding him? What makes you think Lex Luthor's support staff is any more loyal than any other workaday henchman? Maybe Mercy is but can you say the same for everyone in his life? Nope, and the Joker has been able to kill people while Batman and the entire GCPD were protecting them after telling them when he would do it. You really think that Lex Luthor could live the rest of his life wondering when the next innocuous object he comes into contact with will kill him?

The Joker's planning and prep feats are far in excess of Lex Luthor's planning and prep feats.

Lex puts out a 1 billion dollar bounty on the Joker's head and then hides inside a building full of body guards, claymore mines, cameras, and anti-chemical weapons defenses.

He just waits until someone kills the Joker and never leaves the building until he is absolutely sure the Joker is definitely dead. NO ONE is allowed into his mega-fortress until the Joker is absolutely dead (they can collect the bounty from outside the defense of the fortress).

Game set match.

Thanks for the admission of defeat. Lex Luthor running scared from the Joker.

A billion dollars is not enough money. The Joker already scares the bejeezus out of the SUPERvillain community, what person in their right mind would take that bounty? Deathstroke is probably the only one I can think of who might and the Joker will prepare for that by using Batman as a shield. Deathstroke can't kill both Batman and the Joker working together. You just put the Joker in a win/win position.The Joker then simply lets it slip to the papers that Lex Luthor has put a bounty on his head. That is illegal, he'll have to leave his fortress to address the charges in court and the Joker will take him down there. Also, they will freeze all of Luthor's accounts making it impossible for him to pay the bounty.

Thanks for providing the Joker with the perfect means to kill Lex Luthor.

@DireDrill: The Joker does not have one goal in life he also loves money it's why he's called the clown prince of crime.

The story shows none of the qualities you describe, the venom works the way it does with no explanation as to why by mixing with another chemical that just happened to be there with no shown testing or any reason why it would have this effect that's PIS in action or show or mention how he pulled it off is PIS in action, Lex doesn't pull stunts like this despite having access to a better level of criminal and tech to do so because the results are simple anarchy with the only benefit being you made a big mess on the way out.

Batman is one man with higher morals and limitations set by the story on what he can get away with when looking for the Joker. Lex Luthor is the richest and smartest man on Earth with access to technology that far exceeds the bats and a network of spies looking for a guy who can't mask his personality and is in a permanent clown get-up, the idea that he can't kill him or that Deathstroke, Deadshot, Dr.Light, Poison Ivy, Clayface, Scarecrow or any other big named villain that works for money fears or wouldn't kill him for a couple of million let alone a billion is just silly.

The only things the Joker exceed Lex in are gimmicks, body hair and the ability to get away with your actions. Lex does not step on toes the way Joker does and then have it forgotten about.

If the Joker says he set a bounty on him doesn't he have to expose himself with a lot less protection and then simply be killed then? you say the Joker can do it with far less resources why can't Lex do it with more.

@DireDrill:

I don't see an admission of defeat in there.

It's doesn't say HOW Lex has to win or that Lex has to fight the Joker face to face. If the Joker is allowed to use traps, deception, and take cheap shots then so is Luthor. Fact of the matter is, Lex has a ton of money and resources and the Joker can't match that.

1 billion dollar is not enough money? I don't think you fully grasp how much money that is. If you put that kind of bounty out there, every hired gun on the street is going to be out looking to take out that Clown and retire with the Big Life. Even many law-abiding citizens who have never committed a single crime in their life would be tempted by this sum let alone all the criminals in the world.

Can the Joker hide from every criminal syndicate and every criminal in the world? You REALLY think Death Stroke is the only one who would take a shot at the Clown? You gravely GRAVELY underestimate how materialistic this world is and how powerful of a motivator money can be...

The Joker would literally spend the rest of his life hiding from every single gun out there until he is inevitably found and shot. If he ever even gets sent back to Arkham ONCE by Batman he won't be coming out because the crooked doctors inside will try to kill him. ONE FUCKING BILLION DOLLARS!

EVERYONE will be trying to kill him. The Joker... despite his feats and despite his insanity is a MORTAL... he's just a man. One good bullet... and he's gone.

And this whole thing about how Lex would be exposed as a criminal for filing this bounty or have to show up in court where he will be vulnerable... it's nonsense.

Lex is a genius. He knows how to loophole the law and even though he'll be issuing the bounty in practice, it will be a very well-disguised act. He'll be using someone else as a front for issuing and dealing with the 1 billion reward duh? If I could think of that... so could Lex. He won't even show up in court for even one day.

@goblin123: Not to mention a lot of people would consider you a hero for killing him.

Joker only care about money insofar as it helps him achieve his primary goal. Other than that the Joker couldn't give a crap about money. Crimes aren't always about money.

Perhaps you did not read the story close enough. The Joker used his influence to get the Slab to use two chemicals that separate had different effects than when combined. When combined they formed his Joker Venom. You have to remember that the same Joker Venom that he uses to kill people is also running through his veins. With proper exposure and at the right dosage, it would make anyone taking it start seeing the world like the Joker does. When you start seeing things the way the Joker the sees things then you start acting like him and in the absence of any singular guiding purpose, the Joker can impose his own. Nothing the Joker did there was PIS, it was all well within his character and ability.

You think you can move a billion dollars around with Batman watching you? With Oracle watching you? With the Joker getting to your money movers and torturing them into revealing the truth? You think the Joker wouldn't also have thought to kidnap the families of the judges and prosecutors to make them issue the warrant? One thing that you don't seem to realize is that the Joker can get to these people with no real difficulty. Even if the warrant is bogus or and the testimony coerced, Luthor will still have to show up in court to address them ending in a win for the Joker. Remember, the Joker like Batman, doesn't have to follow the rules to get what he needs to put you away. The Joker can do all of this without ever having to show his face.

Deathstroke is the only one with the balls to do it. Of the villains you suggested, only one could do the deed and she doesn't give a crap about money either. Deadshot won't be able to find him. Dr. Light is an idiot. Clayface is also an idiot. And the Joker is immune to Scarecrow's toxins so he will be less than useless against the Joker. You remember the scene in Oceans 13 where Pacino is telling Clooney how he knows people who really know how to hurt and then Clooney says, "I know all those people, and they like me better?" This is the same situation but replace like with fear. Villains don't tell ghost stories or scary stories, they tell Joker stories. He is the scariest of the scary people. No one fears Lex Luthor and you can't buy fear so no one will take the job. As I said, Deathstroke is the only potential candidate and even he won't be able to face both the Joker and Batman. The Batman... despite his feats and despite his insanity is a MORTAL... he's just a man. One good bullet... and he's gone. The Joker, like his arch nemesis, has made himself more than a man, he is an idea. Ideas cannot be killed.

Something you may not have considered is that there is no way to identify the Joker if he was brought in. He has changed so much over time that just about anyone could be made into the Joker and turned in. Knowing the Joker, he would simply find a Henchman who looks like him and then turn that guy into him and then turn him in for the bounty. The Joker then collects the money and Lex Luthor comes out of hiding and then the Joker kills him after becoming 1 billion dollars richer. The only person that could potentially identify the Joker is Batman and Lex can't go to him.

This has got to be the stupidest plan for stopping the Joker I have ever heard. Luthor can't win here.

@DireDrill: The Joker loves money it's an established part of his character don't dismiss simply because you aren't familiar with it.

The venom is not running through his veins he's immune to the stuff because of his overuse of narcotics and poisons and it would be silly to think he is as insane simply because of a chemical and not because of the various decent reasons established in his history, it worked the way it did with a chemical that just happened to be there because the writer needed it to not because of any planning knowledge or chemistry of the Joker's which is a perfect example of PIS.

If your Lex Luthor yes you can move that money around and a billion is much more than would be needed and the courts can't force the richest man in the world to step foot inside a court house on the word of a known mad man otherwise he would never be out of them.

The Joker looks different for the reason all comic book characters look different over the years different people are drawing them, the Joker is recognizable to everyone in universe and won't be fooling Luthor or any decent killer as they are not retarded and going to hand over a billion when someone comes in with a body slapped in make-up.

The Joker doesn't care any more about money than he does his gun. It is merely a means to an end namely messing with Batman. I want proof that he loves money because there is nothing I can find that in anyway proves that fact. You are wrong here.

He cares about 1 thing alone, making Batman kill him and every other a desire is merely a means to an end.

The Joker has on multiple occasions killed or poisoned people with his Joker Venom tainted blood. It is why he can walk through the gas that would kill a normal human without so much as a giggle. He killed a mosquito who sucked his blood and he poisoned Damien Wayne. This is an established canon fact that is listed on every page online including the Vine's own page about the Joker. You are wrong here.

He has tainted blood which makes him incredibly toxic to anyone who happens to ingest it. Also, the Joker has never been insane, though the Joker Venom in his veins certainly helps him create that illusion.

Again, the Joker will make it happen by kidnapping the proper people's families to make them do so. No judge is ever going to back Lex Luthor over their own family. The Joker has done this on multiple occasions to get what he wants. Using leverage to get what he wants is one of his staples.

The Joker has had plastic surgery multiple times and has had his face rearranged by the Bat multiple times. His face is not the product of different artists. This is an established canon fact. You are wrong here.

Getting a doctor to make a henchman look like him would be no problem. Injecting him with Joker Venom would mimic the tainted blood and give the body that famed rictus smile. Batman is the only way to properly authenticate the Joker's identity. The Joker has fooled Batman, Damien Wayne, Dick Grayson, Alfred, and a whole host of people who know him into thinking he was someone else. He is a master actor. When he turns in his fake Joker, he'll easily convince any third party authenticator into believing the body on that table is the Joker. The Batman is also recognizable to everyone on DC Earth but he has been at least 4 different people but only those who intimately know him can even tell. It is because the Joker, like the Bat, is an idea, a symbol, that is easily recognized but ill-defined. Batman is the only person who can do the job and he won't.

Luthor dies especially easy if he implements this plan. The Joker is simply too much for him to deal with.

@DireDrill: Money has always been a means to an end you seem to be caught up by that moment in TDK where he burns the money but the Joker likes money so he can pay his henchmen and but himself nice things, have you ever seen him show a dislike for money outside of that film?

I am aware that he has toxic blood but it's not Joker venom, does not have an effect similar to Joker venom and Joker venom is not the reason for his insanity. How can it be if he's immune to it's effect.

Your mentioning things as if Lex is incapable of doing them but he has and done it better, Lex avoids the law by manipulation of the courts and media the Joker has done it on that insanity thing alone. Joker maybe has the resources to threaten 1 judge, Lex could threaten or outright properly mind control everyone in the legal system worth a damn.

Outside of that New 52 I want proof that he changes his face multiple time on a permanent basis to anything but his easily recognized look.

You horribly over estimate the Joker.

I still don't see why the Joker's own henchmen wouldn't double-cross him for the 1 billion dollars and then split it amongst themselves. A single bullet to the Joker's head when he's not expecting it would easily do the trick no? He is a mortal.

You can't buy people to overcome fear? The Joker is an idea and ideas are bullet proof?

Once you get past all of the legends and past feats and stuff and look at it objectively... the Joker is just a human being and he can be killed by a bullet or a knife... one billion dollars is a LOT OF MONEY.

Once you think of it in those terms, a lot of people are going to try pretty hard to get the Joker.

Only Deathstroke or Batman can do this? Why not the Joker's own henchmen? Why not anyone with a gun who gets a lucky or well-aimed shot in? The Joker's not a bullet timer and he's not Neo from the Matrix... he's a lunatic with a big reputation.

Plus criminals are never ones to be much deterred by fear in the first place otherwise they wouldn't be criminals in the first place (daring to defy something as powerful as governments and their laws). They are predisposed to take risks and here is a risk that can ensure that they get 1 billion dollars richer.

When you can induce that many guns to be aimed at the Joker and so many eyes to be out looking for him... I don't see the Joker lasting very long.

@goblin123: Drill seems to have this idea that the Joker could throw together a corpse that would fool Lex and the army of professional assassin's into believing it's his dead body, if he could do this he would have done it.

Lex could do this by simply making a clone body but Joker's not known for that level of tech or he could simply use a device he has used before to locate someone by there brain waves and the Joker would stick out.

@Dextersinister:

Lex and the Joker are actually very similar. They are both pretty smart, calculated, quite creative, ruthless, and used to dealing with enemies stronger than themselves.

The main difference though is that while Lex is a billionaire tech genius who is not a lunatic... the Joker is not a billionaire tech genius but he is a lunatic.

Basically, aside from being a lunatic and not being a billionaire tech genius, Joker is pretty similar to Lex.

Being a billionaire tech genius is a plus... there's no debating this. In this department, Lex wins and Joker loses.

Now the lunatic part...

A lot of people seem to think that somehow being a lunatic is an advantage in a fight. But this is a common misconception. Being a lunatic MAY ENTAIL but it MAY ALSO NOT ENTAIL being ruthless, highly inventive in combat, and efficient. However, what being a lunatic DOES ABSOLUTELY guarantee is that one's judgement is clouded, unreliable, and sometimes quite delusional.

Lex is ruthless, highly inventive, and efficient but he is NOT a lunatic. Joker on the other hand, IS a lunatic.

When two boxers are fighting and if one boxer A had these traits (ruthless, inventive, efficient) while boxer B has these traits (ruthless, inventive, efficient, being a LUNATIC)... who would you bet on would win?

Isn't the person who is a lunatic more likely to make mistakes in judgement, be delusional, make bad calls etc?

Basically, Luthor has all the advantages that Joker has PLUS ridiculous amounts of money and tech genius while not having any of the Joker's problems (lunacy).

Hell, even in hand to hand combat Lex has martial arts training...

@goblin123: I've mentioned something similar myself on the lunatic angle against people who believe that being crazy and unpredictable is an advantage, intelligence is required to be a good kind of unpredictable as your opponent is incapable of thinking on your level crazy is the kind that causes you to take actions that are harmful to you such as mooning your opponent in a gun fight because no rational intelligent man would think that beneficial.

If the Joker is so easy to kill then why didn't Alexander Luthor do it? The Joker presented a direct threat to his plans and Alex had already killed multiple villains for not joining the Secret Society. Not only is he smarter and more powerful than Lex Luthor, Alex had all of Luthor's resources, Superboy Prime, Brother Eye, and the Secret Society at his command and yet he didn't even attempt to kill the Joker. Why would he not take the opportunity? He had literally nigh unlimited power and resources and yet he never tried to kill the man who would eventually kill him. The only reasonable answer is that Alexander Luthor, who is orders of magnitude more powerful than Lex Luthor, was afraid to take on a mere mortal. If he can't do it, what makes you think that Lex Luthor who is again orders of magnitude weaker than Alexander Luthor could get the job done?

The Dark Knight's the Joker =/= DC Comics the Joker so that has no bearing here as this involves DC Comics The Joker. The Joker only ever gets money to obtain the things he either doesn't want to work for or can't get any other way. The Joker once took over the identity of a magician after the magician took an interest in his showmanship. He had access to all of this magician's wealth but pissed it all away to mess with Batman. He essentially gave up money to mess with Batman. This is just the first instance that popped into my head. You of course have proof to back up your claim too?

Lex Luthor is going to mind control the entire judicial system under the watchful eye of Batman? Good luck with that. Actually that works to the Joker's advantage too because when Batman catches him, Lex will again be vulnerable. Batman would love to put Luthor back in prison and you have just given him the ammunition to do so. The Joker has been deemed insane by the courts so his kidnapping will only earn him a visit to Arkham. Lex will go to Blackgate or some other prison where the Joker will just straight up kill him.

Batman #655 : The Joker undergoes massive plastic surgery and then kills his current henchmen to undergo a rebirth. You have proof to the contrary?

I assume the bounty is for a dead body right? Does it say the body need be intact? The Joker could burn the body and take on Firefly's persona and turn him in. Lynns is a pyromaniac so no one will believe that he wouldn't burn the body. The Spectre an entity with the power of god is barely able to deal with his brain. Martian Manhunter has difficulty manipulating his brain and he is a world wide telepath of the highest order. What makes you think Luthor's device will work? How would Lex make the ID when he is stuck in a fortress? He would have to rely on a third party to do it, so who would he get? Keep in mind it would need to be an equally intelligent villain with some knowledge of the Joker. What makes you think that everyone with a cloning machine or some other means of fabricating a body wouldn't just all bring in fake Jokers to collect that reward? Who says that the Joker doesn't get to the third party authenticator and offer him the reward in exchange for falsifying evidence. You would have to pay the third party authenticator upwards of a billion just to make sure that they don't double cross Luthor.

You guys are all forgetting that in the DC universe bad guys are a superstitious and cowardly lot. This is a stated fact, the Joker and the Batman both take advantage of this fact to be as effective as they are. As such, the Joker's fear is a far more powerful motivator than money.

The Joker isn't crazy, he is Super Sane. Joker Venom has the stated ability to drive people to laugh and giggle and smile excessively and then die. This is because they have not spent years taking it in small doses to up their resistance. Now the only way to be completely immune to a drug is to have the drug actively in your system at all times so that you are constantly on the plateau as your system can only handle so much of a drug. No Joker Venom in his blood would mean no Joker Venom Immunity.

Go find a cop and ask them who they would rather deal with, a gang member or some crazed person on drugs. Every single one of them will say the gang member. I have a friend who is a cop and he has told me on multiple occasions that a crazy person's strength and damage soak is ridiculous, they will literally take things that would put a normal person down and keep coming.

You, like most, are drastically underestimating the Joker.

i say the joker, like with the series on that prison planet,,, alex luthor, even more dangerous than lex was pretty afraid of him

joker has already beat luthor in h2h

I see the Joker fanboyism is still strong in this thread.

Anyway, if both men are prepared, I see no way for Lex to lose.

Hard to say without a detailed OP. I guess if Lex has his powersuit he should win.

@DireDrill: Joker was no threat to Alex's plan whatsoever even that part where the Joker kills him at the end was simply Lex leading him to his location for retribution and Lex could have simply done the job himself. He simply used the Joker like a hound.

Lex has manipulated the justice system countless times, lawyers manipulate the justice in Gotham City all the time. Batman rarely ever gets involved with the legal system which is why he named criminals get released so often.

Your idea of what it takes for someone to hand over such a large bounty are laughable, they probably have every form of identification on the Joker from dna to his exact skeletal frame he's been locked up and processed so often.

You quoting the influence Joker has over some nobodies in Gotham, would Deathstroke, Deadshot or Shade be afraid of Joker?

@dextersinister: yes but joker has influence over OTHER villians as well outside of gotham