History ComicBook / DeathOfTheFamily

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] ''ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily''.

* DropTheHammer: Joker kidnaps [[spoiler:Alfred]] by knocking him out with a mallet.

Starting in October 2012, ''Death of the Family'' is the second ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' crossover spinning out of Creator/ScottSnyder and Greg Capullo's [[ComicBook/New52 relaunched]] ''Batman'' title, featuring [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker the Joker]]'s return to Gotham City. Like ''ComicBook/NightOfTheOwls'' before it, ''Death of the Family'' isn't a traditional crossover in the sense of the reader needing to read each title in a specific order. The main story is told in the pages of ''Batman'', while the other titles tell their own stories within the larger arc. Titles that tie into the story include ''ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl|2011}}'', ''Comicbook/{{Batman and Robin|2009}}'', ''ComicBook/DetectiveComics'', ''ComicBook/RedHoodAndTheOutlaws'', ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'', ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' and ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad''. While the story begins in the 13th issue of ''Batman'', the tie-in books begin their stories in issue #14 or #15.

* DependingOnTheWriter: Harley Quinn. Snyder portrays her as an, at best, begrudingly willing participant in the Joker's scheme in Batman #13-14 (it's notable that her one appearance had her lamenting that the Joker she ''knew'' wasn't around anymore), but Adam Glass, who has "ownership" of Harley in Comicbook/SuicideSquad, focused as little time as he could with what Snyder wrote in Batman #13-14 in his tie-ins, resulting in the tie-ins showing Harley only assisting Joker to keep her team safe and her rejecting Joker after being made to serve him again.

* BadassInDistress: [[spoiler: Batman gets captured by Joker and tied up. He manages to free himself]].
** [[spoiler:Alfred, Damian, Tim, Dick, Jason and Barbara all go through this in the finale.]]

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:While it may not have been literal, The Joker has essentially brought about the metaphorical death of the Bat-Family.]]

** Used to demonstrate just how desperate the situation is, [[spoiler: Batman pulls a gun on Gordon to try to coerce him to move to a secure location. Barbara puts a gun to a Joker goon's head (and might have pulled the trigger) before he begs for mercy.]]
** Later, in ''Batgirl'' [[spoiler:Barbara pulls a gun on The Joker himself, planning to shoot him in the base of the spine, and the only reason she doesn't go through with it is because of the Joker's men pointing sniper rifles at her mother.]]
* BerserkButton: [[spoiler:Joker seems determined to jump up and down on Jason, Barbara, Damian and Harley's.]]
* BewareTheSillyOnes: [[spoiler: Harley Quinn, despite usually being Joker's costumed moll, proves surprisingly badass when she realizes Joker really wants to kill her. She escapes from Joker's attempt to dump her, whilst straitjacketed, into a pit of acid -- almost throwing the Joker into the pit in the process. Then she fights, and kills, with her ''bare hands'', the rabies-infected hyenas Bud and Lou after Joker sets them on her. She bites off some of Joker's tongue, gives him a savage beatdown and then, when he chains her up in a cell and leaves her to die as he claims he's done with every Harley Quinn before her, she yanks her way free of the manacles and escapes, voluntarily going back to the ComicBook/SuicideSquad for protection from him.]]
* BigBad: The Joker.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:ComicBook/TheJoker doesn't kill any allies of Batman's, but he drives first Alfred into an insane state and then does the same to Damian, Tim, Barbara, Dick and Jason; who all viciously beat each other while laughing madly and looking like Joker versions of themselves. Batman confronts Joker about what he's done, and Joker falls into a chasm with no body found. Although Bruce saves his allies, Joker has shattered the trust Batman's allies have in each other and in Batman due to the numerous [[BreakingSpeech breaking speeches]] and trauma he's given them. In addition, Bruce could not remove a small trace of modified dubnium from each of his allies... and the chemical dubnium used to be called "hahnium" and had the Periodic Element Table symbol "Ha".]]
* BlackComedy: The Joker is engaging in this as usual. As usual, it seems to produce DudeNotFunny reactions more often than not.
* {{Blackmail}}: [[spoiler:Batman finds out that Joker has not only taken over Arkham Asylum, but he has blackmailed the guards into working with him]].
* BlatantLies: [[spoiler:Batman scares the crap out of the Joker at the end and defeats him by telling him he knows his true name. As shown in the last panels, this is patently false.]]
* BodyDouble: Batman takes on who he thinks is The Joker wearing a red hood at the ACE Chemical Plant. [[spoiler: He pulls the hood off to reveal Harley Quinn.]]

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Seemly everyone gets their turn at this
** [[spoiler:Damian found himself having to fight "Batman", only for it to be revealed to be an impostor. "Batman" is actually a martial arts master that owned his own dojo that Joker brainwashed and dressed up as Batman.]]
** [[spoiler:Nightwing finds himself fighting the entire Haley's Circus, from the performers and even the little girl of one of the trapeeze artists]].
** [[spoiler:Alfred in the finale. The rest of the Batfamily sans Batman are only driven temporarily insane, where Alfred instead for a while acts as Joker's faithful butler before getting the insanity treatment with Batman's allies.]]

* BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler: The Batfamily is unhappy with Batman for keeping at least one secret from them. In fact, Joker could be counting on this trope to sabotage his enemies]].

* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler: Barbara towards James Jr., thanks to him setting her up.]]
* CallBack: [[spoiler: Joker tells Damian how he can't really get people to laugh without giving them a pharmaceutical push first. In fact, Batman was apparently the only person he could get to actually laugh. In case you're wondering, Joker is referring to ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'', its ending to be specific]].
* ChemistryCanDoAnything: Subverted. [[spoiler: The Joker was created by falling into a vat of random, sci-fi chemicals, but in issue 14 of the main plot, Batman meticulously lists every chemical in the mixture and is baffled at how it didn't just kill him.]]
-->'''Batman:''' [[spoiler:I know its components by heart. Eleven percent sodium hydroxide. Thirty-four percent sulfuric acid. Five percent chromium solution. Zinc sulfide, doped with copper, which gives it its green glow. But even so, some afternoons, when I can't sleep, I take out the old slide and study it all over again. I look for something I missed, some ''[[AppliedPhlebotinum secret ingredient]]'', the thing that made him. I stare until it all blurs and I'm looking at nothing, looking at myself, my own eye, reflected back from the lens. There's nothing in this mixture but ''death''. Something no one should be able to survive...]]
* TheChessmaster: The Joker has spent his year-long absence becoming this. The ''Catwoman'' story even shows the chess motif.
* ClassyCatBurglar: Catwoman makes an appearance in this storyline.

* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler: Batman finds an audio tape that has Joker burning Alfred's eyes with ammonia. Batman is not pleased.]]

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Joker is once again dishing this out, with the Joker Venom standing out in particular.
* DarkerAndEdgier: A number of people might laugh and say that Joker can't possibly achieve this trope at this point. Then they find out what Joker has been doing in Arkham Asylum, to the guards and staff members.

* DarkSecret: [[spoiler: Joker claims that Batman has a secret that he has hidden from the entire Batfamily - one of Joker's calling cards was left in the Batcave, indicating that the Joker may have or had access to The Cave, though Bruce vehemently denies this is possible, hence why he never shared the information, and claims that the Joker is using this trope to turn the Bat-Family against themselves]].

* TheDreaded: Joker is usually this... and he seems intent on cranking it Up To Eleven this time.
* DropTheHammer: [[spoiler: Joker attacks Alfred with one]].

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: [[spoiler:James Jr's reasons for selling Barbara (his sister) out to Joker.]]

* EvilCounterpart: The Joker has always been this to Batman. [[spoiler: However, this time he is figuratively borrowing pages from Batman's book, like turning off the lights to get the drop on a group of his enemies, and finding out the Batfamily's secrets so he can hit his enemies where it hurts.]]
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: Joker is firmly under this trope this time. [[spoiler: He tells Damian that he's not really a clown because he can't make people laugh without a pharmaceutical push]].

* EvilMakesYouUgly: While his appearance beforehand wouldn't be described as good-looking, the Joker has had his face surgically removed at the start of the New 52 and is wearing it as a mask.

* EyesNeverLie: Averted. Batman has an interior monologue about how the Joker's eyes never change, never revealing anything about his thoughts or emotions. [[spoiler: Except for love for Batman.]]

* FacialHorror: The Joker had his face cut off at the start of the New 52, and has taken to wearing it as a mask using a belt to tie it to his head. Towards the end of the storyline it begins to show visible signs of decay with flies flying around it.
** Even worse - at points during his confrontation with Damian in ''Batman and Robin'', he's wearing the face ''upside'' down, and Patrick Gleason goes even beyond main story artist Greg Capullo in depicting the thing as seething with flies and rot.

* FoeRomanceSubtext: This version of the Joker is very clearly in love with Batman ''and only'' Batman. This is not reciprocated.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: All the tie-in covers that have [[spoiler:Jokerized versions of Batman's allies on them]]. This happens in the last issue.

* HesBack: The Joker, to the horror of Gotham.
* HorrifyingTheHorror: Even Joker, the scariest thing to the people of Gotham, has something like this, as Batman reveals: [[spoiler:his original identity]].

* JokerImmunity: The Joker mocks his own immunity and asks Batman why he doesn't just kill him already. [[spoiler:Batman confides to Alfred that the main reason he refuses to kill Joker is because he sincerely believes killing Joker wouldn't make things any better. Gotham would just send someone worse, or bring Joker back from the dead, or ''something''. To Bruce, the Joker is just one facet of the true BigBad of his story: Gotham City itself.]]

* KickTheMoralityPet: [[spoiler:Joker really kicks Harley Quinn this time around. This proves once again that he is monstrous]].
* KnightOfCerebus: Joker's reappearance in this new continuity has made the involved Bat-series even darker than before.
* LaughingMad: [[spoiler:Disturbingly, Batman's allies do this when Joker turns them into insane clowns in the finale.]]

** [[spoiler:This seems to be Joker's motivation for his war on the Bat Family and why is forcing the other Batman rogues to join him.]]

* MetaTwist: Admit it, if you've read the story, there must have been one point where you thought [[spoiler:Joker was going to kill at least one member of the Batfamily, as he so often implied. Yet, he didn't kill one and achieved a metaphorical "Death of the Family" by traumatizing the Batfamily to the point of shattering their confidence and trust.]]

** The reaction is shared by every one in Gotham when the Joker comes back, [[spoiler:including the villains: Penguin, Poison Ivy, Riddler and Harley aren't exactly overjoyed to see him back.]]
** On a smaller scale, the Bat Family have one when [[spoiler:the Joker leaves his calling card in the Bat Cave & realize he knows who they are. Batman tries to mitigate things, but it doesn't work]].
* MonsterClown: The Joker.

* OddFriendship:
** In a twisted way, how Joker sees his relationship with the other Bat-Villains, like Penguin and Riddler [[spoiler:and Batman]].
** [[spoiler:According to Joker, the Batman's rogues ARE the real Bat-family]].
** Red Hood and Red Robin. Tim considers Jason the closest thing he's ever had to a brother. Jason puts a gun to his head.
* OhCrap:
** The Batfamily gets this at the end of the second main issue when [[spoiler:Joker says he knows all their identities, and gives proof by talking about Alfred (who he tortured) and the Batcave.]]
** [[spoiler: Joker has this when he realizes that Batman really isn't playing anymore and has him dangling over the waterfall. not from fear of being dropped; but because Bruce is threatening to reveal Joker's real name.]]
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Interestingly enough, Batman has taken this attitude towards Joker, and is even turning down the Batfamily's offers to assist him.

* ProperlyParanoid: [[spoiler:Funny enough, the Batfamily seems to be this about Joker, while Batman is not being paranoid enough. Turns out they were right to be.]]
* SadClown:
** [[spoiler:Harley Quinn shows indications of this. She has tears marking her face, and she cracks jokes as she tries to survive being around Joker]].
** [[spoiler:Joker implies this about himself.]]
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler:Catwoman, Penguin, Riddler, Harley and Ivy all try and fail for different reasons.]]
* SecretIdentityApathy: The Joker starts dropping hints that he knows who Batman really is, and Bruce realises there was a time when he could have figured it out. However [[spoiler: he also realises Joker would have rejected the opportunity, because he doesn't want to think of Batman as being anyone but Batman]].
* SerialKiller: This tends to be part of Joker's characterization. In this storyline, he kills a lot of cops right in the police station, and [[spoiler: kills everybody in City Hall except for the mayor, Batman, and Commissioner Gordon]].

* SequelHook: A disturbing one... [[spoiler:Bruce cannot removed a modified strain of "Hahnium" from his allies though they all seem to be physically okay.]] Which, judging by [[spoiler:issues of ''Teen Titans'' and ''Red Hood'' following the storyline, might have something to do with Tim & Jason's unusual behavior]].
* SharpDressedMan: Averted with Joker. He's dressed up in a mechanic's uniform for "Joe's Garage", and is not even close to looking sharply dressed this time around. However, he gets the normal purple suit in the end, and at the end of the tie-in stories.
* ShipSinking: WordOfGod states that the ending was this for Batman and Joker's FoeRomanceSubtext.
* ShoutOut: The "tapestry" in Arkham showcases famous images from iconic Joker stories, specifically "The Laughing Fish", "Joker's Five Way Revenge", "A Death in the Family" and the end of "No Man's Land." Oddly enough, "ComicBook/TheKillingJoke" is absent.
* ShutUpHannibal: [[spoiler:When Batman goes after the Joker in the caves at the end of the story and has him cornered, Joker tells him again that his family is making him weaker. Batman says that they make him stronger.]]
* StalkerWithACrush: [[spoiler:Joker. Catwoman calls him out on it.]]
* TemptingFate: [[spoiler: Batman claims that Joker doesn't actually know the Batfamily's identities. Considering what's been happening so far, Batman is likely setting himself up for a rude surprise]].

* VillainHasAPoint: The Joker tells Batman that having an network of allies has made Batman soft and weak, that they are only holding Batman back, and that Joker would be doing Batman a favour by getting rid of them. [[spoiler: Judging from what he's pulling on Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, Batgirl, and Jason Todd, he might actually have a point there]].

* WhamLine: How the story is finally concluded for the Joker.
-->'''Batman:''' [[spoiler:I know your name, Joker... ''your real name.'']]

* WouldHurtAChild: The Joker again, having no problem fighting [[spoiler: Damian]].

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: [[spoiler: Joker is quite willing to point out to Damian that he doesn't really qualify as a "clown", despite being called this frequently]].

* BadassAdorable: While the "adorable" part is debatable, [[spoiler: Damian]] takes it upon himself to just attack Joker directly. He gets captured, but he put up a fight.

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: Does Joker really know the Batfamily's identities or is he just bluffing? So far, convincing arguments can be made for both possibilities]].
** The finale reveals [[spoiler:he probably does know the Batfamily's identities on some level, but he just cannot see the Batfamily, especially Batman, as anything other than their masked identities.]]
** [[spoiler:In that same vein, does Batman really know the Joker's real name or was he simply [[BatmanGambit bluffing to buy some time?]] Knowing Batman, [[CrazyPrepared it could be both.]] ]]

* AluminumChristmasTrees: [[spoiler:Hahnium sounds like a chemical made by Joker, but it was an actual proposed name for element 105, after chemist Otto Hahn; the element ended up being dubbed "dubnium" instead. Hahnium's periodic table symbol would have been Ha; hence why the Joker picked it.]]

* RantInducingSlight: [[spoiler: Damian at one point declares, "I have nothing to say that would help you manipulate me, clown." Joker goes off on a rant in which he repeats the word "clown" several times and then goes on to point out that he doesn't really qualify as one, because he could never make someone laugh without a pharmaceutical push]].

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with ''ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily''.