Welp. It finally happened, folks. The Joker is dead.
Yes, the Clown Prince of Crime has kicked the bucket, shuffled off this mortal coil, and become an ex-supervillain. No Lazarus Pit, no Joker Immunity, no mind control chips or TITAN-infected blood, he is finally, once and for all, no takesie-backsies dead. The weird thing is, though, they say Batman did the deed during one of his and Joker's scuffles... but the Dark Knight can't remember how that battle ended. The only one who would is Joker, and... well, y'know.
But Batman's not one to let a little thing like death stop him from solving a mystery, and if the only way to do it is to get Joker to talk, then damn it, that's what he's gonna do. So with the aid of John Constantine, he quite literally goes to hell to find the answer to the question no one ever thought would be asked. Buckle up, 'cause this one's gonna get really weird and really dark...
Also, we see Bruce's Bat-Junk in this one. Yeah, that... that was there, too. People seemed to like that.
Batman: Damned is a DC Black Label supernatural horror story created by Brian Azzarello (Dark Knight III: The Master Race, 100 Bullets) and Lee Bermejo (Hellblazer, Joker).
Batman: Damned contains examples of:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Downplayed with Etrigan. Most of the time he's portrayed as a hulking, monstrous demon. Here, he can still be considered ugly, relatively speaking, but has the appearance of a more normal sized guy wearing DJ glasses and some small horns which may or may not even be demonic.
- Adaptation Personality Change: In the main DCU, Jason Blood is portrayed as a former knight bonded to the demon Etrigan, a ruthless beast that would (depending on the iteration) speak in verse. Here, in a case of Composite Character, he is portrayed as rap-artist J Blood. It is ambiguous whether or not he is a human or a demon, his red eyes being sunglasses and his horns an elaborate set of piercings, but it is implied he has some level of mind-control over his audience and he only saves Batman from the fire out of Cruel Mercy.
- Ambiguous Ending: Zatanna sends Batman and Constantine back in time to the night Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered. The Enchantress attempts to seal her deal with Bruce, but Constantine shoots and kills the young Bruce and the Enchantress. Constantine explains that he merely killed Batman's past and encourages him to let it go. In the present, the Spectre reveals to Batman that he let the Joker fall to his death. Batman, regretting his decision, visits the morgue to see the Joker's corpse, only to find his own, his spirit subsequently dissipating. A living Joker then emerges from the river underneath the bridge.
- Body Horror:
- Usually, Deadman's design is just a red-suit with a high-collar. Here, it's designed to look like muscly sinew without skin.
- Demonic Possession by Deadman turns the possessed person's eyes red, their skin blue and causes their veins to bulge as though they are being choked to death. It feels as pleasant as it sounds, the experience compared to food poisoning and Deadman's spirit ejected as quickly as it occurs from the strain.
- When Harley sexually assaults Batman, she unbuttons her shirt, revealing she has a large y-shaped incision sown together with large stitching similar to a corpse having undergone autopsy.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Zatanna greatly resembles adult actress Alessa Savage.
- Cruel Mercy: Etrigan saves Batman, but tells Constantine that he only did so in order for Batman to experience more suffering.
- Demonic Possession:
- Deadman possesses multiple people and even a few animals in order to properly communicate with Batman. Because of the physical strain it causes them, they are brief and frequent.
- It is implied that the Enchantress rid Bruce of his fear in exchange for possession of his body.
- Hotter and Sexier: Batman: Damned has a few heavily shadowed shots of Bruce's dick, which drew controversy not just for their inclusion but also for being airbrushed out of the digital version and reprints.
- Joker Immunity: Zig-zagged. The very premise of the comic is that Batman appears to have finally resorted to killing the Joker to end his evil once and for all, but the story ends with Batman surrendering his own life so that the Joker can be resurrected.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The Spectre is portrayed as a homeless man in a green hood, preaching about devils and angels in a Fire-and-Brimstone street-preaching manner that has him dismissed by Commissioner Gordon. Much like Etrigan, it is left ambiguous as to whether he is just a normal person or if there is more to him than meets the eye.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Enchantress' design and personality are almost identical to Cara Delevingne's portrayal of her in Suicide Squad (2016).
- The Joker's resurrection at the end copies when he first saw his reflection after his chemical bath in his origin flashback in The Killing Joke.
- Precision F-Strike: Like all Black Label works, it's a bit more lenient on foul language, as this, like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, sees Batman say "shit."
- Stealth Sequel: While not advertised as such by DC themselves, it is the sequel to Joker, with its team stating as such and with a number of elements and lines returning, as well as revealing the body seen falling from the bridge at the end of Joker wasn't really Jonny Frost's, but the Joker's.
- Taking You with Me: It is revealed that the Joker died when Batman had the opportunity to give him his hand, only to retract his hand after realizing that the Joker (supposedly) mortally wounded him.
