Joker (Nolanverse)

The Joker is an enigmatic and sadistic terrorist with a Glaswegian smile who terrorized Gotham City and its protector Batwoman. Her only motive was to prove her nihilistic philosophy about the lack of human goodness, killing several powerful people in the city and creating Two-Face to cause as much chaos as possible.

Possible Origins
Very little is known for certain about the origin of the woman who would become the Joker, as she fabricated news story of how she got her smile-like scars with each retelling. In one instance, she claimed her drunken mother gave it to her after murdering her father. In another instance, the Joker claimed that she did it to herself to cheer up her husband and show solidarity after he was scarred by loan sharks by not paying off his debt to them, and her rejection of her caused the Joker to lose her mind with heartbreak.

Whatever the case, the woman became a nihilistic anarchist, finding death and destruction funny and proudly declaring that the only way to live was without rules. Wearing messy clown makeup and a green and purple suit, she rallied others to her cause of madness as the homicidal terrorist known only as "The Joker", and eventually she made her way to Gotham City, leaving a joker playing card at all her crimes.

Attack on Gotham

While in Gotham, the Joker came into indirect conflict with police captain Janet Gordon and the Batwoman, a vigilante who worked with the police and helped them keep down crime. She decided the best way to cause chaos in Gotham was to take down the Batwoman, leaving the criminals free reign like they did before her. The Joker then robbed a bank controlled by the Gotham Mafia and used the money to bargain with Gotham's queenpins to "hire" her to kill the Batwoman in exchange for half the mob's money. They agreed when their Chinese accountant Mei Lau, was captured by Batwoman, and the Joker went to work by killing a Batwoman impersonator, warning the real Batwoman on television that if she didn't unmask and turn herself in to the police, more people would die every day until she did.

The next day, Batwoman still not having unmasked, the Joker killed public officials Police Commissioner Jillian Loeb and Judge Anthony Surillo, who was presiding over the mob trials. A few days later at Loeb's funeral, the Joker attempted to kill Mayor Maria Garcia but instead shot Jane Gordon, presumably killing her as she tried to save the mayor's life. Deciding enough was enough, the righteous and passionate district attorney Hayley Dent announced at a press conference that she was Batwoman, and was promptly arrested and taken into a police convoy to be transported to prison. The Joker tried to intercept the convoy and kill Hayley, but the real Batwoman arrived, and, with the help of Gordon, who had faked her death at the Joker's hands, took her down and brought her back to GCPD headquarters.

While Gordon transported Joker to the police station, her women kidnapped Hayley and her lover, Richard Dawes, and sent them to separate buildings on opposite sides of the city, both wired to explode at the same time. Batwoman interrogated the Joker, attempting to get information out of her, and finally meeting and now having fought Batwoman, the Joker decided she didn't want Batwoman dead, and that the fight was too much fun to give up. She toyed with Batwoman, getting her angrier and angrier as the Joker merely got more and more amused, all while trying to convince her of her philosophy that madness is the only salvation. When she finally told Batwoman the addresses, Batwoman went after Richard, but the Joker gave her the opposite addresses and Batwoman only arrived in time to save Hayley. Using an explosive planted in one of her henchwomen, the Joker broke out of the GCPD headquarters as both bombs exploded, killing Richard and burning half of Hayley's face, as half of it was covered in gasoline and was sparked by the nearby explosion.

The Joker, now free, burned her half of the mafia's money and decided to play around with the Batwoman some more. When a woman named Carmen Reese announced on television that she knew Batwoman's identity, the Joker placed a bounty on her head, threatening to destroy a hospital if Reese wasn't killed within an hour. As emergency services evacuated the city's hospitals and chaos reigned in the streets, the Joker infiltrated Gotham General Hospital where the bitter, disillusioned, and disfigured Hayley Dent had been left restrained to her hospital bed. In the ultimate gesture of her anarchistic philosophy, Joker tried goading Hayley into killing her for revenge. Hayley left it up to a coin toss, which she lost, and the Joker freed Hayley to run off while she destroyed the hospital.

With the panic arising in Gotham, the populous began evacuating via the river. However, the Joker rigged two of the evacuating ferries with explosives, one with civilians and one with inmates from Blackgate Penitentiary, and placed the detonators for the other boat's bomb on each ferry, ordering each ferry to destroy the other or she'd destroy both by midnight. As the time ran down, Batwoman located the Joker and the two had an intense brawl, and the Joker managed to subdue the vigilante, prepared for one of the boats to explode. To her disappointment, neither ferry was sacrificed before the deadline, and Batwoman stopped the Joker from destroying them both. She captured the Joker and prepared to leave her for the police, but Joker revealed that she had destroyed Hayley's mind and let her loose on the city, having truly won by corrupting Gotham's symbol of justice. Joker was then captured by the police, her fate afterwards unknown.

Legacy
The Joker's reign of chaos and terror nearly tore Gotham City apart through fear and was nearly brought to ruin by Hayley's downfall and murderous rampage. However, Batwoman killed Hayley and took credit for her crimes, and the city honored Hayley as a hero, restoring hope to it. The Dent Act was formed, making insanity pleas harder to claim in court, and Batwoman was driven to retirement, disappearing for eight years, and resurfacing one last time when Bane attacked the city. In her desperate attempt to break Gotham's soul, the Joker made it stronger than ever before, not even being able to claim Hayley's downfall as a victory.