10 Things You Need To Know About The Joker

2) He Was Retired For A Decade

Because of how inseparable the two characters are in popular culture, you would think that Batman and the Joker have been fighting nonstop since their debuts nearly eighty years ago. It’s a little known fact by non comic book fans, though, that the villain actually vanished from the caped crusader’s life for nearly a decade.

Though the character was initially presented as the cackling homicidal maniac we know today, the introduction of the comics code meant that he was toned down considerably into a minor criminal with a clown gimmick. As such, he was much less interesting and editor Julius Schwartz ordered his removal from Batman comics in 1964.

It wasn’t until 1973 that Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams re-invented the character, once again making him a dangerous psychopath – and he’s hardly been away ever since.