For some time now, people have been speculating about Jerome Valeska being the Joker before he became the Joker on Gotham. This is understandable considering the sheer number of signs pointing in that direction, with an excellent example being how Jerome had a stitched-on face. However, the people behind Gotham have been clear that Jerome isn’t the Joker for some time, which seems to have been fulfilled by the recent death of the character in the TV show. Instead, it seems that Jerome’s role is that of the inspiration for the Joker, while the actual Joker, whatever that might be in this particular interpretation of the Batman franchise, will be his twin brother Jeremiah, who has been set up to follow in his footsteps.
What Does This Mean For the Joker In the Context of Gotham?
Overall, this seems to be reason to believe that Gotham is running with the idea that the Joker is as much an idea as he is a person, which is something that has come up in the Batman franchise. This can sound rather odd, but there are enough incidences that it is by no means original to Gotham.
Initially, the Joker was intended to have no more than a short-lived presence in the Batman franchise. This is because there was a concern that if Batman’s villains returned time and time again, he would be seen as an incompetent, which would have run counter to the character’s intended image. However, this choice was overruled by the people in charge, which is why there had to be a small change made to show the survival of the Joker even though he was supposed to have been killed in the first issue. Since that time, the Joker has become entrenched as an iconic part of the Batman franchise, meaning that the chances of the character making no further appearances in the comic books are even lower in the present than in the past. Certainly, the Joker can be killed, but comic books being comic books, suffice to say that death is not the insurmountable barrier that it is in real life.
In time, the Joker picked up an origin story in which he was a criminal named the Red Hood who had become disfigured after he had jumped into a vat of chemicals while being pursued by Batman. However, the character has had a number of other origin stories, which haven’t been helped by the character’s less than reliable claims regarding his background. Moreover, various characters have popped up in various works as various versions of the Joker, with examples ranging from Martha Wayne in an alternate timeline to not one but two Robins. Under these circumstances, it is no wonder that some of the comic books have started running with storylines in which the Joker is implied to be something more than a mostly normal human, with an excellent example being the one in which he is implied to have existed for a long, long time before the “present” of the DC Universe.
Regardless, the gist of it is that Gotham seems to be running with the idea that Jerome is the one who causes his twin brother Jeremiah to become the Joker. However, it will be interesting to see whether the TV show will draw further inspiration from the comic books by playing with other origins as well. After all, it wouldn’t exactly be the first time that there has been more than one Joker running around in a work set in the Batman franchise.
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