A DC comics published this month gives a full name to the Joker which could – finally – be definitive and the one officially attributed to the character.
Did The Joker’s Real Name Just Be Revealed In DC Comics? In any case, we have something!
In issue 5 of Flashpoint Beyond Released this month in the US, Thomas Wayne as Batman arrives at Arkham Asylum to meet the parallel universe’s Joker, who happens to be his ex-wife, Martha Wayne. Thomas and Martha were married until their young child, Bruce, was murdered. Driven mad by the event, Martha became the Joker and Thomas became Batman.
DC Comics
Martha Wayne is the Joker in Flashpoint Beyond
The reunion of the “couple” does not take place in the best conditions since the Joker has murdered a lot of people and Batman comes to hold him accountable. It is then that Martha explains that the “normal” world (the one where Bruce Wayne is Batman) has been changed:
This world has been changed (…). The Joker was a man named Jack Oswald White. In THIS world, Mr. White was a failed comic with wife and child, stuck in a menial job cleaning the toilets at Casino Wayne. (…)
DC Comics
Excerpt from Flashpoint n°5
I let them live. I even made sure Mr. White wasn’t there when I destroyed your casino. But I started to THINK, you know. It made me angry.
In the Batman universe as the general public knows it, therefore, the Joker would be called Jack Oswald White. Note that the past chosen here for the character takes up the one established by the comics The Killing Joke ofAlan Moore, who first made the Joker a failed comic. White’s name could be a nod to the Joker’s skin, which is often shown to be all white.
As for the first name Jack, it corroborates Tim Burton’s Batman film in which the supervillain was called Jack Napier, and the comics Gotham Knights n°54 in which, before becoming the Joker, he is also named “Jack”. Note that Oswald is also the Penguin’s real first name, Oswald Cobblepot.
DC Comics
The Joker before the Joker (Gotham Knights)
This additional addition from the comics Flashpoint Beyond seems to confirm that Jack Oswald White could be the Joker’s real name in the DC Universe’s prime reality. It remains to be seen whether the universe evoked by Martha Wayne is indeed the main universe. Either way, Jack White is now among the possible official names for the maniacal clown.
To know everything about the origin story of the Joker (with wigs) it’s here: