<P> In DC's New 52, a 2011 relaunch of its titles following Flashpoint, the Joker has his own face cut off . He disappears for a year, returning to launch an attack on Batman's extended family in "Death of the Family" so he and Batman can be the best hero and villain they can be . At the end of the storyline, the Joker falls off a cliff into a dark abyss . The Joker returns in the 2014 storyline "Endgame" in which he brainwashes the Justice League into attacking Batman, believing he has betrayed their relationship . The story implies that the Joker is immortal--having existed for centuries in Gotham as a cause of tragedy after exposure to a substance the Joker terms' dionesium'--and is able to regenerate from mortal injuries . "Endgame" restores the Joker's face, and also reveals that he knows Batman's secret identity . The story ends with the apparent deaths of Batman and the Joker at each other's hands . </P> <P>--Jerry Robinson, the Joker's creator </P> <P> Though a number of backstories have been given, a definitive one has not yet been established for the Joker . An unreliable narrator, the character is uncertain of who he was before and how he became the Joker: "Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another...if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!" A story about the Joker's origin appeared in Detective Comics #168 (February 1951), nearly a decade after the character's debut . Here, the character is a laboratory worker who becomes the Red Hood (a masked criminal) to steal a million dollars from his employer and retire . He falls into a vat of chemical waste when his heist is thwarted by Batman, emerging with bleached white skin, red lips, green hair and a permanent grin . </P> <P> This story was the basis for the most often - cited origin tale, Moore's one - shot The Killing Joke . The Joker quits his job as a Lab assistant, becoming a stand - up comedian to support his pregnant wife . Unsuccessful, he agrees to help mobsters with a robbery and dons the Red Hood . The heist goes awry; the comedian leaps into a chemical vat to escape Batman, surfacing disfigured . This, combined with the earlier accidental death of his wife and unborn child, drives the comedian insane and he becomes the Joker . This version has been cited in many stories, including Batman: The Man Who Laughs (in which Batman deduces that the Red Hood survived his fall and became the Joker), Batman #450 (in which the Joker dons the Red Hood to aid his recovery after the events in A Death in the Family, but finds the experience too traumatic) and "Death of the Family". Other stories have expanded on this origin; "Pushback" explains that the Joker's wife was murdered by a corrupt policeman working for the mobsters, and "Payback" gives the Joker's first name as "Jack". </P>

Who was the joker before he went crazy