(Image Source: DC Comics / Ivan Tao)
For sheer random evil, it is hard to match The Joker. However, there are many real-world murderers whose crimes might match the Clown Prince of Crime in senseless cruelty. It is unknown how many Batman stories might have been inspired by such cases. However, a new Absolute Batman special confirms that, in the Absolute Universe, Absolute Joker had a secret life as one infamous serial killer.
This alternate history unfolds in Absolute Batman: Ark M Special #1. Written by Scott Snyder and Frank Tieri, with art by Joshua Hixson, the one-shot details the history of Arkham Asylum. This history is unveiled through the journal of the asylum’s founder, Amadeus Arkham.
Amadeus devoted his life to treating the mentally ill, after his mother murdered his siblings before ending her own life. Though never marrying, Amadeus did adopt a boy in 1885, who was apparently abandoned on his asylum’s steps. A precocious youth, wise beyond his years, the boy inquired as to the treatment of the patients. Amadeus taught him as best he could.
(Image Source: DC / Joshua Hixson)
That ended in 1886, following the escape of several patients. One of the escapees was Arkham Asylum’s most notorious inmate; a murderer dubbed Jack Doe, whom Amadeus believed abducted and killed his young ward.
What real-world serial-killer is Absolute Joker?
Despite the breakout, Amadeus Arkham became a respected expert in his field. Indeed, he found fame years later with a book regarding Jack Doe. Amadeus came to believe that Jack Doe was the killer known as Jack the Ripper. Jack Doe killed his patients in the same gruesome fashion, and the timeline of the Ripper killings relative to Doe’s escape made sense. It would not be until 1945 that Arkham realized the truth.
(Image Source: DC / Joshua Hixson)
It was in that year that Amadeus had his attention called to a discolored wall in the asylum basement by a developer interested in the building. Breaking through the bricks, he discovered the body of Jack Doe. It was then that he realized that Jack the Ripper was his son, who had been quietly studying the methods of all the killers contained in Arkham Asylum.
The revelation drove Amadeus mad. He burned down the asylum after sending his journal to the police as a confession for his crime. However, the journal was intercepted by the long-lived Absolute Joker, who was confirmed to be Amadeus Arkham’s long-lost son.
(Image Source: DC / Joshua Hixson)
It should be noted this is not the first time Jack the Ripper has been reimagined as a Batman villain. The 1989 Batman Elseworlds story Gotham by Gaslight pit the Dark Knight against Jack the Ripper. This is, however, the first time a direct connection has been made between any version of Joker and Jack the Ripper.
Absolute Batman: Ark M Special #1 is now available at comic shops everywhere.
