Joker venom

Joker Venom
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
In story information
Type	Toxin
Element of stories featuring	The Joker

Joker venom, also called Joker toxin or Smilex, is a fictional toxin, a favorite murder weapon used by The Joker in the Batman franchise of movies, comics, and cartoons. It has had a variety of names depending on the writer, including Smilex, Smylex, Laughing Gas, Joker Gas, Joker Juice, Laughing Toxin, Laugh-A-loads, Joker Toxin, Happy Gas and Perma-Smile.

Analysis

Joker venom can exist in liquid and gas states and has been used in both lethal and non-lethal applications. The gas form is slightly denser than air and in some portrayals dissipates over time. The effects are similar to both Strychnine, which causes muscular convulsions and paralysis, and to the legendary Sardonic herb which supposedly causes facial paralysis and laughter until the point of death by asphyxiation. In reality, the venom exhibits the combined effects of strychnine poisoning, the real-life hemlock water dropwort, or Oenanthe crocata, a poisonous plant which causes face muscles to contract into a grin, and nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, and therefore most likely kills by asphyxiation.

In a 1980s comic book, the Joker facilitates one of his many escapes from Arkham Asylum using the venom - by mixing together the common cleaning chemicals found in a janitor's closet.

The DC Technical Manual: S.T.A.R. Labs 1993 Annual Report

In the The DC Technical Manual: S.T.A.R. Labs 1993 Annual Report, a sourcebook for Mayfair's DC Heroes Roleplaying Game, Joker Venom is described as "a hellish mixture of hydrogen cyanide and Strychnodide (a strychnine derivative)", which "Causes immediate cessation of heart and brain functions. As a side effect, the victim's muscles contract in such a way as to severely tighten and discolor the victim's skin, especially in the facial area. This leaves the victim's corpse permanently scarred with a clown-like grin in tribute to his killer". It also is clear about the toxin's versatility as a gas or liquid, mentioning that "since the Joker Venom is just as deadly if absorbed through the pores as it is if inhaled, the Joker occasionally releases it in gas form throughout the central heating/cooling vents of a building."

Batman: The Killing Joke

How exactly Joker knows how to make the venom varies by story. In the graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, it was revealed that the man who would become the Joker once worked in a chemical plant, and may have had some chemical education as a result. The Joker also uses the toxin on the real estate agent who sells him an old carnival, by sticking him with a poisoned needle while shaking the man's hand to seal the deal.

Batman (1989 film)

In the 1989 movie, when Bruce Wayne reads through the police file on Jack Napier, he learns that Napier, despite his criminal ways, is extremely intelligent and especially gifted in art and chemistry. A file sitting on a desk in the Joker's hideout is marked "CIA - DDID Nerve Gas - discontinued 1977" and is filled with photos of dead soldiers with fixed grins on their faces. This indicates that, according to the film's continuity, the toxin is likely derived from an experimental nerve gas developed by the U.S. after the Vietnam War.

Joker venom is the means by which Joker terrorizes Gotham City when he first appears in his new guise, slipping components of the toxin into household products such as cosmetics and cleaning fluids, in such a way that when used together, the products become deadly. In a mock TV commercial, he refers to the "special ingredient" as "Smilex" (alternatively spelled "Smylex") and later attempts to wipe out hundreds of Gothamites with Smilex gas via giant festival balloons. Since the toxin is in the balloons themselves, this would seem to indicate that Joker Venom in this continuity is lighter than air, as it would have to be for the toxin-filled balloons to float.

Batman: The Man Who Laughs

The 2004 graphic novel Batman: The Man Who Laughs revealed that Joker, who was created by falling into a vat of chemicals, had stolen them in a plan to poison Gotham City's reservoir, but the plan was foiled by Batman. His brand of Joker venom turns the victim's skin white, tints keratin-containing substances (hair and nails) green (though he's been known to paint them red & black), and turns the victim's lips ruby red. It appeared that the Joker went through several trial runs to get the desired effect, however - the Police discovered a warehouse full of dead bodies all with white skin and green hair, but on some victims, the face muscles were so contracted that the eyes popped out and the skin tore apart. The perfected Joker Venom came in two varieties: a fast acting one used to kill a T.V reporter, and a slower acting one to kill one of his victims at exactly midnight. This same tactic of killing a man at midnight with a slow-acting toxin is repeated from the Joker's first appearance in the Batman comics wherein he does the same thing.

A story arc in Legends of the Dark Knight put Joker venom's origins in a different light altogether. In this arc a cousin of the man who became the Joker named Melvin Reipan, an autistic savant with a gift for chemistry, is persuaded to create the Joker Venom as a way to "make people laugh", in exchange for becoming "handsome". However, Reipan is in fact physically very attractive, only having been told by his abusive mother he was ugly. This story appeared in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #50 and not only revealed the possible origins of Joker Venom, but also told the first battle between Batman and the Joker after his first attempt to destroy the city.

Cacophony

In the story arc, Batman: Cacophony, a gang war between the Joker and Maxie Zeus erupts over Maxie Zeus cutting the Joker's venom with Ecstasy to make a new designer drug called "Chuckles".

Red Skull's "dust of death"

Marvel Comics has an apparent equivalent to Joker venom in the form of Red Skull's "dust of death", a chemical which turns the head of its victim into a "red skull" resembling that of Red Skull. In a crossover, the Red Skull and the Joker face off against one another, the Joker becomes outraged when he learns that he has unwittingly worked for a Nazi ("I may be a criminal lunatic, but I'm an American criminal lunatic!"), and they employ their favorite toxins on each other. They realize the toxins are useless against each other, as both toxins are strikingly similar at a chemical level and both combatants are immune to their own toxins.

Effects

Lethal version

Similar in effect to strychnine poisoning, contact with Joker venom attacks the body's nervous system and causes uncontrollable spasms of laughter, followed by a slow, painful death. Some have speculated that the venom hyperstimulates the laughter functions of the brain, leaving the victim unable to breathe; others speculate that the toxin's neurological effects cause the electrical impulses controlling the heart to go haywire, causing Tachycardia, followed by cardiac arrest and eventual death.

Non-lethal version

The non-lethal variant of Joker venom causes uncontrollable laughter, but instead of dying, their faces are usually pulled into an unusually large grin and they are placed in a temporary coma. Artists often stylize the effects, adding yellowed teeth, bulging eyes, etc. similar to the features of the Joker himself. Some versions of the Joker use this type of Joker venom almost exclusively, either for practical reasons or because that universe is intended for a younger audience (as in the case of the DC Animated Universe).

Prolonged exposure even to non-fatal Joker venom is highly dangerous, as it can cause permanent brain damage, leading to severe and permanent mental illness with delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, and mania.

Usage

Comics

Joker venom has been a part of the Joker's arsenal since his first appearance in Batman #1 (1940), in which both Batman and the Joker himself are subjected to it. The venom is often deployed as an airborne agent, but can also be used in its liquid form (used both to poison victims through their unwitting consumption of it, coating the edges of his razor cards, or in special darts or needles). It has also been mixed into pies for throwing in earlier incarnations of the character. In the story "The Laughing Fish", the venom was injected into fish and then passed along into cats to attack the target and administer the venom. Also in this same the episode, the venom is administered in two parts through first using perfume, then later breathing the other half of the compound in. In The Killing Joke, Joker uses a spike worn in his palm (similar to a Joy Buzzer) to administer the drug in a handshake. In The Man Who Laughs the Joker uses bullets laced with Joker Venom in order to kill another of his selected targets. In Jeph Loeb's and Tim Sale's Catwoman: When in Rome Joker venom is duplicated by the Riddler to blame Catwoman for the murder of a Sicilian Mafia kingpin. It is referred to as Joker Juice by both Catwoman and The Riddler.

Batman: The Animated Series

In this series, Joker venom (known as Joker toxin throughout the series) was almost exclusively a non-lethal gas, or, as seen more often, infected individuals are almost always cured before death (the venom doesn't kill as quickly in the series). It was also used as part of a binary compound in an episode called "The Laughing Fish", in which selected targets were exposed to part of the compound and later gassed with the second part, thus the venom would only affect the intended party. That same episode also featured a diluted version of the toxin, which only affected fish to make them smile (though as Joker later revealed in "Mad Love", the toxin is ineffective on piranha), as part of Joker's plan to sell "Joker Fish" and earn money off product sales (Joker also indicated a possible plan to alter the toxin to affect cattle should the fish plan not work — a hint that Joker could alter the toxin to affect any specific species of life he wished). In "Joker's Wild", he escapes Arkham by pouring a random assortment of janitorial chemicals into a bucket and threatening the guards. ("It's time for everyone's favorite game, 'What's the Joker got in the Pail'?") In later movies and episodes, the venom became more lethal and was used to kill, among others, Sal Valestra in Mask of the Phantasm, two security guards and a researcher in "Holiday Knights", three news casters and a taxi driver in "Beware the Creeper" and four government agents in the Justice League episode "Wild Cards"), although Joker also used the non-lethal variant as well. The Joker in that continuity did not appear to be immune to it, as evidenced by his protective helmet in "The Last Laugh". In "Mad Love", there is a scene that shows a newspaper article that features a picture of dozens of mutilated corpses through the Joker Venom. In the episode "Harley & Ivy", Poison Ivy displays immunity towards it due to her immune system's resistance to toxins. It should also be noted that Joker Venom should not be confused with the acid that the Joker squirts out of the flower on his jacket's lapel, though some variants of the character have dispensed the toxin in this way.

The Batman

Both versions of the venom are used in the new cartoon. The non-lethal version is weaponized as a gas and seems to dissipate over time. The gas is called "laughing gas," and puts its victims into a coma. Batman provided an antidote to this laughing gas. However, Joker also has a lethal version which is a liquid. The effects of this venom are the same as the one used in the Joker's first appearance in the comics (a venom which takes 24 hours to kill). In the meantime, the victim slowly has increasing bouts of uncontrollable laughter until they are unable to breathe and die with Joker's trademark grin. In one episode, Batman was infected with the venom, but was able to create a cure before it was too late. The lethal venom is also explosive, as shown in "The End of the Batman", where Wrath and Scorn fall victims to it.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold

The Joker uses explosive, gaseous venom in the series. This venom is lethal, and not only does it cause whoever inhales it to laugh uncontrollably, but also alters his or her body chemistry to turn hair green and change skin tone to white, much like the Joker.