The Joker

The Joker was a deranged psychopath who grew to become a powerful crime lord in Gotham City, New Jersey. He grew a criminal empire until a series of events led to his death at the hands of Batman. His portrayal is heavily inspired by Heath Ledger's Joker.

Appearance
Joker originally had brown hair, however; Joker now has green hair and wears white face paint with black eye liner. His lips are red and have jagged scars running from them.

Failure in Business
A chemical engineer at Ace Chemicals named Jerome had a wife named Jeannie. However, Jerome dreamed of being a stand up comedian. He quit his job at Ace and attempted for almost a year to get his new career off the ground. He failed miserably. People didn't think he was funny enough and he had to sell his home and him and his pregnant wife Jeannie had to move to a run down apartment with a brick wall as their view. Despite the hardship, Jeannie supported Jerome and they had a very healthy relationship.

Turn to Crime
They failed to pay rent and their landlord demanded money. Jerome, who was desperate to support his family, turned to crime. He formed the alias "Red Hood" and wore a black suit with a red and black cape along with red jar helmet. He committed minor crimes, like small robberies and managed to get by a couple months. He always left behind a joker playing card- a reflection of his skill in card games. Operations became more difficult and Jerome began to break his rule and get involved with other criminals. These two criminals wanted to break into Ace Chemicals for an unknown reason. They wanted Jerome to help them because he knew all the ins and outs of the building. Jerome agreed and earlier in the night they were going to make their move, Jeannie found out what Jerome had been doing for months and she begged for him to back out. Jerome said he couldn't because there was so much money they would get to support her. Jeannie said she would rather live on the streets than live a life fed by crime. Jerome agreed to back out and never showed up.

One Last Time
The next week they had to pay rent. Jeannie never worked a job but was trying to get a job as a clerk at a grocery store. Jerome thought that he could do one last heist to pay this month's rent until Jeannie secured a job. That night, Jerome went out as Red Hood and was confronted by the two criminals who wanted to rob Ace. They threatened to kill Jerome if he didn't get them in. Jerome tried to back out, but was strong-armed into helping them. This strong-arming included one of the crooks smashing in the Red Hood helmet, causing the red glass to cut a field of small scars above Jerome's left ear. The criminals got in, but Batman was there to stop them. One of the criminals was knocked unconscious by Batman and his sidekick Dick Grayson- The Robin. The duo managed to stop one criminal- by knocking him out- and one escaped and was pursued by Batman. Jerome collapsed on a catwalk- terrified. He looks over the rails and to the chemical vats below and stands up to jump. He is pulled back by Robin. They have a conversation and Jerome calms down. When Batman returns with the other criminal, Robin convinces him that Jerome is innocent and was forced to do this. Batman notes that he's Red Hood and has robbed multiple places. Robin says that he understands but these other men wanted to obtain chemicals so they could poison Gotham's water supply and blame Ace Chemicals. Batman tells Jerome if he ever sees him involved with crime again, he will make sure to get Jerome locked up for the maximum time. Jerome swears and thanks them and goes on his way.

The Trauma
Jerome never tells Jeannie about what happened and they continue life, being able to afford rent with Jeannie's success as a clerk. They live happily for a little over a month until, on his way to an audition, he is confronted with men in suits who say they work for Able Crown- a crime lord. They pull him into an alley and threatened him and made him come with him to face his judgement after he allowed Crown's goons to be captured by Batman. They take him to a fancy apartment building where Crown operates out of. They take Jerome to Crown's suite and dump him on the floor in front of Crown. Crown smiles at Joker and tells him to put a smile on that face. Crown turns on a television and on it is a live feed from a cameraman in Jerome and Jeannie's apartment. Several of Crown's goons are in the apartment, with mask on, with a gag in Jeannie's mouth and a knife in one of their hands. The armed goon cuts Jeannie's face several times, however; not fatally. Then Crown tells Jerome that this is what he gets for interfering with his plans. The armed goon slits Jeannie's throat, killing her and her unborn baby. Jerome cries and screams as he attempts to fight back, however; he is beaten down by the goons and thrown onto the street. One Month Later.

Makings of a Psychopath
Jerome lives on the streets for a month- too distressed to return to his apartment, even with police cleaning it up. This event turns Jerome into a psychopath and drives him insane. He returns to his apartment building and when he arrives the landlord asks for rent and Jerome ignores him and enter his apartment and puts on white face paint and dyes his hair green. He also puts on eyeliner. He noticeably doesn't have red lips or scars. He puts on a purple suit- including a frock coat- and puts two suppressed pistols in his coat. He leaves the building and tosses his landlord the keys to the apartment. From here on out we don't see Jerome's face. He leaves and walks down the street towards Crown's apartment building. Once there, he takes the elevator up towards the suite. He shoots the door hinges and kicks down the free-standing door. For a very brief moment we see his face. He enters and shoots a line of body guards and goons until he makes it to Crown- who is sitting in a leather chair in front of the fireplace. Crown sits up, and Jerome shoots both of Crown's knees- bringing Crown to the floor- and also using his last two rounds. He drops his guns and grabs a crowbar from under a counter and beats Crown's stomach and legs with it until Crown is too weak to do anything. Crown is wincing and asks Jerome if he's crazy. Jerome smirks. "Of course. YOU MURDERED MY FAMILY! You will die with her blood on your hands. You scarred me!" Jerome begins laughing uncontrollably. Crown speaks. "What's wrong with you? Are you insane?" Jerome stops laughing. "You wanted me to smile." Jerome pulls out a knife- half of his face briefly reflecting in it- and sticks it in his mouth and rips open scars from the corners of his lips. The blood soaks the cuts and his lips blood red. Jerome smiles- we now see his full face. "Your turn." Jerome sticks the knife in Crown's mouth and cuts out half of Crown's tongue and carves his mouth. Crown screams, and then Joker grabs his face and presses it against the hot glass of the fireplace and then pulls him back onto the floor. Crown screams and gasps, spitting up blood. "W, wh, who are you?" Jerome smiles. "I'm the Joker" Joker drops the knife and begins pummeling Crown. Blood sprays upwards and we see close ups of Joker's fists squishing against the gutted face of Crown. Crown is dead. Joker stands up. "Here's my card." He throws down a joker playing card into Crown's excuse for a head, the blood soaking into the card.

Trivia

 * Joker's name as "Jerome" is a reference to the Gothamverse Joker who's name is Jerome Valeska. This Joker is not Valeska and just has the same first name.
 * His thought to jump into the chemical vats is a reference to his comic origin where he jumped into a vat of chemicals to escape Batman. This plot point will be used for Jason Todd later on.
 * The picture used for Jerome's expression when his family died is from Doctor Who- Matt Smith playing the Doctor.