Alright, buckle up, because we’re about to dive into one of the wildest, most controversial theories in DC Comics history. And I mean wild. Like, “keeps me up at night questioning everything I know about Batman” wild. The theory goes like this: What if the Joker is actually Jason Todd, somehow brought back or transformed into Batman’s greatest enemy?
I know what you’re thinking. “That’s ridiculous. Jason Todd became Red Hood. We saw it happen. Case closed.” And you’re right! Mostly. But hear me out, because this rabbit hole goes deeper than you’d think, and some of the evidence is genuinely disturbing when you start connecting the dots.
Where This Theory Even Comes From
First, let’s acknowledge that this isn’t just random fan speculation pulled out of thin air. The theory gained serious traction from a few key places. There’s the whole Three Jokers storyline that suggested maybe, just maybe, the Joker we know isn’t just one person. There are the weird timeline inconsistencies with when the Joker first appeared versus Jason’s death. And then there are those unsettling moments in various comics where the Joker seems to know things about Batman that he really shouldn’t.
But the real fuel for this theory comes from the thematic parallels between Jason Todd and the Joker. Both are intimately connected to Batman’s greatest failure. Both represent what happens when Gotham breaks someone. Both have this twisted, obsessive relationship with Bruce Wayne that goes beyond typical hero versus villain dynamics.
And here’s the thing that gets me: Scott Snyder himself has played with ideas adjacent to this. The whole “Joker knows Batman’s identity” situation, the suggestions that Joker has always been there, the implication that Joker and Batman are more connected than we realize. It’s like the writers keep dancing around something without fully committing.
The Timeline Weirdness That Won’t Go Away
Let’s talk about something that bothers me constantly: the timeline doesn’t quite add up. In some continuities, the Joker’s first appearance predates Jason Todd even being born. But then you have stories that suggest the Joker’s origin is malleable, that maybe he’s been multiple people, or that time in Gotham works differently than we think.
Death of the Family and Endgame both played with the idea that Joker might be immortal or at least way older than he appears. What if that’s not because he’s immortal, but because the identity of “Joker” has been passed down or recreated? What if Jason Todd isn’t the original Joker, but became one of them?
The Three Jokers storyline explicitly showed us three different Jokers operating at different times. The Criminal, the Clown, and the Comedian. What if there’s a fourth we don’t know about? What if one of them is Jason, either knowing it or not?
The Psychological Profile Is Disturbingly Similar
Here’s what really creeps me out about this theory: if you look at Jason Todd’s psychology after his resurrection and the Joker’s psychology, there are some terrifying similarities.
Both are defined by their relationship with Batman. Both feel betrayed by him. Both are obsessed with proving something to him. Jason came back angry that Batman didn’t kill the Joker to avenge him. The Joker is obsessed with proving Batman needs him, that they’re two sides of the same coin. Both are trying to force Batman to break his code, just in different ways.
Jason uses guns, breaks bones, kills criminals. He’s violent and unpredictable. Sound familiar? The Joker is chaos personified. What if Jason’s resurrection didn’t just bring him back wrong, but brought him back SO wrong that he fractured into something unrecognizable? What if the trauma of his death and the Lazarus Pit didn’t just make him angry, but literally broke his mind into becoming the very thing that killed him?
There’s this psychological concept called identification with the aggressor. Victims sometimes take on characteristics of their abusers as a coping mechanism. What if Jason’s trauma was so severe that he didn’t just come back as Red Hood, but some part of him, some alternate version, became the Joker himself?
The Lazarus Pit Could Explain Everything
The Lazarus Pit is basically DC’s catch-all explanation for “weird stuff happened.” We know it brings people back from the dead. We know it drives them temporarily insane. We know it can have unpredictable effects on the mind and body.
What if Jason’s dip in the Lazarus Pit didn’t just resurrect him once? What if it created a split, a fracture in reality or in his psyche? One version becomes Red Hood, the angry but ultimately heroic vigilante trying to save Gotham his own way. Another version becomes something else entirely, something that embraced the madness instead of fighting it.
I know this sounds like I’m reaching, but DC has done weirder things. We’ve had evil Supermen from alternate dimensions, we’ve had timeline splits, we’ve had characters literally break into multiple versions of themselves. In a universe where Flashpoint can rewrite reality and Dr. Manhattan can manipulate the entire timeline, is it really that crazy to think Jason Todd could exist in multiple forms simultaneously?
That One Panel in Batman: Endgame
There’s this moment in Batman: Endgame that I keep coming back to. When Joker is talking about how he’s always been there, how he’s eternal, there’s something about the way it’s framed that feels personal. Like he’s not just taunting Batman about being his eternal nemesis, but about being connected to him in a way that’s more intimate.
And then there’s the Joker’s knowledge of the Batcave, of Batman’s identity (in some stories), of things he shouldn’t know. Red Hood knows all these things. Jason Todd knows all these things. What if that knowledge leaked through somehow? What if the Joker’s seemingly impossible awareness of Batman’s secrets isn’t because he’s a genius detective, but because part of him is Jason Todd?
Why This Theory Probably Isn’t True (But I Can’t Let It Go)
Okay, let me put on my rational hat for a second. This theory has some major problems. The biggest one being that we literally have Jason Todd running around as Red Hood in current continuity while the Joker is also very much alive and causing problems. They’ve been in the same room together. They’ve fought each other. That’s pretty hard to explain away.
Also, DC would never commit to something this dark. Making the Joker secretly Jason Todd would fundamentally change Batman’s story in a way that’s probably too depressing even for DC. It would mean Batman’s greatest enemy was created by his greatest failure in the most literal sense possible. It would mean every person the Joker killed after Jason’s resurrection was indirectly Bruce’s fault. That’s heavy even for comics.
And narratively, it kind of ruins both characters. Jason’s story as Red Hood is about coming back and choosing a different path than Batman, not about becoming the very monster he hates. The Joker’s appeal is partly in his mystery, in not knowing exactly who he is or where he came from.
But What If It’s True In Some Reality?
Here’s where I’m actually willing to plant my flag: even if this isn’t true in main continuity, I absolutely believe there’s a reality in the DC multiverse where this happened. Where Jason Todd’s resurrection went so catastrophically wrong that he became the Joker. Where the trauma and the Lazarus Pit and the hatred all combined into something unrecognizable.
The Dark Multiverse has shown us nightmare versions of Batman. We’ve seen the Batman Who Laughs, a Bruce Wayne who became the Joker. Is it really so impossible to imagine a world where Jason Todd had the same transformation? Where dying at the Joker’s hands didn’t make him want revenge, but made him want to become that chaos?
That’s the version of this theory I can get behind. Not that our Joker is Jason Todd, but that somewhere out there, in some dark corner of the multiverse, there’s a version where it happened.
My Conclusion
Is the Joker really Jason Todd reborn? In main continuity? Almost certainly not. The logistics don’t work, both characters exist simultaneously, and DC has never seriously suggested this is the case.
But is there something to the thematic connection between them? Absolutely. Is it possible that some writer somewhere planted seeds for this idea, either intentionally or accidentally? I think so. Could there be a future storyline or an alternate universe where this theory becomes canon? I wouldn’t bet against it.
The reason this theory persists isn’t because the evidence is overwhelming. It’s because emotionally, psychologically, it feels true in some twisted way. The idea that Batman’s greatest failure created his greatest enemy, that Jason Todd and the Joker are two sides of the same trauma coin, that the boy who died came back as the monster who killed him… that’s terrifying and poetic and exactly the kind of tragic irony that makes Batman stories so compelling.
So no, I don’t think the Joker is Jason Todd. But I’ll probably never stop thinking about what it would mean if he was.
And honestly? That uncertainty, that “what if,” might be even better than knowing for sure.
Check out Fandom by It’s Netflix Nerd for all the fan theories / fandom about Netflix movies and series.