Warning: contains spoilers for Crime Syndicate #5!
Ever since DC announced it would be revamping the upside-down reality of Earth-3, home to the Crime Syndicate, readers have wondered if their world had a heroic version of the Joker. And Earth-3's Red Hood, aka Dr. Harleen Quinzel, just revealed that there is indeed a "Mistah J" in the reality where the Justice League are the planet's greatest villains.
Red Hood makes the shocking comment while bantering with Owlman, aka Thomas Wayne Jr. The confrontation follows the Legion of Justice's earlier botched attempt to bring in Atomica and Johnny Quick for crimes against humanity, in which Emerald Knight killed Johnny by accident. The Crime Syndicate counters by storming the heroic Lex Luthor's base of operations to recruit Emerald Knight as they endeavor to take over the globe in Crime Syndicate #5 from Andy Schmidt, Bryan Hitch, Kieran McKeown, Dexter Vines, Alex Sinclair and Rob Leigh.
When Red Hood and Venus (a heroic Poison Ivy) confront the evil Batman known as Owlman, Red Hood hurls her futuristic New God hammer in his direction before quipping, "Mistah J. sends his regards." Owlman objects that "Jester" is dead, but Red Hood smugly replies, "You never saw a body, did you?" Given that Luthor confirms Red Hood is Dr. Quinzel earlier in the issue, and the way that relationships align on Earth-3 similar to their configurations in DC's mainstream reality, it's reasonable to assume that Jester is indeed Earth-3's heroic Joker. The series' running gag of suggesting non-existent stories from the theoretical history of Earth-3 seems to confirm Red Hood's assertion, as readers are told, "Don't get ready, because we're not bringing you Owlman: Return of the Jester anytime soon!"
Up until now, Crime Syndicate has delved into the origin stories of each member of the evil Justice League, and all of them follow the same pattern. They all essentially start out good but then something horrific happens that causes them to snap and embrace an evil persona. While this creates the impression that the heroes of Earth-0 were just one lucky break away from corruption, it also proves that the most evil versions of Earth's greatest heroes aren't inherently evil in any grand, cosmic sense; they just had Joker's famous "one bad day."
The idea of a heroic Joker raises some big questions about the nature of Earth-3. The very concept of what Joker represents transcends good and evil; he is chaos incarnate and a perpetual, unsolvable enigma. Giving him a "good" alternative in an upside-down world is an act of defining him to the point where his innate "badness" can actually be measured. DC has long resisted even giving Joker a definitive origin story, so the idea that a different path of life would have turned Joker into a heroic vigilante feels like a wild simplification of the character. Of course, readers haven't met the Jester yet, so with one issue of the Crime Syndicate miniseries to go, there's still time to revisit this idea and avoid allowing even the infinite mysteries of the multiverse to detract from Joker's unparalleled mystique.
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