For a while now we’ve known that Jared Leto will be playing a completely insane version of the Joker complete with tattoos, grills and a crazy eye stare. Either you’re on board with that or you hate it and there seems to be no middle ground. With the latest Batman V Superman trailer we also got confirmation of a long rumored aspect of Batman in that the events of A Death in the Family have already occured and the second Robin, Jason Todd, has been brutally murdered by the Joker.

However, according to a theory by Jason-G169 on Reddit that may not exactly be true. According to their theory the Joker’s true identity is none other than Jason Todd! Let’s break it down.

1. Jason Todd Was Red Hood

After Todd’s resurrection in the comics he takes on the identity of the Red Hood. This is important because that was the Joker’s previous identity before falling into the vat of acid that transformed him into the villain we know and love today.

 

 

 

 

 

2. Tattoos

On the Joker’s right arm there seems to be a bird tattooed which could be a Robin but more interestingly, the tear under his left eye is shaped like a “J”. Now that could mean Joker but it could also mean Jason. While that seems kind of odd and random, don’t forget that in Arkham Knight Todd has a “J” branded under his left eye.

3. Robin’s Suit

The confirmation that Jason Todd met his demise before the beginning of Batman V Superman is the Robin costume with the words “HAHAHA Joke’s On You Batman.” Another interpretation is that the joke is Batman’s ally became his worst enemy and would go far to explain why Wayne hung up the mantle.

4. Joker Knows Who Batman Is

Again in the Batman V Superman trailer, Bruce Wayne receives a clipping of the collapse of Wayne Tower with the words scrawled “You Let Your Family Die” on it. The most obvious party responsible would be Joker and if he were Jason Todd it would go a long way to explaining how he knew the Dark Knight was Bruce Wayne.

Here’s the full post from Reddit:

Let me preface this by saying this theory has been around for a while and i just want to go a bit more in depth, also i love the new Jokers look so this theory is not some excuse because i dislike the new Joker’s design.

The Joker we are going to see in Suicide Squad is Jason Todd, i know what you’re thinking that’s kind of lame, The Joker is The Joker not Jason. My theory consists of.

• The news paper with “You let your family die”
• The Robin suit in memorial inside the batcave.
• This Joker looks very odd, and completely different than what we’re used to, it is probably just a design choice but it could be because Jason is the Joker & does things his way.

Let me go a little in depth (as much as i can atm) on each of these points. The newspaper is one of the clues that i don’t have much on except Bruce was Jason’s surrogate father & Jason is probably a little salty about not being saved from the original Joker.

Now the Robin suit, this one is kind of the first pillar of my theory, we see “The joke’s on you Batman”. What joke is on batman? Could it mean Jason wrote that on his suit after he became a deranged psycho? What i think it means is, after all Jason & Bruce have gone through together, him teaching Jason to not be so angry & teaching him how to be a better person, in the end it didn’t matter it was all one huge joke because Jason’s fate was to become Joker, his fate was to become the arch nemesis of his father.

The Tattoo’s are my favorite part about this theory, they all mean something. Let’s start with his face. Joker has a “J” under his left eye, i think he did that one him self, for most people it mean J for Joker right? But for Bruce it mean J for Jason, whenever he see’s Joker he knows he failed this kid, he let him become something worse than the original ever was.

Now onto the “Damaged” on his forehead that everyone hates including myself, this one i think the original Joker actually gave Jason himself, he wrote it on there as a reminder for Jason how fucked he is, how much Joker has warped him, how the only Jason that is left is a damaged one, a deranged one.

Now onto the right arm of his. First one we see is a huge smile with teeth on his wrist, with the new Joker he really doesn’t have the nicest of teeth he has caps, my guess is Joker fucked his teeth up, he either ripped them out or he stomped them until they broke, so when Jason became Joker he wanted a smile, but he doesn’t have the beautiful teeth or the huge grinning smile like the original Joker so he gets a tattoo of said smile.

This one that i’m about to bring up is not confirmed but there is a very good chance it’s there. On Jokers right bicep we see a Bird, presumably a Robin, i think we all know what a Robin means in this universe. To Jason this is a reminder of what he once was, he was a Robin he was the son of Batman, he was a hero but now he’s the opposite. it’s also a huge remind to Bruce just like the “J”, that this horrible person was my son, a boy i raised, a boy i failed.

Now the left arm, this one doesn’t have much, but the HAHAHA’s and a smile on his hand. My guess is like the HAHAHAHA’s on his chest, these are from the Joker, when he was turning Jason into his progeny. Also what i said above about the smile on his right arm is probably the same with his hand.

Now onto the torso. This one has a lot. The first one is a skull with a medieval jester cap, in pop culture a skull usually has something to do with death or the grim reaper, Jason got this after he became Joker as sort of a rebirth thing, the skull signifies Jason’s death, and the jester cap signifies his rebirth as Joker.

Now the cards, i honestly have shit all on these.

The HAHAHAHAH’s on his chest are probably from the Joker during his transformation like is said above. On his right rib cage we see a S and a Y, my best guess is this says “Harley’s Only” i think Jason turned Harley into well, Harley in this universe, he’s not as smart as the original Joker but he’s more merciless & brutal so he made Harley the only way he knows how. Torture, we see Harley being tortured during the Suicide Squad trailer, this could be how Jason made her his Harley.

EDIT: After reading all these comments and the great reception this has gotten i’m going to add a tiny bit more to this, not enough to warrant a re-post but enough to add to the current post.

First things first, let’s talk about the Harley/Joker relationship that people seem to be talking about alot. Like /u/corkyknightriderX[1]said below maybe Harley doesn’t love the Joker himself but the idea of Joker, you can see this a little in (Spoilerssss) Arkham Knight.

I want to add to the tattoo’s a bit more because i’ve been thinking about them a quite a bit more after these amazing comments in this thread.

Let’s start with the Skull with the Jester cap, we can also see smoke around the Skull and cap, and we all know the warehouse that Jason was murdered in was set on fire by Joker after he beat him to death.

People in the comments below have pointed out (spoilerssss) that Jason during Arkham Knight also has a J under his left eye, it’s not tattooed there but instead branded, so the J being from Joker prime himself is not so far fetch. People below also added that the J is kind of like a teardrop that we see on inmates or convicts, they usually mean they killed someone, let’s say Jason tattooed this on himself after his “transformation” maybe like the Jester tattoo it’s a rebirth sort of thing or like /u/chingchongbingbong99[2] said they mean that the person with said teardrop tattoo is someones bitch, Jason being Joker primes bitch in this one, either one of these could add to the evidence that Jason is in fact the Joker.

Let’s talk about the teeth & scars for a second. I bring this up again because i didn’t explain it well initially, what if all of the scars and the fucked up teeth are from Joker prime beating Jason with the crowbar. I mean it would make sense, since we can see Joker has scars scattered around his face and the teeth being knocked out by Joker prime’s crowbar make more sense than what i said above.

This theory has the potential to be amazing if they do this in the new DCCU, JasonJoker could be an even better Joker than the Joker we are used too, he is the Joker, the unpredictable, melodramatic, clever, Clown Prince of Crime that we all love but he is also the son of Batman. This adds so much more depth than just an arch nemesis who wants to break you, it makes this personal, it makes him even more dangerous, because he knows who the Batman is, he was trained by Bruce for years, this could be why we are getting a more physical Joker this time around instead of the slender one we are used to.

I want to thank everyone in the comments below who added more to this theory that i missed. If you think this deserves a re-post let me know.

Be sure to try the Clown Prince Martini from Secret of the Booze!