Whose Idea Was It To Cut Joker's Face Off?

[Timothy Hunter]

One of the greatest misteps of the New Fifty Two was the bizarre idea to cut Joker's face off. Ultra-violence was a popular mainstay of 00's superhero comics, but the early 2010's seemed to be when that trend slowly lost steam.

It was a classic examples of an obviously bad idea that was quickly discarded and forgotten. What's unclear to me however, was whose idea was Joker getting his face cut off in the first place? Scott Snyder is an obvious contender because he wrote the core issues of Death of the Family and his horror background, but it could easily be editorial as well. I might be going on a limb here, but I think it's entirely possible that it was Tony S. Daniel's idea, due to the fact that Joker's face was cut off in his first issue of Detective.

[K7P5V]

^^^More than likely. But for what it's worth, Capullo nailed it (IMHO):

[Yohei72]

That still doesn't make any sense to me. Was a reason offered in-story that I'm forgetting, or was it as senseless as I remember?

Agreed on Capullo, but he always nails it. I have to admit that in the right artist's hands, it makes quite an image.

[JBatmanFan05]

What's unclear to me however, was whose idea was Joker getting his face cut off in the first place? Scott Snyder is an obvious contender because he wrote the core issues of Death of the Family and his horror background, but it could easily be editorial as well.

It was an indirect editorial idea in the sense that editorial demanded some drastic change, but Scott Snyder and Tony Daniel steered it (for better or worse) to "face cut off."

Scott Snyder: "[Tony Daniel & I] bonded over what we were going to do with the Joker: DC wanted us to kill him or lobotomize him and Tony and I came up with the idea of taking his face off together. And he was like 'If I do that, you've got to have a story for it!' and I was like 'I have a story for it, I promise you!'"

https://www.cbr.com/batman-scott-sny...of-the-family/

[Frontier]

That still doesn't make any sense to me. Was a reason offered in-story that I'm forgetting, or was it as senseless as I remember?

Agreed on Capullo, but he always nails it. I have to admit that in the right artist's hands, it makes quite an image.

In-story Joker had his face ripped off so he could fade back into the shadows and wouldn't be recognized until he was ready to make a big splash back in Gotham.

[JBatmanFan05]

I didn't mind the "face cut off" angle for Joker, because, based on Black Mirror and Snyder's interviews, I already knew that Scott intended on injecting more over horror elements into Batman comics, and, especially with Capullo drawing, the "face cut off" was effective at that goal of horroring/slashering up Joker somewhat.

In a way, I really believe Heath Ledger's disfigured-face Joker did a lot to pave some open mindedness or acceptance for this "face cut off" period of Joker.

I think it worked well enough to drum up some interest/attention in comic Joker (Snyder's Joker). Did it work entirely? I don't know, maybe I wouldn't go that far.

[Yohei72]

In-story Joker had his face ripped off so he could fade back into the shadows and wouldn't be recognized until he was ready to make a big splash back in Gotham.

Seems like taking out a mosquito with a bazooka. He couldn't design a costume and mask, in a city already overloaded with masked weirdos? (Of course, that had already been done in Morrison's Batman and Robin.)

I know, it's comics, and he's crazy.

[JBatmanFan05]

In-story Joker had his face ripped off so he could fade back into the shadows and wouldn't be recognized until he was ready to make a big splash back in Gotham.

There was also figurative aspects like rebirth, Joker shedding (some) skin so to speak to be reborn, regain 'face.' It wasn't absolutely solely to help remain hidden.

Snyder did a lot snake/dragon stuff with Joker. The snake in the garden of eden...a seductive tongue but one that lied, one that tempted you to betray yourself and all that is good. The (snake-ish) dragon vs the knight.

Morrison would the same kinds of dense layers of symbolism with characters (even Morrison gave Joker a forked tongue to compare him to a snake, which would then also connect Joker to ouroboros, transformation/death/rebirth, etc)

[Restingvoice]

It was an indirect editorial idea in the sense that editorial demanded some drastic change, but Scott Snyder and Tony Daniel steered it (for better or worse) to "face cut off."



https://www.cbr.com/batman-scott-sny...of-the-family/

Oh that's better than I thought. At least it was planned.

[exile001]

I'd have guessed Scott Snyder, as he wanted to lean into horror elements for his Joker arcs. He definitely made Joker feel like a genuine threat for the first time in about a decade, so gets kudos for that.

I still think it's on the right side of comic book nonsense and enjoy it for the very limited time it was a thing.

[charliehustle415]

In-story Joker had his face ripped off so he could fade back into the shadows and wouldn't be recognized until he was ready to make a big splash back in Gotham.

this was in New 52 'Tec #1 right?

[HsssH]

https://www.cbr.com/batman-scott-sny...of-the-family/

Huh, I probably would have preferred first two options over what we got. Snyder focusing so much on Joker was big, if not the biggest, flaw in his DC career.

[sunofdarkchild]

DC wanting to kill Joker is a surprisingly brave move. It definitely would have been better than cutting off Joker's face and Death of the Family, a story which only exists to spell out something fans had known for decades and which was always better left unsaid.

[JBatmanFan05]

DC wanting to kill Joker is a surprisingly brave move.

It wouldn't have lasted long. No chance in hell.

[Frontier]

I'd have guessed Scott Snyder, as he wanted to lean into horror elements for his Joker arcs. He definitely made Joker feel like a genuine threat for the first time in about a decade, so gets kudos for that.

I still think it's on the right side of comic book nonsense and enjoy it for the very limited time it was a thing.

Maybe a little too much...

this was in New 52 'Tec #1 right?

Yep.