A/N: Probably my first DC Reborn chapter ever, but let's cut to the chase.
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Let's be honest. This is one of the greatest Batman stories of all time. The intensity, the sheer devotion to making the Joker a true enemy to Batman and Gotham while also showing a classic theme of conflicting forces in an extremely dark tone: Good vs Evil, Black and White, Chaos vs Order.
And this film alone could've been easily one of the very best of all animated films....... Until they screwed it up with Batgirl and the sex scene on the rooftop.
Yeah, pretty much over the first half of the movie...... Thirty minutes, actually. THIRTY. MINUTES. Wasted. In nothing but Batgirl doing random shit with Batman, some dumb romance with a guy I don't even remember and then both characters having a sex scene on a rooftop. (Even though they're totally not 20-29 ages apart from each other, and they're not legally related such as daughter/father in law or anything).
Also, if you don't believe me, here's some evidence to back up my claim.
So without further ado, let's fix this mess up and restore what truly should've been one of the greatest, if not THE greatest Batman animated movie of all time.
Reborn: Batman investigates a murder scene with Detective Harvey Bullock and concludes that the Joker, currently held at Arkham Asylum, might be behind the crime. He goes to Arkham to interrogate him, where the entire movie is in this style of animation.
As he confronts the Joker, he discovered that he has escaped and put a decoy in his place. Joker then attacks Barbara and her father, Commissioner James Gordon. He shoots her in the stomach, paralyzing her from the waist down, and takes Gordon to an abandoned amusement park. There, Joker strips him naked and subjects him to torture, including showing him photos he took of Barbara, naked and in pain.
The Batman, meanwhile, would be taking this beyond seriously after realizing that the Joker has taken both Gordon and Barbara to an unknown location, leading him to find as many clues as he could to where the Joker might've been before the crime and who might know where he could be. As Gordon is tortured further by the Joker by a shorter, creepier song that isn't fully choreographed like in the original film and more in a short tune as Gordon is injected with non-lethal chemicals to suffer hallucinations, Batman loses every possible second as he interrogates a few criminals in prison, who had grudges against Gordon, made contact with prostitutes, interrogates the joker's former partner, Penguin and even went as far to nearly drop a man off a building in order to get some information. And by each task he failed, he became more desperate to find them. Until the Joker, out of boredom, reveals his location and invites Batman in the form of a card sent by an insane thug (who died shortly after to Joker's chemicals).
The story is intercut with flashbacks of Joker's origin, in black and white but it is much shorter as actual flashbacks. It is revealed that he was once a lab technician who quit his job to become a stand-up comedian, only to fail miserably. Desperate to support his pregnant wife Jeannie, he agrees to help two criminals rob his former workplace. The criminals tell him that he has to use the Red Hood's mask and caped costume, secretly intending to frame him. During the planning, the police inform him that Jeannie and their unborn child have died in a household accident. Grief-stricken, he tries to withdraw from the plan, but the criminals strong-arm him into keeping his commitment to them.
At the plant, the criminals and the costumed comedian run into security personnel, and a shootout occurs. The criminals are gunned down and the comedian is confronted by Batman. Terrified, the comedian trips and falls into the chemical plant's waste pond, and is swept through a pipe leading to the outside. As he removes his mask, he sees the chemicals have permanently disfigured his face, giving him a clown-like appearance. His disfigurement, combined with the loss of his family, drives him insane and transforms him into the Joker.
In the present, Batman finds and saves Gordon, while the Joker flees. Despite his ordeal, Gordon remains sane and demands that Batman capture the Joker "by the book". Batman follows the Joker as the latter tries to persuade him that the world is just one big joke, and that "one bad day" is enough to drive an ordinary man insane. Batman subdues Joker, tells him that Gordon has remained sane, and concludes that Joker is alone in his madness. He then attempts to reach out to him, offering rehabilitation. Joker apologetically declines, saying it is too late for him. He then says that the situation reminds him of a joke about two patients in an insane asylum who try to escape by leaping over to the adjoining building. The first patient makes it across, but the second patient is too afraid. The first patient says, "Hey, I got this flashlight with me. I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings and you can walk across the beam and join me". But the second patient says, "What do you think I am, crazy? You'll just turn it off when I'm halfway across!". Batman and Joker then have a good laugh at the joke as the police arrive. The Joker's laugh trails off while Batman continues to laugh, leaving the ending as ambiguous as the comic.
