Tropes in Capes: Evil Clowns

Superhero comics person galore well-worn motifs which person been popularized, subverted, and scoffed astatine implicit the decades, similar concealed identities, newsman girlfriends, and radioactive everything. In Tropes successful Capes, I’ll look astatine the past of these elements, including however they got started, erstwhile and if they fell retired of favor, and wherever they are now. Today: evil clowns!

Now, I cognize what you’re thinking. Surely determination can’t beryllium that galore clown-themed villains successful comics, right? Just the Joker, Harley Quinn, and possibly immoderate knockoffs?

Alas, I americium atrocious to archer you that I was capable to travel up with a database of implicit two dozen evil clowns oregon clown-adjacent villains, and I fishy I haven’t gotten them all, fixed the obscurity of immoderate of these bozos. (Get it?) This trope has legs. And truly large shoes connected the ends of them.

Joker established himself aboriginal arsenic Batman’s nemesis. Side note: wherever are Robin’s eyes???

The Joker is, successful fact, the earliest recurring clown villain superhero comics, debuting successful April of 1940, and created by immoderate operation of Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson. (As is truthful often the lawsuit with aboriginal Batman characters, accounts from the 3 men varied arsenic to who contributed what.) Inspired by a platform of playing cards, the Joker was primitively the sadistic murderer we cognize him arsenic today, but was softened into a zany but fundamentally harmless adversary during the kid-friendly Silver Age, lone to reemerge arsenic a genuine menace arsenic comics grew darker during the Bronze Age; that progression has lone continued implicit the past fewer decades. Though determination person been times erstwhile the Joker has vanished for a fistful of years, his mostly dependable beingness implicit the past 8 decades shows however flexible this trope is, which whitethorn relationship for its popularity. A clown villain tin beryllium a lighthearted nuisance oregon profoundly disturbing, Cesar Romero oregon Heath Ledger.

Clown villains surely leaned towards the lighter broadside of the spectrum successful Superman’s aboriginal days. Once the Man of Steel graduated from thwarting nameless gangsters, helium was rapidly fixed a roster of recurring villains champion collectively described arsenic “impish.” The Prankster (debuted 1942) and Toyman (1943) aren’t precisely clowns, per se, but they’re similar, and their amerciable — but seldom earnestly unsafe — antics were a amusive mode to support Superman busy. Even the Superboy comics, featuring a younger mentation of Clark, were often bedeviled by “Humpty Dumpty, the Hobby Robber” (debuted 1950), whose gimmick was stealing invaluable collectibles, but who dressed similar a clown for…reasons. And was named Humpty Dumpty. Look, they can’t each beryllium winners.

Meanwhile, 1 of Green Arrow’s vanishingly uncommon recurring Golden Age villains was Bull’s-Eye (1946), not to beryllium confused with the overmuch aboriginal and better-known Daredevil villain. His time job? Leapo the Clown. Leapo! I don’t cognize wherefore a dumb sanction similar Humpty Dumpty fills maine with rage but Leapo fills maine with delight, but determination you person it.

Clown villains stayed fashionable good into the precocious Silver Age.

The absorbing happening astir the evil clown trope is that dissimilar erstwhile tropes we’ve covered, Kid Sidekicks and Reporter Girlfriends, it’s not associated with a peculiar era. Evil clowns and their ilk continued to beryllium conscionable arsenic fashionable successful the Silver Age arsenic the Golden Age, and astatine aggregate publishers: astatine DC, the Flash fought the Trickster (debuted 1960), portion implicit astatine Marvel, Daredevil fought the homicidal Jester (debuted 1968) and beauteous overmuch everyone fought the Circus of Crime. At Charlton, Captain Atom fought Punch and Jewelee (1967) and Blue Beetle fought the Madmen (1967). (And past each of them were yet bought by DC anyway.) The Bronze Age kept up the trend, introducing the archetypal distaff counterpart to the Joker with Duela Dent, the Joker’s Daughter (1976) — though of people Harley Quinn (1992) would yet go the astir celebrated of his pistillate spinoff characters, and has present received a successor herself successful the signifier of Punchline (2020).

As the decades went connected and the Joker became much sadistic, truthful did the newer evil clowns. Marvel gave america Whiteface successful 2005, Pagliacci successful 2011, and the Clown successful 2013, each of whom indulged successful a level of gleeful unit the Golden and Silver Age clowns would ne'er person considered. Except those older clowns were being revised to beryllium darker too, either by retconning their personalities to beryllium much murderous oregon replacing them with edgier versions — determination are 2 Tricksters, 3 Jesters, and four Toymen. Today, it’s harmless to accidental that an evil clown showing up successful a comic means you’re astir to brushwood zero whoopee cushions and, like, a lot of dismemberment.

Punchline, the latest summation to the evil clown roster.

Why bash evil clowns persist successful comics? Is it due to the fact that they talk to the inherent unsettling thought of thing intended arsenic harmless amusement for children turned into a threat? Or is it conscionable due to the fact that the Joker is truthful damn popular, and the different clowns are echoing that? But past wherefore is the Joker truthful popular? And we’re backmost to the primeval fearfulness idea. (Alternately, a genuinely hilarious fig of comics fundamentally connote that bats and clowns are earthy enemies. It’s imaginable comic publication writers don’t cognize thing astir bats.)

I’ll beryllium honest: I could bash without this trope. I’m sick to decease of the Joker and find astir of his copycats annoying, from the Jester to Punchline. (I bash similar the Trickster, I’ll admit.) Every clip a comic oregon movie (ahem) tries to marque the Joker look profound, I commencement longing for a bully old-fashioned gleefully anserine gimmicky slope robber oregon ace astute gorilla instead. Yeah, yeah, we unrecorded successful a society, capable already.

But I’m not the lone scholar retired there, and evil clowns person been going beardown for truthful agelong that intelligibly I’m not successful the bulk here. So a circular of applause for these murderous merrymakers, I guess! I shingle your hands successful respect.

Except not actually, due to the fact that that’s however you get shocked to decease by an electrical joyousness buzzer. Nice try, evil clowns!