The Arrowverse’s Joker Copies Batman 1989’s Homicidal Artist

Warning: The following feature contains SPOILERS for Batwoman Season 2, Episode 5, “Gore on Canvas.”

Batwoman season 2 revealed that the Arrowverse version of the Joker made at least one attempt to turn murder into a literal artform, similar to the character in Tim Burton’s Batman. This, along with the use of the name Jack Napier, created a big link to Jack Nicholson’s take on the Clown Prince of Crime.

The disappearance of Kate Kane served as the focal point for most of Batwoman season 2’s core storyline, with a number of strange clues coming up since the season premiere. One of the odder items was that Kate Kane’s phone contained a picture of a strange painting, with the name “Safiyah” written over it. This painting was later identified as one having been created by Jack Napier, which had been stolen from a crime scene and was now bouncing around the black market.

Batwoman season 2, episode 5, “Gore on Canvas,” offered a full explanation for the mystery behind the painting and a confirmation that Jack Napier was the name of the man who became the Joker in the Arrowverse. The legend behind “the Napier painting” was that Joker had broken into some rich person’s house and, in the process of carving them up, splashed some of their blood onto an old oil painting. Inspired, Napier went on to paint over the original painting using the blood and viscera of his victim to create a work of modern art. Somehow this morbid creation disappeared from the scene of the crime and began passing among the membership of a group of rich art snobs called the Collective, who specialized in forbidden or otherwise illegal art. As for why the painting was important to Kate Kane, apparently the one thing the legend got wrong was that Jack Napier had painted his masterpiece over a map to the hidden island nation of Coryana rather than another painting.

The idea of the Joker as an artist and the name Jack Napier are both shout-outs to the 1989 Batman movie. Originally Jack Napier was an enforcer for the Gotham mob, before he became the Joker following an encounter with Batman. While this Joker was a theatrical showman, he also fancied himself to be “the world’s first fully-functioning homicidal artist.” This declaration came after one of the film’s most memorable sequences, in which the Joker and his henchmen gassed a museum full of art patrons to death and proceeded to deface most of the paintings and sculptures while dancing to Prince’s “Partyman.”

While this is not the first time Batwoman seemed to draw parallels between the Gotham City of the Arrowverse and the Tim Burton Batman films, there may be darker implications suggested by the idea of Joker as an artist. The idea of rich scoundrels paying for a painting by a famous killer purely for the sake of shock value is sadly based in reality. Perhaps the most relevant example is John Wayne Gacy, the infamous child murderer, who produced thousands of paintings of his clown persona before his execution in 1994. Those paintings which have survived have become highly sought after collectibles in some circles, largely because so many of his paintings were destroyed for fear that they glamorized Gacy’s life. It’s a sick irony that would surely make the Joker laugh.

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1836 Articles Published)

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Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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