Joker Reading Order: The Best Comics in Order (2026 Guide)

The Joker has terrorized Gotham since 1940, which means there are more than eight decades of stories to sort through, and no single ongoing title that tells his whole arc. He is a villain, so he mostly turns up inside Batman comics, in one-shots, and in the occasional solo book. That scattered publishing history scares a lot of new readers off. It should not. The Joker is actually one of the easiest characters in comics to read well, because his best stories are self-contained books you can hand to anyone.

This is the Joker reading order we actually recommend. It is not a complete continuity map and it does not try to be. It is a sensible path through the great stuff, arranged so each book deepens the last without asking you to memorize decades of Batman lore first. A content note before you begin: the Joker is a mass murderer, and several of these books are genuinely disturbing, with torture, mutilation, and sexual violence. We flag the heaviest ones as we go. If you want the wider Gotham picture first, our Batman reading order is the natural companion to this guide.

How to read the Joker (and why order helps)

Because the Joker has no single defining series, the trick is to read the standout stories in roughly the order they were published, so you watch the character evolve from a giggling 1940s killer into the philosophical monster of the modern age. Do that and each book pays off the one before it. You do not need to have read every Batman comic; you just need a rough sense of who Batman, Jim Gordon, and the Robins are, and this guide fills in the rest. For a broader survey of Gotham villains, our best Batman villain comics roundup is a good map.

One more thing: the Joker has no fixed, canonical origin, and that is deliberate. As he says in The Killing Joke, he prefers his past to be “multiple choice.” Do not go looking for the one true backstory, because the ambiguity is the point.

Stage 1: The origins, real and retold (1940 and 2005)

The Joker debuted in Batman #1 (1940), created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson, as a homicidal card-themed killer who announces his murders in advance. Those Golden Age tales are collected in The Golden Age Batman Omnibus and various archive editions, and they are fun but dated. For a modern reader, the better entry point is Batman: The Man Who Laughs (2005) by Ed Brubaker and Doug Mahnke, a taut retelling of the Joker’s first rampage that slots neatly alongside Batman: Year One. It gives you the first meeting between Batman and the Joker with contemporary art and pacing.

Read one of these to establish the ground floor. If you only pick one, take The Man Who Laughs; it is short, self-contained, and reads cleanly for someone new to the character.

Stage 2: The Bronze Age classics (1973 to 1978)

After a period where the character had gone soft, two Bronze Age stories restored the Joker as a genuine threat. Read them in this order:

The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge (1973), Batman #251, by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams. This is the story that made the Joker terrifying again, methodically hunting down former henchmen. Adams’s art is gorgeous.
The Laughing Fish (1978), Detective Comics #475-476, by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers. The Joker tries to copyright fish that now bear his grin, and murders bureaucrats when he cannot. It is the definitive absurd-yet-lethal Joker, and it inspired the 1990s animated series.

Both are collected in Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told and in the O’Neil and Englehart archive collections. Together they establish the tone every later writer builds on.

Stage 3: The definitive statement, The Killing Joke (1988)

Now read Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, a one-shot that offers a possible origin for the Joker and frames his whole worldview: that anyone is just “one bad day” from madness. Bolland’s artwork is immaculate, and the Deluxe Edition recolors it to his original intent. It is the most quoted, most influential Joker story ever published.

Content warning: this book includes a violent, controversial attack on Barbara Gordon that has real weight in later continuity. It is dark, it is short, and it is for adults. Treat it as the essential pivot point of the whole reading order.

Stage 4: A Death in the Family (1988)

Immediately after, read Batman: A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo, collecting Batman #426-429. This is the infamous storyline in which the Joker murders Jason Todd, the second Robin, whose fate was decided by a reader phone-in vote. It is the darkest the Batman and Joker rivalry had ever gone, and its consequences echo through decades of comics, right up to the modern era.

Read it after The Killing Joke and you feel the full weight of a villain the story will no longer let Batman contain. It also sets up the Red Hood saga you may want to chase later.

Stage 5: The prestige one-shots, Arkham Asylum and The Dark Knight Returns

Two landmark books deepen the psychological portrait:

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (1989) by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean. A hallucinatory, painted nightmare in which the inmates take over the asylum on April Fools Day. McKean’s art is unlike anything else in superhero comics.
The Dark Knight Returns (1986) by Frank Miller. In this future-set classic, an aged Batman comes out of retirement and the Joker wakes from catatonia for one last, lethal dance. Miller and Klaus Janson reframed the whole rivalry as a fight to the death.

Both stand entirely on their own. If you enjoy them, our best Batman graphic novels list gathers more of the same calibre.

Stage 6: The modern epics, Death of the Family and Endgame

Jump now to the New 52 era and Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s two-part Joker masterwork. Start with Batman, Vol. 3: Death of the Family (2012-13, collecting Batman #13-17), in which the Joker returns wearing his own reattached face and sets out to “prove” that Batman needs him. Follow it with Batman, Vol. 7: Endgame (2014-15, collecting Batman #35-40), a full-on Gotham apocalypse and arguably the most ambitious Joker story of the century.

These reward everything you have read so far, because Snyder writes the Joker as the sum of every earlier era. If you want the wider Snyder story around them, our Batman reading order walks through his full run in sequence.

Stage 7: Solo books and Elseworlds

Finally, the Joker has starred in several standalone books that do not require any continuity at all:

Joker (2008) by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo. A grimy crime-noir graphic novel told from a henchman’s point of view. Bermejo’s painted art is stunning.
Batman: White Knight (2017-18) by Sean Murphy. An out-of-continuity tale where a cured Joker becomes Gotham’s political savior. A genuinely fresh angle.
Batman: Three Jokers (2020) by Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok. A prestige mystery built on the idea that there may have been more than one Joker all along.
The Joker (2021-22) by James Tynion IV and Guillem March. A globe-trotting ongoing series that made Harley Quinn’s ex the hunted for once.

The Joker and Harley Quinn are forever entangled, so if her side of the story pulls at you, jump to our Harley Quinn reading order next.

Reading order at a glance

Step	Title	Collects / era	Best for
1	The Man Who Laughs	Modern origin retelling (2005)	A clean starting point
2	Five-Way Revenge + The Laughing Fish	Batman #251; Detective #475-476 (1973-78)	The Bronze Age classics
3	The Killing Joke	One-shot (1988)	The definitive statement
4	A Death in the Family	Batman #426-429 (1988)	The darkest rivalry beat
5	Arkham Asylum + Dark Knight Returns	1986-89	Psychological deep cuts
6	Death of the Family + Endgame	New 52 Batman (2012-15)	The modern epics
7	Joker (2008) / White Knight / The Joker (2021)	Standalone books	No-continuity solo reads

Work down the table in order and you will have read the best of the Joker without ever needing a continuity wiki open in another tab.

Where to buy and how to collect

Almost everything here is collected in affordable trade paperbacks, and the classics are frequently discounted. The Killing Joke Deluxe Edition and Joker by Azzarello and Bermejo are the two most giftable single volumes. DC also publishes oversized Absolute and deluxe hardcovers of the Snyder run if you fall for it. Libraries carry most of these, so you can sample before you commit.

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Where to go next

Once you have the Clown Prince sorted, the rest of Gotham beckons. The man who broke Batman is the natural follow-up, so read our Bane reading order next, and if you want the broader genre view, our best superhero comics list places these books in context.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Joker comic to start with?

Batman: The Killing Joke is the essential starting point for the character’s philosophy, while Batman: The Man Who Laughs is the cleanest narrative introduction. Both are short and self-contained, so you can read either cold and get the full experience.

Does the Joker have an official origin story?

No, and that is intentional. The Killing Joke offers one possible version, in which he was a failed comedian who fell into a vat of chemicals, but the character himself insists his past is “multiple choice.” Writers deliberately keep it ambiguous.

Do I need to read Batman comics before the Joker ones?

Not really. A rough sense of who Batman, Jim Gordon, and the Robins are is enough. Most of the books here are self-contained one-shots or clearly-labeled collected volumes, so you can enjoy them without decades of homework.

Which modern Joker story is the best?

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s two-part saga, Death of the Family followed by Endgame, is the strongest modern Joker story. Read them in that order for the full effect, ideally after the older classics.

Ready for more Gotham? Our Bane reading order and best Batman villain comics are the natural next reads.