The Joker's 10 Best Alter-Egos in DC Comics History

Everyone in Gotham City knows the Joker. He is a serial killer and terrorist who is world renowned, especially due to his unique appearance. His own face and demeanor mean that the few times that the Joker actually needs to disappear and lie low, he has to use an alias, especially since he often doesn’t remember his own name.




Over the years, the Joker has employed a wide variety of aliases to help him avoid detection. Some of these have been names that not even the most ardent Joker fan would be able to guess, and some of them have been so unbelievably obvious that it’s hard to imagine that the Joker genuinely thought they were good ideas at all. Of his many aliases over the years, some have been more obvious than others, but all were essential to the Joker’s plans.


10 A. Rekoj Was the Joker’s Most Obvious Alias

Detective Comics #45 by Bill Finger and Bob Kane


A. Rekoj is easily the most obvious name that the Joker has ever used. During his earlier years, Joker was plotting revenge against those who’d wronged him, and he intended to fulfill his revenge by posing as a music store owner, sending poison records to his targets. They released Joker gas the first time they were played. It was a ridiculous plan, but it worked, and he killed several people before finally being exposed.

It’s a wonder that it took the world’s greatest detective so long to realize that A. Rekoj might just be the return of the villainous Joker. It was one of the first times in comics that the Joker decided to use an alias, and it’s by far his worst one. Over the years, though, the Joker has gotten significantly better at hiding who he truly is.


9 Joseph Kerr Was the Joker’s Start at a New Life

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #65 by J.M. De Matteis, Joe Staton, Steve Mitchell, Digital Chameleon, and Willie Schubert

Joker Introduces Himself As Joseph Kerr

The Joker has been trying to kill Batman for years, but he never expects to actually succeed. He always expects Batman to escape, no matter what ridiculous death trap he’s put in. But the Joker was faced with the unthinkable when it seemed like he actually killed Batman with a bomb. Initially, the Joker was overjoyed, but he quickly realized that without Batman, crime has no punchline. Because of this, the Joker immediately gave up his life of crime and assumed the identity of Joseph Kerr.

Joseph began work at a respectable job, and he even managed to find a love interest. Unfortunately, this new status quo didn’t last, and when Batman was seen alive again, the Joker’s personality resurfaced, destroying Joseph’s life. It’s unclear how long he would’ve remained in hiding, as Joseph Kerr isn’t a particularly good alias.


8 Jack Napier Is the Joker’s Most Accepted “Real” Name

Batman: White Knight #1 by Sean Murphy, Matt Hollingsworth, and Todd Klein

Jack Napier is by far the most accepted name of the Joker. In Tim Burton’s Batman, the Joker was reworked into being responsible for the Thomas and Martha Wayne murders, and he was given the name “Jack Napier,” which is now widely regarded to be the Joker’s true name. Even if his last name isn’t Napier, Jack is often used as his first name. The Jack Napier name is used in Sean Murphy’s Batman: White Knight, where the Joker is actually cured of his insanity by Batman during a brutal attack.

Once cured of his madness, the Joker’s persona subsides, and Jack takes control. Readers get their first long-lasting look at what a sane version of the Joker would truly be. While previous stories such as Going Sane touched on this possibility, none explored it as much as Murphy’s interpretation of Jack Napier.


7 Jack Oswald White Is Another “Official” Joker Name

Flashpoint Beyond #5 by Geoff Johns, Tim Sheridan, Jeremy Adams, Xermánico, Mikel Janín, Jordie Bellaire, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Rob Leigh

Martha Wayne Reveals The Jokers True Name

The Flashpoint universe is one of the darkest worlds in the DC Multiverse. Instead of Bruce Wayne becoming Batman, it was Thomas Wayne, and Martha Wayne became the Joker. In this world, Joe Chill killed Bruce in Crime Alley during that fateful night, leading to a much darker world in general. The fight between this Batman – Thomas – and the Joker – Martha – was absolutely brutal. Eventually, both characters realized that the Flashpoint timeline wasn’t meant to exist.


Curious as to who was supposed to be the Joker instead of her, Martha used this knowledge to track down the man who would’ve been the Joker had Bruce survived instead. Martha reveals that this man’s name is none other than Jack Oswald White, and he lives with his family and works a menial job, very similar to the backstory told in Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s The Killing Joke.

6 Johanne Kaiser Was Joker’s Identity In A Nightmare World

Knight Terrors: The Joker #1 by Matthew Rosenberg, Stefano Raffaele, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Tom Napolitano

Joker Working At Wayne Enterprises As Johann Kaiser


During the events of the line-wide crossover Knight Terrors, every character was trapped in a world of their worst nightmare. The Joker’s “Knight Terror” was specifically the idea of him accidentally killing Batman. Without Batman, the Joker became completely demotivated to commit crime and ultimately ended up getting a job at Wayne Enterprises under the name of Johann Kaiser. No one recognized that he was the Joker, mostly due to the absurd dream logic of nightmares.

As far as names go, Johann Kaiser is a much stronger alias than his previous “Jack” names. It still wouldn’t be too hard for a world-class detective to guess that Johann Kaiser is just the Joker, but it wouldn’t be anyone’s first thought either.

5 Red Hood Was a Truly Great Joker Disguise

Detective Comics #168 by Bill Finger, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Win Mortimer, and George Roussos


Red Hood is mostly known today for being the alias of Jason Todd, but originally, the Red Hood was none other than the Joker, and no one saw this change in name coming. In Detective Comics #168, Batman recounts the one criminal who got away from him by diving into a vat of acid. He eventually comes to learn the identity of this criminal: the Joker. After Batman had been fighting the Joker for years, he only discovered this link by pure chance.

After the Red Hood launches an attack on a school where Batman was giving a lecture, Batman finally unmasks him and discovers it to be the school gardner who had defeated the true Red Hood and locked him in a tool shed. When Batman freed the man, he discovered it was none other than the Joker. This alias was great because there’s really no connection between the Joker and the Red Hood moniker.

4 Oberon Sexton Was One of the Joker’s Most Successful Aliases

Batman and Robin #13 by Grant Morrison, Frazer Irving, and Pat Brosseau

The Joker Secret Identity Gravedigger Batman


The Joker used the Oberon Sexton alias to great success. Originally a British novelist who specialized in true crime, Sexton eventually decided to stage the ultimate true crime by murdering his wife. He intended to turn this into a story, but was promptly murdered by the Joker almost immediately after. The Joker then stole his identity and returned to Gotham City. This disguise, partly due to it being an actual person, was so good that the Joker was capable of working directly with Batman and Robin.

The Joker didn’t use this identity much, almost immediately shedding it after this particular story, but it was by far one of the greatest he’s had. Being able to work directly with Batman and Robin requires a lot more than just a simple name change.

3 Mr. Grimaldi Was a Bizarre Name Choice

Batman #144 by Chip Zdarsky, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Andrea Sorrentino, Stefano Nesi, Dave Stewart, Alejandro Sánchez, and Clayton Cowles

The Joker Assumes The Alias Of Mr. Grimaldi


When the Joker was first starting out, he hadn’t really made a name for himself yet. One of the earliest aliases used by him was Mr. Grimaldi, taking the name from Joseph Grimaldi, a 17th century English performer who often took on the role of a clown. The Joker clearly took inspiration from this backstory, as he borrowed the name during one of his first ever criminal acts, as detailed in The Joker: Year One.

This alias is odd, because on the surface, Mr. Grimaldi doesn’t immediately ring any alarms about being related to the Joker. But on the other hand, he only ever used this alias while literally dressed up in a full clown suit. The only reason the Joker managed to get away with this one is that no one knew who he was yet. Overall, this alias could go either way, but due to lack of use, it’s one of his better ones.


2 Darwin Halliday’s Red Mask Was Almost the Perfect Disguise

Batman #131 by Chip Zdarsky, Mike Hawthorne, Adriano Di Benedetto, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles

Darwin Halliday has absolutely no resemblance to the Joker whatsoever. It’s nearly a perfect alias. While Batman was trapped in another universe, he discovered that certain characters were inherently changed, and some were outright missing. One of the biggest absences was the Joker, who was evidently nowhere to be found. Instead, a new person was running Gotham, someone Batman had never seen before: the criminal Red Mask.


Batman had no idea who Red Mask was, but the very first time he got even a glance at Darwin Halliday, he instantly knew that he was the Joker. That mystery makes this one of the Joker’s best aliases. Even though the name has no relation to the Joker at all, seeing Darwin was all Batman needed to know exactly who he was on the inside.

1 Eric Border Was the Perfect Joker Alias

Batman #36 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, FCO Plascencia, and Steve Wands

Eric Border Reveals Hismelf As The Joker

After the events of Death of the Family from the New 52 Batman run, the Joker vanished from Gotham City – or so everyone thought. In reality, the Joker had simply taken up residence at Arkham Asylum, posing as the orderly known as Eric Border. The Joker interacted with Batman several times as Border, holding full conversations with him, and Batman never suspected a thing. The Joker went through great effort to hide his identity, using muscle relaxers and even changing the pigmentation of his skin through chemicals.


It’s not like the Joker didn’t leave any clues either, as he eventually revealed the origin of the name Eric Border and showed that the clues were all there. But the unassuming name combined with all the effort the Joker put into his appearance means that Batman simply never caught on. Of all his alternate names over the years, Eric Border is most definitely the Joker’s greatest.

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