The Joker Is Pregnant In DC Comics

In one of the most eye-catching, intriguing swerves in recent DC Comics memory, the Joker has just given birth to a son.

Released yesterday, the fourth issue of Matthew Rosenberg and Carmine Di Giandomenico's The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing sees the Clown Prince of Crime become pregnant, before then later giving birth to this child.

To be fair, the tagline for this series did promise that the Joker would be embarking on his "most bizarre caper yet", and the backup story for this latest issue - titled Knocked Upside Down! - certainly seems to live up to that promise.

In terms of how this happened, Zatanna is the key factor in all of this. After the Joker tried to convince Z to start a family with him, the magical hero cast a spell that was intended to stop anyone from ever having the Joker's baby. When this spell got a little lost in translation, the end result was that the Harlequin of Hate would have his own baby.

Waking up to discover he's pregnant, the Joker is examined by fellow rogue Doctor Phosphorus. After a few back-and-forths between these villains - not to mention the realisation that nobody knows exactly where the Joker's baby will come from - the Jester of Genocide begins vomiting up a brown substance.

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From here, said brown substance moulds itself into the shape of a child which soon starts to look like a younger version of the Joker. In typical Joker fashion, the pair look at each other and ponder how "handsome" they each are.

Moving forward, this revelation obviously throws up a whole bunch of questions. Will this mini-Joker be a permanent arrangement in DC Comics? Could we see a team-up with Duela Dent, aka the unrelated rogue known as Joker's Daughter? How will Zatanna react to being viewed as the mother to the Joker's offspring?

Likely the biggest question, mind, is whether this will simply all be forgotten by The Man Who Stopped Laughing #5, especially as the Knocked Upside Down! tale concludes with a classic "The End" message.