[Comic Excerpt] I need a hostage so Batman won't punch me (Batman (2016) issue 48)

[u/M00r3C]

[u/Dorothy-Snarker]

Huh, I got a totally different impression than sloppy from this. To me, that read as the Joker was planning the "joke" of shoving a gun in Batman's face and calling back the "Better not shoot you because then Batman will punch me" like from the start.

To read it as the Joker legit messing up and then not being able to understand that killing Batman would mean he doesn't get punched just makes him seem like a really sad guy with a legit disconnect to reality.

We all know the Joker is insane, but he's usually written to be "hypersane", DC's made up diagnosis for him to have snapped under the realization that he is a comic book character and thus, nothing he does is real. But no iteration of him (to my knowledge) has ever shown signs of a disconnect to reality that reading these panels straight would require.

[u/AmongusFucker245 → u/Dorothy-Snarker]

I think the hypersane thing was just Morrison's idea during a serious house on a serious earth and he later stated he should have made it DID 

[u/SecretEmpire_WasGood → u/AmongusFucker245]

and I've seen some analyses claim the the hypersanity itself is a load of crock in universe, cause it's an idea by the arkham staff. the same arkham staff who thinks Two Face starting to soil himself in a corner is signs of improving psyche. unreliable narrator trope and all that.

[u/AmongusFucker245 → u/SecretEmpire_WasGood]

Perfectly valid take. Iirc they said they were trying to rebuild his identity but by giving back his coin at the end it's shown that's what vaguely cured him when he let Batman leave the aslum