DC Writer Responds to Joker Pregnancy Controversy

DC writer Matthew Rosenberg is addressing the recent controversy about his comic book storyline, which features The Joker becoming pregnant! 

In a post to his Sustack titled “Chapter 90: I guess we have to talk about it.” Rosenberg writes in part that, “If you don’t get your news from the ‘here’s what to be angry about’ people you may have missed this. But certain corners of the world are quite mad that the new issue of THE JOKER: THE MAN WHO STOPPED LAUGHING makes the Joker trans and then they become pregnant and give birth…Only, slight problem, none of that actually happens in the comic.”

MORE: Matthew Rosenberg Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing FULL INTERVIEW

How Did The Joker Become Pregnant? Explained

The new DC comic series The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing is a mystery series that centers around two different versions of Joker (the sadistic killer and flamboyant crime boss) operating in both Gotham City and Los Angeles at the same time. The comic also comes with a backup storyline by  Matthew Rosenberg, Francesco Francavilla, and Tom Napolitano, which is drawn in classic “Silver Age” DC Comics style, and features a retro Joker trying to pull off a scheme to steal the water from the Gotham River. In issue #4 of the series, DC’s heroine magician Zatanna shows up to thwart Joker’s scheme, but the hero and villain weirdly hit it off, and Zatanna uses her backwards-speak magic to cast a spell that literally states to Joker that “No one else will ever have your baby!” 

Well… magic is a tricky thing. While Zatanna may have meant to permanently reserve her spot as Joker’s future baby-mama, what ends up happening is that the spell makes Joker the sole person who can carry his own baby. It’s far from a typical pregnancy or birth: Joker gives birth to a mud-baby from his mouth, who turns out to be a piece of Batman villain Clayface. That mud-baby eventually transforms into a smaller version of Joker himself, and they become a demented family.  

It’s magic, in a comic book. What else is there to say? 

Matthew Rosenberg Responds to Joker Pregnancy Controversy

Here’s a longer portion of the  response from Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing writer Matthew Rosenberg:

 If you don’t get your news from the “here’s what to be angry about” people you may have missed this. But certain corners of the world are quite mad that the new issue of THE JOKER: THE MAN WHO STOPPED LAUGHING makes the Joker trans and then they become pregnant and give birth. How could we?! Think of the children!!

Only, slight problem, none of that actually happens in the comic. That didn’t stop Fox News, The NY Post, Channel 1 Russia, various internet outrage peddlers, and so many of the other sources of journalistic excellence from going all in on it this past week. This of course made social media somewhat unusable for me because things like this are Christmas for folks who like to get mad at stuff and yell at strangers. My DM’s have never been more exciting!…

I should probably explain for those of you who aren’t reading the book… The backup stories, by myself with the brilliant Francesco Francavilla on art, are made to be sort of Silver Age style fever dreams of the Joker that explore different, non-continuity explanations of how there could be multiple Jokers and other themes of the main book… In each issue the events of the previous issue aren’t discussed or acknowledged. They are, literally, silly gag strips.

Enter last week’s issue. In this issue the Joker swallows some mud, gets a curse put on him by Zatanna, and then wakes up with a distended belly. One of his henchman, who says stupid stuff every issue, comments that he might be pregnant… the Joker vomits up the mud he swallowed and our good doctor says “Guess you weren’t pregnant after all. Then the mud gets up, runs around, some people get killed, and it ends up that the mud is actually the supervillain Clayface, or a piece of him at least… we jump forward in time and the magical vomit-mud monster now changes shape to resemble a tiny version of the Joker, and the Joker refers to him as “my son.” End issue. And while I obviously was already writing my awards acceptance speech for this 8 page opus, apparently some folks got big mad.

As you might have picked up from my summary, this isn’t an allegory, a metaphor, or social commentary. It’s a joke. I will say, so this doesn’t come off as some sort of backpedalling, I believe Trans rights are Human rights. I have fundraised and donated multiple times to orgs like TRANS LIFELINE, THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR TRANS EQUALITY, and THE TREVOR PROJECT that do incredible work to promote trans rights and protect trans lives… With that said, it has nothing to do with this story. This is a story about magical food poisoning.

Now I understand the folks at Fox News and the Post might look up to the Joker and see his an aspirational figure. Yes, he once grew enormous and ate all the people in China with a giant pair of chopsticks, but I guess they can look the other way on that…Either way, thanks for promoting our book. I’ve heard from a lot of retailers that it’s selling out. We appreciate it.

To that end: Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing is on sale from DC.