Joker Is About to Reclaim His Long-Lost Son - DC Theory Explained
Long before the prophecies hinted at in Flashpoint Beyond were introduced, Geoff Johns teased The Joker finding his long-lost son years ago.
Warning: Spoilers for Flashpoint Beyond #0
DC Comics has done a crafty job of concealing the identity of Batman's enemy, The Joker so much so that it's possible he has a long lost son who's still alive. To their credit, they have maintained the mystery surrounding the origins of someone created 82 years ago and continue to maintain that mystery 82 years later. The closest that audiences get to a true origin story is The Killing Joke, where The Joker is portrayed as someone who was a loving husband and father-to-be before embarking on a life of crime. Even then, that origin is constantly disputed as it was made complicated by The Joker being an unreliable narrator.
That same origin is further complicated by Geoff Johns, Jason Fabok, and Brad Anderson's Batman: Three Jokers, in which Batman stumbles onto the conspiracy that the agent of Gotham's chaos has always been orchestrated by not one, not two, but three versions of The Joker all at once. Things are especially complicated for Batman and co. considering that even if they find the original, none of them can identify him by his name. At least that's the impression that Batman gives. Three Jokers ends on the surprising note that Batman has known Joker's real name since the week after they first met. However, he refuses to ever disclose it because, prior to his life of crime, Joker was abusive to his pregnant wife. She escaped with their child into a witness protection program, leaving Joker to believe she died in an accident. Batman knows that revealing Joker's identity puts a spotlight on her, putting him back on his wife's trail.
Fast forward to Flashpoint Beyond #0 by Geoff Johns and Eduardo Risso, where its opening pages reveal Batman investigating a chalkboard left behind by the Time Masters showcasing a slew of upcoming events. One of the ominous phrases on the board read as follows, "Beware: He'll find his son. Do not interfere." All things considered, this very well could be alluding to Batman's fear that The Joker could find his wife and child.
For anyone believing that it's a stretch to assume that this prophecy points to The Joker, keep in mind that the same writer behind Flashpoint Beyond is the same writer who wrote Three Jokers. It's entirely plausible to consider that Geoff Johns could pick back up where he left off in the previous ending, just as it's plausible for Three Jokers to officially be considered canon in the wake of Infinite Frontier and all of the timelines amalgamating.
Perhaps the part of the message that deserves more attention than even the Joker connection is, "Do not interfere." Whatever is bound to happen in the future, why must it demand no interference? What is it about this father-son reunion that has such major ramifications on the future that there can't be interference? Keeping in mind that this could allude to The Joker finding his son, it's easy to understand why that may be a bad thing, hence the "beware," but if it spells impending doom, why shouldn't someone like Batman interfere? Fans will just have to wait and see what happens next.