It was an event that rippled throughout the Justice League like a boulder dropped into a small pond. A tragedy so dreadful and unthinkable that most refused to believe it. Soon enough, however, the reality had set in, and there was nothing anyone could do to deny it. The second Robin, Jason Todd, had been killed at the hands of the Joker.
Next to only Batman himself, no one was taken aback by the loss more than Wonder Woman. She had known the boy. She had fought alongside him and his mentor many times. He was a remarkable child with the heart of a warrior. The thought of Jason's final moments sickened her deeply. The fear he must have felt, the pain he endured, and at such a young age. When thinking of the monster who would do such a thing, Diana wanted nothing more than to hear the sound of the clown's skull crushing between her hands.
Wonder Woman had not taken much issue with the way Batman had chosen to deal with his adversaries. After all, she was not beyond compassion. Many of them were severely broken people trying to make sense of a severely broken world. But not him, never the Joker. He was an irredeemable blight, a sick animal in need of being put down. This Diana was sure of after his attack on the Gordans, which left Baraba Gordan paralyzed for life. After Jason's death, the death of his surrogate son, she was certain that Bruce would see justice done and avenge his fallen soldier. However, she would be left disappointed.
Upon hearing that the Joker had been captured and transferred back to Arkham Asylum, Diana was set into a blind rage. So much so that, before she knew it, she was standing in Bruce's study, having blown the doors off their hinges with the strength of a mighty wind. "Why?" she snarled through gritted teeth.
"Diana, please." Bruce rose from his desk. His faithful butler, Alfred Pennyworth, rushed into the room.
"Master Bruce!" Alfred exclaimed. "Are you-"
"I'm fine, Alfred. I'll handle this." Alfred took his cue and left the two of them to settle their grievances.
"You'll handle this?" Diana scoffed. "Like you handled the clown?"
"Diana, you don't understand."
"You found him; you had him at your mercy," she spat venomously. "And you simply locked him away?"
"I did all I could do," countered Bruce.
"You know he will escape again! More lives will be lost, and the cycle will continue. How long are you going to fool yourself into thinking anything otherwise? How long are you going to allow?"
"I'm not having this debate with you, Diana. This isn't Themyscira. There are rules. There are laws that separate us from them."
"How dare you?" Diana lashed out. "You speak to me of law as if I were a mindless brute! As if I do not seek every opportunity for peace when it is to be found!" She attempted to regain her composure. "I understand fine, Bruce. I understand why you let so many of them live. I not only understand it, I also admire it. But the Joker? When will you realize that some people cannot be saved? There is a time for peace and a time for war. A time for mercy and a time for wrath."
"Maybe so, but when that time comes, it is not for me to decide. I fight for justice, Diana. Not for something as selfish as revenge."
"I do not speak of vengeance, Bruce, but of justice for those who are destined to die as long as the clown is allowed to live. Tell me, which is more selfish? Killing the Joker and putting an end to his evil once and for all, or doing nothing and protecting your sense of moral superiority?" Bruce took a moment to contemplate her ultimatum. "If you don't put a stop to this now," Diana remarked, breaking the silence with a damning accusation, "the blood of every life that monster takes is on your hands as much as it's on his."
"Then," he finally replied, "then that's just my cross to bear."
With that final remark, Diana realized there was no getting through to him. It was impossible to break through the shell of self-righteousness that he called "a code." She flew off, knowing then and there what it was she had to do. If Bruce wasn't going to deliver the final sentence, then she would. For Jason, for Barbara, and for every life that supposed man had ruined. It was as she said. There was a time for mercy and a time for wrath, and she was determined to make the Joker taste the wrath of the Amazons.
With respect to Bruce, what little she had for him at the moment, she waited till the Joker had escaped before making her move. Then it was a matter of hunting him down. He wasn't difficult to find, but then again, he never really was. After all, if he hid too well, how would it start? It's the sick game of life and death that keeps him going. He found a twisted sense of drama in it. The Clown Prince of Crime versus the Dark Knight Detective. The suffering of countless people, all for a good laugh.
Yes, the Joker wanted to be found, but on that night he would play to a different audience. One who had no interest in fueling his sick obsession. As Wonder Woman gazed upon the rundown, shithole of a building the Joker had made his new home, she had only one thought on her mind: Retribution. Diana was there for her pound of flesh, and come hell or high water, she was going to get it.
She burst into the Joker's hideout to find him and six of his men gathered around listening to the maniac's latest scheme. A look of gleeful surprise spread across the clown's wicked face. "Wow!" The Joker jeered. "And I thought Jehovah's witnesses were pushy!"
"I am here for the clown." Diana proclaimed, ignoring the Joker's prattling, "I advise the rest of you to scurry back to whatever hole it was you crawled out of, lest you leave here needing to be fed through a feeding tube." The Joker's men rushed out of sight, realizing whatever was about to happen was well above their pay grade. Then it was just the two of them—the clown and the Amazon.
"Oh, c'mon guys! What's the matter? Afraid you'll catch cooties?" The Joker laughed. "Good help really is impossible to get." Wonder Woman cut the Joker off with a punch to the jaw, which sent him barreling to the ground. Before he could even hope to recover, Diana lifted the frazzled psychopath into the air and threw him into a nearby wall. Upon impact, the Joker slumped to the ground. "Has anyone ever told you...?" the Joker giggled, spitting out a couple broken teeth. "Has anyone ever told you that you throw like a girl?"
The Joker laughed wildly. Diana grabbed him by the throat and slammed his back against the wall. As she squeezed the clown's Adam's apple in the palm of one hand, her other hand careened to the Joker's rib cage in the form of a closed fist. After breaking a few of his ribs, Diana paused to examine the villain closely.
"Funny," she mused, tightening her grip around his neck. "All the pain and suffering you've brought into this world and killing you would've been as simple as stepping on a bug. I expected more."
"Well, if that's how you feel, Wondy," The Joker laughed a strained, garbled laugh. Blood was now gushing from his mouth. "Ask, and you shall receive!" With that, a blast of acid emitted from the Joker's lapel flower. Wonder Woman recoiled from the attack, but was more caught off guard than anything. She released the Joker from her grasp, and he again fell to the ground. He started to crawl away, all the while coughing wetly and gasping for air. Before he could get anywhere, Diana landed a drop kick directly onto the Joker's spine, stopping him in his tracks.
The Joker turned over, writhing in pain. "You know, my dear, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Why don't we start over?" The madman extended his hand. "Truce?" Wonder Woman turned his hand over, revealing that the Joker was wearing one of his lethal joy-buzzers. Diana's brow furrowed, and the clown began to chuckle nervously. "Heh heh. You can't blame a guy for trying, right?" With a quick twist, Diana broke the Joker's wrist. He let out a scream, which turned into a deranged cackle.
"No more games." Diana pinned the Joker down with her knee and said, "I'm going to do what Batman should have done years ago. I can only hope that in these short moments I put you through a fraction of the pain you've inflicted on so many others."
"You know," The Joker snickered. "This whole situation kind of reminds me of a joke. See, there's this guy, and he was going home to see his wife. When he got there-" Diana drove her knee hard into the Joker's chest, knocking the wind out of him. "Okay, okay," gasped the clown. "So you're not in the mood? Fair! Why don't we just call it a day, then? You can toss me into that invisible plane of yours and kick my sorry keister back to Arkham! I won't even put up a fight! Whaddya say?" Wonder Woman said nothing in response, and the demented comedian quickly realized that none of his material was landing.
That's when the Joker's broken smile contorted into a truly hellish grin. "Oh, you are adorable! You actually think you're going to do it, don't you?" The clown prince mockingly goaded. "You're just like him! You'll throw me around a bit, rough me up, and take me right to the edge! Oh, but you'd dare not cross it!" The Joker looked up at Wonder Woman's face, hoping to find a crack in her intimidating facade, but there was none. "Besides, if you did, I don't think your super friends would like you anymore. They might not let you back into their little clubhouse."
"Maybe, maybe not," Wonder Woman smirked, at last responding to the Joker's taunts, "but either way, you'll never know." That's when Diana mercilessly began pummeling the clown's face in. Over and over, blow after blow. Her strikes started to land with a wet thud. With every broken tooth and every crack of bone, Diana's ferocity only intensified. She forgot how much she missed the feeling of her enemy's warm blood coating her fists and splattering against her armor. She forgot how much she missed hearing evil-doers scream, only to be drowned out by the sound of their breaking bones. She forgot how much she missed being a warrior.
The Joker's face was little more than a mangled mess of red, white, and green. Satisfied with her work, Diana lifted the broken clown to his feet. She wrapped one arm tightly around his neck and placed her hand behind his head. Even then, she could hear the faint sound of laughter. "You still think that you're walking away from this," Diana growled. "You still think there's a warm room at the asylum waiting for you. Soon you'll be waking up in a body cast, left to heal, and starting all over again. That's how it's always been and always will be. Except this time, something is different. Something you still don't understand." She leaned in close and whispered into the Joker's ear, "I'm not Batman."
When he registered those words and the gravity that came with them, the clown's eyes widened, and what was left of his smile vanished from his face. Then, without hesitation, Wonder Woman snapped the Joker's neck. She dropped his lifeless body, which hit the ground with a loud thump. Blood and drool foamed out of his gaping mouth. Diana exhaled deeply. It's done.
Wonder Woman then exited the building and flew off once again into the night, leaving the Joker's mangled corpse in a dumpster to be fed upon by any stray animals that may come across it. She soared through the starry night with a sense of resolve. She knew there would be questions tomorrow. Someone would come across whatever was left of the clown, and there would be debate. If anyone were to find out Diana was behind the killing, many would see her actions as justifiable, but others whom she respected greatly would not. The Joker was right so far that they may never look at her the same way again. This she surely knew.
However, none of that mattered. When she thought of Jason, when she thought of Barbara, and when she thought of the countless innocents who would have no doubt lost their lives to the Joker's barbarity, she was at peace. Justice had been served and the Joker was dead, Diana thought to herself, and that was all that mattered.