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Much like the plot of The Mystery Men, does Batman at any point in the comics let the Joker "escape" from Arkham Asylum?

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  • Are you referring to any specific occasion/story arc/event/movie/series/video game? Oct 28, 2014 at 10:14
  • Anything really, in the question I limited it to comics. I was just wondering if has been considered at all. So if it ws part of a video game then mention in in the answer. Oct 28, 2014 at 10:23
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    This happened during Batman's short-lived 'be a total dick to the populace I'm supposed to be protecting' phase. He followed it up by announcing sponsorship deals with Pepsi and Levi-Strauss, then ended it by revealing himself to be Greg Kinnear. Oct 28, 2014 at 10:28
  • I added a link to mystery men to clarify the question.
    – Kreann
    Oct 28, 2014 at 16:42
  • I read an official marvel comic where Batman visits Arkham, and after seeing treatment of criminals there, frees them. I don't recall if Joker was in the group. I don't remember it's name. One thing that happened with the comic was that the doctors tried to treat two-face by taking away his coind and introducing him to a d6, to have him be able to do more morally complex analysis. And later planned to introduce him to a 52-deck of cards.
    – VienLa
    Sep 9, 2021 at 7:22

2 Answers 2

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Batman considers the Joker extremely dangerous so he may need a powerful reason to consider that it might be beneficial to bring him out of Arkham, and since the Joker is so unpredictable and dangerous, this hasn't happened in comics. Actually, when Batman has needed to talk directly to the Joker, he has been able to even sneak in his cell. We have examples of this from The Killing Joke to Batman RIP.

At the beginning of the court of Owls story, we actually see Batman at Arkham, fighting along side by side with the Joker. Eventually we learn that he freed him

uno

but also

that that joker was actually Dick Grayson in disguise, trying to gather info from inside Arkham.

dos

So the answer is "Batman has never voluntarily freed the Joker from Arkham", much less just to create a need for himself, as in the example proposed in the question. Actually leaving him there is the only thing he can do, except for killing him, to stop him.

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Almost

During the Justice League of Arkham issues as part of the Justice Leagues storyline, Batman breaks a number of his enemies out of prison the create his own interpretation of "Justice League of A", and stop an attack on Gotham. He frees Riddler, Ivy, and Ventriloquist from Arkham. But for some reason, Joker was in The Slab, instead of Arkham. But yes, Batman does break him out of there.

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