Evil clowns are nothing new. Horror and comics alike have been dining out on painted smiles and dead eyes for decades. Stephen King’s Pennywise is the gold standard of creatures that are so disturbing that they have permanently reconfigured the way generations perceive circuses, balloons, and sewer grates.
That mythology is becoming even darker and more complicated with ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’. And yet, somehow, DC Comics has added a Joker that is even more disturbing, not because he is louder, bloodier, or more grotesque, but because he does not have any clear rules.
Pennywise Terrified A Town, DC’s New Joker Controls The World
The Absolute Batman #15 by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta introduces a radically reimagined Joker to the Absolute Universe. This is a character called Jack Grimm. At first glance, he feels familiar, another nightmare clown lurking behind society’s rot. However, the more you observe, the more obvious it becomes that this Joker is not only inspired by Pennywise. He is what Pennywise could be if nothing could stop him.
Related: ‘Clayface’ Set Photos Confirm Joker Exists In James Gunn’s DCU
‘Welcome to Derry’ has succeeded in redefining Pennywise as something much older and weirder than a monster that devours children. The show goes heavy on what Stephen King always hinted at: Pennywise is a mask. A shape chosen because it disarms children, simplifies fear, and makes feeding easier. The show validates long-held assumptions. Pennywise isn’t random chaos.
He’s a predator with a routine. And that’s the key point. Pennywise feeds every 27 years. He hibernates. He stalks specific prey. And he lives on faith, fear, and illusion. Crucially, he can be weakened. The Losers Club did not beat him with brute force, but with understanding, by making him small and not perceiving him as all-powerful.
It is that weakness that makes Pennywise tragic rather than terrifying. He is chained. He must sleep. And he must hunt carefully. He is forced to follow a cosmic food chain. Fear gives him strength, but sanity kills him. Such a construction provides Pennywise with narrative grace, and it also makes him survivable. That is precisely why the new DCU Joker is even worse.
Absolute Joker Isn’t A Monster In The Dark, He’s The System
Jack Grimm, the Absolute Universe’s Joker, is not waiting in sewers or feeding cycles. He’s everywhere. He always has been. When Pennywise crash-landed on Earth and claimed Derry as his feeding ground, Grimm built himself into civilization. His darkness started at an early age when he was a child doing evil clown acts on the streets. However, rather than being killed or shunned, he was learned. He adapted. He profited.
In case you missed it: DC Finally Explains The Childhood That Twisted The Joker Forever
Decades pass. Then decades more. Grimm does not merely live unnaturally long; he prospers. His long life seems to be supported by a hideous mixture of black science, supernatural intervention, and something deeply disturbing involving infants. One can see some traces of a demonic deal, yet there are also indications that this Joker does not depend on a single source of power. When one system fails, it is replaced by another. This is what makes him scary: he is redundant.
Grimm does not only target children as Pennywise does. Everyone is prey. Politicians. Billionaires. Criminals. Entire populations. He possesses islands, physical hunting grounds, where victims are played with, devoured, or changed. His wealth insulates him, and his influence shields him. And when he finally sheds the human mask? What comes out is not merely a clown demon, but more of an eldritch apex predator. It has rows of teeth, twisted flesh, basically, a living embodiment of consumption and despair.
The parallels between Pennywise and the real world are quite clear. This Joker does not have to want to harm you. He doesn’t need fear to exist. And he does not fade away when neglected. That essentially alters the equation. Batman is unable to outwit him through re-framing reality. He cannot starve him by refusing to pay attention to him. This Joker is not supported by fear alone; he is supported by systems. You can survive a monster. But how do you fight something that created the world you are in?
