How Smart Is the Joker & Is He Smarter than Batman?

Without exact numbers, intelligence is always a subjective thing that you can assess from different perspectives. You might consider a person smarter because he’s a better investigator, or because he’s a better inventor, or because of something else. The point is – it’s very difficult to give an exact evaluation. We’ve done a lot of digging to be able to tell you how smart and intelligent is Joker exactly and is he smarter than the Dark Knight.

Batman might just be a bit smarter than Joker. Despite causing much trouble for Batman, the Dark Knight has consistently foiled the Crown Prince of Crime’s plans, which is why Batman, in the end, is smarter and more intelligent than the Joker.

But, Joker’s madness makes him completely unpredictable. Let’s dive deeper into the topic and see how smart Joker exactly is, and was (when) he ever able to fool the Dark Knight.

Here’s How Smart Joker Actually Is

The question of Joker’s intelligence is a burning one among DC fans. Namely, the Clown Prince of Crime is usually described as a criminal mastermind, able to come up with the most complicated plots and plans. This is a very interesting thing to know because Joker is a complete madman, but he doesn’t let his psychopathology affect his intelligence.

Joker’s exact IQ is not known, just like Batman’s, which is why it is difficult to compare them. During the years, Joker has proven himself to be extremely intelligent and a complete match for Batman in that aspect. His plans were often quite elaborate, including a lot of manpower and diversions, as to cause as many problems as possible for the Dark Knight.

Just remember his plan to poison Gotham’s water supply from The Man Who Laughs, his kidnapping and murder of Jason Todd from “A Death in the Family”, his revenge plot from Joker, his plan to murder the Bat-family from “Death of the Family”, and his great finishing move from “Endgame”.

Other Batman villains were rarely so advanced in their planning, which is why Joker was always a feared opponent in the franchise, even among much stronger characters from other franchises, like Lex Luthor or Darkseid. Why? Simple – his madness and his extreme intelligence make him completely unpredictable, which is why most characters actually fear him.

As for Batman, he has proven himself to be the “World’s Greatest Detective”. He is also extremely intelligent, and in addition to that he has a wide knowledge in several fields, such as criminology, psychology and criminal psychology, forensic sciences and other specific fields, but he also has a good classical education, as he certainly knows much more about arts, history, politics and other similar fields than most other characters.

Although he relies heavily on his gadgets, Batman is known to have cracked difficult cases just by using his brain and his detective skills. From his point of view, he possesses a wider array of knowledge and more experience.

Joker or Batman: Who Is Smarter?

This question will probably never get a clear-cut answer that everyone is going to agree with. Joker is without a doubt one of the most intelligent supervillains in comic book history, which is what makes him so dangerous. On the other hand, Batman has proven himself to be a worthy opponent of the Clown Prince of Crime.

The Joker certainly has outsmarted Batman on several occasions, but that was usually during his schemes, since Joker had a head start of knowing his plans sooner than Batman.

But, in the end, it was Batman that came out as the victor in most cases. Joker did kill Jason Todd (but that was really the readers’ fault), but he never poisoned Gotham’s water supply, he never killed the Bat-family, nor did he Jokerize the whole city. He succeeded only when Batman was not directly involved, but when Batman actively pursued him, the Joker would up being defeated.

This is why we think Batman has a slight advantage in this aspect, although the two are pretty similar in terms of intelligence.