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That's not quite correct (avid comic reader here)
The most universally accepted origin story for Joker is he was married and had to keep taking on more jobs to support his wife. He was working at a chemical factory and quit in order to become a comedian. His wife dies in an accident. He agrees to assist 2 thugs to break into the chemical factory he used to work at. They are killed in a shoot out, Joker falls into a vat of chemicals and emerges as the joker.
I have never heard of any origin where his face was disfigured by an antidepressant. While the origin occasionally varies, his creation into the Joker is almost always cited as caused by falling into chemicals.
The second arc of Batman Confidential (#7-12) re-imagines the Joker as a gifted criminal and abandons the Red Hood identity, also called Jack, who is nearly suicidal due to boredom with his "job". He talks to a waitress, Harleen Quinzel, who convinces him to find something to live for. Jack becomes obsessed with Batman after he breaks up one of his jobs, leading Jack to attract Batman's attention at a ball. Jack injures Lorna Shore (whom Bruce Wayne is dating), leading Batman to disfigure his face with a batarang. Jack escapes and Batman gives Jack's information to mobsters, who torture Jack in a chemical plant. Jack kills several of his assailants after escaping, but falls into an empty vat as wild gunfire punctures the chemical tanks above him, and the resultant flood of antidepressant chemicals alters his appearance to that of a clown, completing his transformation into the Joker.[
Batman #16 (April-May 1943) “The Joker Reforms!”
Don Cameron and Ruth “Bunny” Lyons Kaufman (w), Bob Kane (p), Jerry Robinson (i)
First Alfred
Collected in Batman: The Dark Knight Archives Vol. 4 HC (2003), and Batman Chronicles Vol. 9 TPB (2010)
Joker and his men escape Gotham after stealing a fortune in jewels. The plane crashes and Joker goes down with the plane after his men parachute to safety. From the crash, Joker gets amnesia, he finds the jewels and turns them over to the police claiming to be Ed Smith. Batman and Robin trail Joker , learn of his amnesia and play along. Joker’s henchen try to attack Batman, but Joker helps the Crusaders proving he’s honest. Joker eventually remembers where the rest of his loot is hidden. He intends to turn it over to the police, but his henchmen jump him. Batman and Robin save him, but a blow to the head resotres the Joker’s memory. Batman arrests the Joker and his henchment and recovers the stolen loot.
The one thing that did strike me, comparison wise, between the fictional Joker in the comics, and the shootings, was that Joker would often cause a huge catastrophe in order to divert police and rescue to that event, while his real crime would be taking place in another part of Gotham.
Which it seems like may have been the case with rigging his apt to blow up. If the apt had blown up before the shootings, police and fire would be busy there when the shootings started at theater across town
Very little is known about the Joker's history prior to choosing a life of crime, other than he was a poor man. His original birth name was never revealed.
Finding honest work unfulfilling of his personal ambitions, he turned to crime to amass a personal fortune for himself. He first gained attention in early 1940 when he was operating as a masked professional criminal leader known as the Red Hood. The Red Hood and his men attempted to rob a profitable manufacturing business adjacent to a chemical processing plant. Batman and Robin arrived on the scene and the Red Hood abandoned his henchmen, seeking to escape by running through the chemical plant. Batman and Robin cornered him on a catwalk and the Red Hood was left with little choice but to dive off the catwalk into a large vat of steaming chemicals. According on one printing of the Joker's origin [1], the chemicals were the inks used to make playing cards. The chemical factory was listed as the "Monarch Card company", which would prove to be prophetic in the criminal's own development. Batman and Robin naturally assumed that their adversary died being exposed to the heated toxic chemicals. The Red Hood actually survived the chemical bath and managed to escape through a drainage pipe that emptied out into the river. However when he emerged from the waste pipes, he discovered that the chemicals turned his hair green, his skin chalk-white and his lips rouge red. Driven partially insane from the experience, the criminal decided to pattern himself after the playing cards Joker character that the chemicals were used to create.
I'm looking up Joker Amnesia stories, as I thought I recalled one from childhood. I'm still looking but here is one:
http://www.jokeruniverse.com/?page_id=409
Then there is this, not sure what it is:
http://m.fanfiction.net/s/3192799/1/
I'm getting sidetracked... Batman has had amnesia, rescued other with amnesia, more characters had amnesia, villains had amnesia gas... ETA: I have concluded amnesia is in a LOT of Batman stuff.
Joker originally known as Redhood:
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Joker_(Earth-Two)
It can get a little confusing, for example that's the "earth two" joker. They do a lot with alternative universes in comics. So there can be two totally different Jokers depending on the universe it's occurring in, if that makes any sense.
Earth 2 Joker is the Golden Age Joker
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Joker_(New_Earth)
New Earth Joker is the modern Joker
Here's a link to all the different Jokers from different Universes/Multiverses/Storylines
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Joker
Here's the YouTube of the nurse part for those who haven't seen it. I think it starts about the 50 second mark.
http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=/&gl=US#/watch?v=ZRG1tWQN6e8
Eta....it's pretty eerie when he says " look what I did to this city with a few drums of gas and a few bullets"
so as we all know now, Joker's hair is GREEN , but he got orange-red that looks more like Ronald Mcdonald. Any good interpretation out there?