The Joker is easily one of the most iconic comic book villains ever, so it’s no secret that there would be some rip-off characters trying to capture the essence of what makes the Joker so popular, and Marvel secretly admitted that one MCU character is seemingly guilty of this very thing.
The Joker made his first appearance in 1940’s Batman #1, and since then, his character has remained relatively intact from that initial depiction. Sure, the Joker has changed a few times with the passing comic book ages (with the Silver Age Joker being the most dramatic), but for the most part, he has always been a criminal who enjoys killing and who fights Batman on a fairly regular basis. Most of all, though, the Joker is a cackling maniac with almost no redeeming qualities. Plus, the aesthetic of the Joker is just as iconic as his personality, with a giant grin to match his mania, and a green and purple color scheme that has been associated with the character since the ‘40s. These traits, characteristics, and designs are what make the Joker ‘the Joker’, and one MCU villain made those his own long before being featured in Spider-Man: No Way Home: the Green Goblin.
Green Goblin is a Joker Rip-Off, & Two-Face Proves it
In Speed Demon #1 by Howard Mackie, James Felder, Salvador Larroca, and Al Milgrom, readers are shown exactly what became of Ghost Rider and the Flash upon the creation of the Amalgam Universe when the worlds and characters of DC and Marvel were merged into one. However, Ghost Rider and the Flash (who were merged into the titular Speed Demon) weren’t the only character-amalgamations of note. One of the antagonists in this comic was the Green Goblin, who was actually named the Green Goblin despite being the fusion of Norman Osborn and Harvey Dent aka Two-Face. Rather than becoming a unique character within this new universe–like, Speed Demon, for instance–Two-Face and the Green Goblin just merged into the Green Goblin, with almost no changes. While the iconic disfigurement of Two-Face was present underneath the Green Goblin mask, no aspect of Two-Face’s original character was brought into this amalgamation–which is actually incredibly telling.
At this point it is no secret–at least, in the meta sense–that the Green Goblin is seemingly a rip-off of the Joker, based on their character and aesthetic alone. In fact, CBR named the Green Goblin as Marvel’s most blatant rip off of the Joker, so that idea has been firmly established within the fandom. What’s interesting here, though, is that Marvel and DC seem to admit that this is true, while simultaneously downplaying another villain, Two-Face. When he merged with Marvel, Two-Face just became the Green Goblin, who is apparently just a rip-off of the Joker. This seems to mean that Two-Face recognizes the Joker’s elite status as a comic book villain and, in an effort to have his own status raised, was perhaps subconsciously fused with and effectively became the next best thing: the Green Goblin.
It is incredibly interesting, from a comic creating standpoint, that Two-Face–who is well aware of and has worked alongside the Joker in his own universe–essentially just became the Marvel Comics version of the Clown Prince of Crime. By fusing Norman Osborn with Two-Face, then doing almost nothing to make that fusion significant, Marvel and DC basically made Two-Face all but admit that even just being a rip-off of the Joker is better than being the ‘second-class villain’ he originally was. And that makes sense because practically everything about the Green Goblin–from the psychotic mania and irredeemable villainy, all the way down to the character’s green and purple color scheme–is an apparent rip-off of the Joker, which is something fans always knew, and something Two-Face passively confirmed within the Amalgam Universe.
