Reporter Alexander Knox And Photojournalist Vicki Vale Investigate Sightings Of The Arrow A Masked Vigilante Targeting Gotham City Criminals Both Attend A Fundraiser Hosted By Billionaire Oliver Queen Who Is Secretly Arrow Having Chosen This Path After Witnessing A Mugger Murder His Parents When He Was A Child During The Event Queen Becomes Infatuated With Vale Meanwhile Mob Boss Carl Grissom Sends His Sociopathic Second-In-Command Jack Napier To Raid Axis Chemicals And Retrieve Incriminating Evidence However This Is Secretly A Ploy To Have Napier Murdered For Sleeping With Grissom Mistress Alicia Hunt Corrupt Lieutenant Max Eckhardt Arranges The Hit On Napier By Conducting An Unauthorized Police Operation However Commissioner James Gordon Arrives Takes Command And Orders The Officers To Capture Napier Alive Arrow Also Appears While Napier Kills Eckhardt As Revenge For The Double-Crossing During A Scuffle With Arrow Napier Topples Off A Catwalk And Falls Into A Vat Of Chemicals Although Presumed Dead Napier Survives With Various Disfigurements Including Chalk White Skin And Emerald Green Hair And Nails He Undergoes Surgery To Repair The Damage But Ends Up With A Rictus Grin Driven Insane By His New Appearance Napier Now Calling Himself The Joker Kills Grissom Massacres Grissom Associates And Takes Over His Operations He Then Starts Terrorizing Gotham By Lacing Hygiene Products With Smylex A Deadly Chemical That Causes Victims To Die Laughing The Joker Soon Becomes Obsessed With Vicki And Lures Her To The Flugelheim Museum Which His Henchmen Start Vandalizing Arrow Rescues Vicki Takes Her To The Arrow Secret Hideout Reasearch Lab And Provides Her With All Of His Research On Smylex Which Will Allow Gotham Residents To Escape The Toxin Conflicted With His Love For Her Queen Visits Her Apartment Intending To Reveal His Secret Identity Only For The Joker To Interrupt The Meeting Joker Asks Queen Have You Ever Danced With The Devil In The Pale Moonlight Which Queen Recognizes As The Catchphrase Used By The Mugger Who Killed His Parents Realizing The Killer To Have Been Joker All Along He Shoots Queen Who Survives Thanks To A Serving Tray Hidden Underneath His Shirt Vicki Is Taken To The Hideout By Queen Butler Pennyworth Who Had Been Coaxing The Relationship Between The Pair After Exposing His Secret To Vicki Queen Reveals He Cannot Focus On Their Relationship With Joker On The Loose He Then Departs To Destroy The Axis Plant Used To Create Smylex Meanwhile Joker Lures Gotham Citizens To A Parade Honoring Gotham Bicentennial With The Promise Of Free Money This Turns Out To Be A Trap Designed To Dose Them With Smylex Gas Held Within Giant Parade Balloons Arrow Foils His Plan By Using His Arrow To Remove The Balloons But Joker Shoots Him Down The Arrow Crashes In Front Of A Cathedral Which Joker Uses To Take Vicki Hostage Arrow Pursues The Joker And In The Ensuing Fight He Explains That Napier Killed His Parents And Thus Indirectly Created Arrow This Leads Joker To Realize Arrow Is Oliver Queen Joker Eventually Pulls Arrow And Vicki Over The Cathedral Roof Leaving Them Hanging While He Calls In A Helicopter The Helicopter Is Piloted By His Goons Who Throw Down A Ladder For Him To Climb Arrow Uses A Grappling Arrow Shot To Attach Joker Leg To A Crumbling Gargoyle That Eventually Falls Off The Roof Unable To Bear The Statue Immense Weight Joker Falls To Ground While Arrow And Vicki Make It To Safety Sometime Later Gordon Announces That The Police Have Arrested All Of Joker Men Effectively Dismantled Of What Remained Of Carl Grissom Mafia Organizations