Just a few short notes for this chapter. Dr. Arikaki was actually the anesthesiologist for my first surgery. Very nice, funny man.

The event I talk about in this chapter, the Joker dying and being bathed in the Lazarus Pit, took place in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #142-145. Talia Al Ghul entered Arkham Asylum under the guise of a doctor to sign for the Joker's release. Ubu was with her, and together, they took the Joker out, vanishing. Batman came to Arkham to investigate.

Ra's had kidnapped the Joker and had the clown help him engineer a biological weapon. Being the egomaniac he is, Joker took a lot longer in finishing the virus that was to be released, because he wanted to "sign" his work with the trademark Smilex smile. When they were preparing to release the virus, Ra's found that Joker had sprayed some of the scientists and followers with the virus. Joker then turned on the Al Ghuls, and dosed them with the virus. Expecting the madman to do something like that, Ra's had already had his scientists manufacture a vaccine, thus making him and his daughter immune. Talia then shot the Joker eight times, leaving him for dead.

Throughout all of this, Batman had been searching for the Joker. When he discovered that the Al Ghuls had taken him, he began a worldwide search, gathering information from his global contacts. He finally tracked the Al Ghuls to a base under the Antarctic ice. He arrived shortly after the Al Ghuls had already left, and found the Joker dying from his wounds. Knowing what Ra's was up to, Batman tried to get the location of where they were to release the virus from Joker before he died. The Clown Prince died before he gave up the information, however.

This left Batman with a predicament: Either let Ra's release the virus, thus killing millions of innocent people; or use the Lazarus Pit at the base to bring the Joker back to life. The better option was to bring the Joker back. Batman did what he had to bringing the Joker back to life so he could get the information. He expected the Joker to come out of the pit more insane than when he went in. To his surprise, the Joker came out sane, and feeling extreme remorse for all the souls he had killed. He willingly gave up the information that Batman needed to go stop the Al Ghuls.

Joker's trip into sanity didn't last, however, and he fell back into the pits of insanity, ending up back in Arkham.
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