Injustice: Year Zero #9 just saw the upgraded Joker enact a devious plan only to end up recreating Boys’ most gruesome death.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Injustice: Year Zero #9, by Tom Taylor, Roge Antonio, Rain Beredo, and Wes Abbott, on sale now.
Like the video games that inspired it, Injustice: Year Zero isn’t holding back on brutal deaths, as seen in the assault on Sandman as Joker got ahold of the Amulet of Apophis. He’s gained mind-control powers and is training his gaze on members of the Justice Society of America, hoping their systematic killings, one by one, will torture the Justice League, especially Batman.
And in Injustice: Year Zero #9, the Clown Prince of Crime kicks up it a notch, albeit by accident, as he inadvertently recreates the most gruesome murder from Amazon’s The Boys.
In The Boys’ Season 1 premiere, “The Name of the Game,” when Robin and Hughie discuss moving in together, Robin is killed accidentally by A-Train. The speedster is high on Compound V and runs through her causing her body to burst, spilling blood and guts all over the curb. A petrified Hughie would be left holding her severed hands, which would traumatize him PTSD and fuel his hatred of superheroes. This leads to his recruitment by Butcher as all Hughie wants is vengeance for his beloved.
In this Injustice prequel, it’s not as romantic or gory, but Joker pulls a similar stunt when he takes over the body of Jay Garrick. Using the older Flash, he jets over to New Jersey’s Commonpaw gym and starts to choke Wildcat in his civilian Ted Grant persona. However, a young man Ted was boxing pulls a gun on Jay, making it clear he better drop his mentor. Unfortunately, as the gun goes off, Joker tries to show the possessed Jay is faster than a speeding bullet by running at Nick.
This leads to a horrifying final page where Jay’s Speed Force lightning actually pushes his body so fast, he bursts through Nick, incinerating him as well. As bones and blood deck the ring, the childish Joker admits he made a mistake and that he should have practiced controlling Jay’s body a bit more. Of course, to him, it’s no big deal, but Ted’s left stunned and heartbroken. His jaw’s wide open as he surveys the tragedy, standing in disbelief as he thinks one of his close buddies just killed a protege.
This will surely lead to a fight, but it’s not clear how Ted will win this brawl as Joker possessing a Flash is bad news. Ted does have resurrection abilities through his nine lives, and he might have to use one of them here to set up his appearance later on in the Injustice series when he helps the Dark Knight. But for now, this flashback into Ted’s tragic past is pretty crushing and informs why he’s so bitter later on when Batman approaches him to take down a tyrannical Superman and stop his Regime.