I hope you all have insurance. It's going to cost a lot to pay the teams who scrape you off the walls! 
Batman: Shadow of the Bat #38 is an issue of the series Batman: Shadow of the Bat (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 1995.
Synopsis for "The Joker (Part II) - Tears of a Clown"
The Joker addresses his recent abductees at the abandoned Mercey Mansion. He reflects upon the time before he became the Joker, when he was little more than a down on his luck comedian. Having failed to impress the audiences at Gotham University, he has now decided to pay them back for failing to laugh at his jokes. All of the Joker's prisoners are outfitted with special collars that are designed to detonate should they start laughing. The Joker recites a few gags, but the captives refuse to laugh. Naturally, this angers the Joker even more (despite the fact that he is the one who placed the explosive collars on them. The Joker executes two of his prisoners by shooting them in the face. Afterwards, he reminisces about the turn of events that first transformed him into the Joker.
Meanwhile, Batman and Wilde Norton separately arrive at Mercey Mansion. The Batman enters the auditorium just as the Joker executes another victim. He leaps atop of him and begins beating the Joker up. The Joker reminds Batman that tonight is the anniversary of their encounter with one another. Just as Batman is readying a final punch, Wilde Norton comes up behind and knocks him out by striking him with the butt of his gun. He wants the Joker for himself. He shoots the Joker through the hand, then through the knee. He reminds the Joker how he once slaughtered his entire family, but the Joker has no recollection of him (he's killed so many people after all). Wilde levels his pistol ready to shoot the Joker in the face. The Joker however, has one final gag. He doses Wilde with a blast of his infamous Joker venom and Wilde falls over in a fit of laughter. Batman revives, but the Joker has escaped. He realizes that the stage is rigged to explode and manages to get to safety just in time. Wilde Norton and a few of the other prisoners managed to escape as well. Outside, the police and Jeremiah Arkham arrive. Wilde, still reeling from the effects of the Joker venom, is remanded into Arkham's care. Jeremiah muses about whether Mercey Mansion might be a good site for a new sanitarium.
Appearing in "The Joker (Part II) - Tears of a Clown"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Jeannie (Mentioned only)
- Professor W.M. Venner (Final appearance; dies)
- Stanley Haymes (Final appearance; dies)
Locations:
- Gotham County
- Mercey Island (First appearance)
- Gotham City
- Ace Chemical Processing Plant (Flashback only)
- Gotham University (Flashback only)
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- The events from this issue take place on the anniversary of the first fight between Batman and the Joker.
- This issue briefly recaps the Joker's origin. The Post-Crisis origin of the Joker was revealed in the 1988 one-shot special Batman: The Killing Joke.
- At the end of this issue, Jeremiah Arkham gets the idea to convert the Mercey Mansion into a new Arkham Asylum. The original asylum in Sommerset was previously demolished by Bane in Batman #491.
Trivia
- The Joker's stage name used to be Johnny Jape.
See Also
- Cover gallery for the Batman: Shadow of the Bat series
- Images from Batman: Shadow of the Bat Vol 1 38