Retro Review takes a look at influential issues of DC Comics and measures their artistic integrity against their cultural and symbolic importance to the DC Universe and comic books in general.

While last year marked the 75th anniversary of the Batman, this year mark’s the 75th anniversary of the debut of the Dark Knight’s self-titled solo series. Batman was one of the longest running continuous comic book series of all time, but more importantly, it was the series that introduced two of the most important and iconic characters in the Batman mythos.

One of these was Catwoman, the master thief and long-time paramour of the Caped Crusader. We will be covering her debut later on this year as part of her own 75th birthday celebration. But for today, we focus on the debut of Batman’s most iconic villain: his unrivaled archenemy, the Joker – otherwise known as the Clown Prince…