YMMV / Batman & Captain America

• Awesome Moment: Bruce and Steve fighting for the first time, which shows is just them feeling each other out. Steve notes for a Millionaire Playboy, Bruce is surprisingly agile and his body is hard and muscular, while Bruce notes that Steve is using arcane martial arts techniques that the Army would never teach. Bruce immediately stops the fight, chuckling that he knows Steve must be Captain America. Steve gives himself a Dope Slap and laughs that he should have known Batman would pick a secret identity like Bruce's.
• Complete Monster: Red Skull, here a high-ranking member of the Nazi regime, allies himself with The Joker in his latest plot for expanding the Third Reich. Having the Joker murder several innocents to assist in his own theft of an atomic bomb dubbed "Fat Boy," Red Skull casually poisons one of his own soldiers for questioning his orders, and later has the Joker slaughter a path into a military base. Betraying the Joker at this juncture, Red Skull boasts his plans to parade the Joker's broken body around as a trophy, and reveals his true master plan to drop Fat Boy onto Washington, D.C., then use the ensuing millions of casualties to pave the way for the Nazis to invade America. Even when his original plan is thwarted, Red Skull still attempts to drop Fat Boy miles out of Washington, gleefully proclaiming that the fallout will still kill countless innocents.
• Fridge Brilliance: When Joker discovers Red Skull's affiliation with the Nazis, he flat-out refuses to continue working with him, stating, "I may be a criminal lunatic, but I'm an American criminal lunatic!" Just so you know, the Nazis were known for systematic murder of anyone with a mental illness, including the Joker himself. Course, Joker may just be disgusted with the Nazis as a whole for being, well, Nazis.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The Joker ranting about the Red Skull actually being a Nazi, after Captain America: Steve Rogers and Secret Empire, where the Skull caused a Cosmic Retcon to turn Captain America into everything he's fought against, meaning until the real Cap was bought back, the character believed to be Marvel's paragon had fewer morals than the man who crippled Barbara Gordon, tried to drive Commissioner Gordon insane, and killed Jason Todd and Sarah Essen.
  • The story ends optimistically with a thawed out Cap discovering that Dick has taken over as the new Batman and Bruce's son Bruce Wayne Jr. is the new Robin. When Superman & Batman: Generations revisited this timeline, it's revealed that Dick will only be Batman for another five years from that point onward as he falls into a trap by the Joker and is brutally murdered, with his death so traumatizing it nearly leads him to become an angry spirit and damn his soul as he proceeds to haunt the Joker in revenge.
• Heartwarming Moments: Immediately after Bruce Wayne and Steve Rogers realize who they are, they handshake and compliment each other.
  Bruce Wayne: Welcome to Gotham. I can't think of a better ally against the Joker's latest scheme.
  Steve Rogers: Nor can I, Batman. I only hope the time I've wasted chasing the Bruce Wayne wild goose... ...hasn't given your harlequin friend the time he needs to finish whatever his plan might be!
• Magnificent Bastard: This incarnation of the Joker lacks many unsavory traits of other versions. Receiving information from a mysterious figure, he decides to use a nuclear weapon to blackmail Gotham City into paying him $1,000,000. He first plans to build his own nuke, successfully obtaining radioactive material and cleverly escaping from Batman in the process. When this approach fails after Batman and Captain America foil an attempt to kidnap Robert Oppenheimer, he changes tack and decides to steal a prototype atomic bomb. After succeeding, he learns that his informer is Red Skull. Declaring his hatred of Nazism, Joker tries to kill the Skull, and helps foil his plan to nuke Washington, D.C. Years later, he helps plot and execute a scheme to permanently De-power Superman, only narrowly failing. Then he spends several years masquerading as his own non-existent successor as part of a long-term ploy to kill Dick Grayson, the second Batman, cheerfully turning himself in after he succeeds. Some time later, tormented by Dick's vengeful ghost, he refuses to break, and when he realizes his death is inevitable, he accepts it with quiet grace. Ruthless, witty, and able to roll with the punches, the Joker demonstrates that he's earned his title of "Clown Prince of Crime".
• Memetic Mutation: After the release of the first issue of Captain America: Steve Rogers, it was popular to point to the Joker ranting in disgust upon discovering the Red Skull was really a Nazi (and not just using Nazism as a gimmick, like he initially assumed) and saying Captain America, of all people, was now less moral than the Joker.
• Signature Line: "I may be a criminal lunatic, but I'm an American criminal lunatic!"
• Signature Scene:
  • The Joker's realization that the Red Skull is a real Nazi, and not just acting as one as he initially assumed. Chances are if anyone mentions this story it's because of this scene alone.
  • The Let's You and Him Fight scene between Bruce Wayne and Private Steve Rogers that leads to both men figuring out each other's identity has become an equally iconic moment in the crossover.
• Watch It for the Meme: Admit it, you read this just to see the Joker declare himself "an American criminal lunatic!" and turn on Red Skull.

---