The Joker will be killed or destroyed somehow.
It's the only possible closure to a story building up the Joker as an overblown abomination, and how would any future Joker arcs top the ridiculousness of this one? Plus, it would create a dramatic (and controversial) situation, with Batman's greatest nemesis finally leaving the picture. The Joker is not only descended from a very long line of English colonists, but is a half-breed.
The comic floats the possibility that the Joker, whose early life and background are almost completely unknown, could, under his chemical-bleached skin (which is even suggested to be makeup at one point in the narrative), be part American Indian, or at least an outsider reared in that culture from birth (perhaps a descendant of one of the English/Native "lost colonies" from elsewhere in America). Nothing explicit is ever spoken, but Dr. Paul Dekker, AKA Crazy Quilt, tells Batman that the Joker revealed to him that he is actually a 400-year-old being, rendered semi-immortal by a cell-reconstructing chemical called dionesium that he found in a cave beneath Gotham City centuries ago. Crazy Quilt even shows Batman one of his mad paintings, which depicts the Joker standing on a bluff in colonial dress, already waiting when the first European sailing ship is arriving in Gotham Harbor. Part of the story is true: dionesium is indeed real, and there is a cave beneath Gotham that contains a pool of it. But Batman doubts all the other details from the beginning - and, after questioning Uriah Boone, a resurrected assassin for the Court of Owls society and the only person confirmed to have been alive in Gotham in the 17th century, concludes from Boone's body language that his claim that the whole story is true is a lie. Indeed, the comic ultimately suggests that the tale is merely one more colorful fabrication on the Joker's part - although the last two pages of the comic subtly hint otherwise. However, the theory that the Joker has Native ancestry is pretty plausible when you consider that the only other possible interpretation of Dekker's account is that he's not human. The two skeletons at the parade are Bruce's parents.
Thomas and Martha Wayne. After all, Joker said to the female skeleton that "you should be proud of him". The cleaner in the final panels of issue 40 is Scott Snyder.
Just look at him. :) Batman's death won't last
This is the DC Universe we're talking about here, and Batman's one of it's most popular characters, if not the most popular.- Confirmed from the get-go, really; much like Morrison's removal of Bruce for a period, Snyder has been open in advising that Bruce will return as Batman eventually, and he and his developments free of the role are a pivotal part of the current story with Jim Gordon as Batman.
