Warning! Spoilers ahead for Batman: Three Jokers #3!
In what has been revealed to be one of the most important cases of Batman: Three Jokers has put the Dark Knight face to face with Joe Chill, the man who killed Bruce Wayne's parents. Naturally, their deaths put Bruce through intense pain and trauma, influencing his entire life and motivating his transformation into the Batman. In the culminating issue of the story from Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok, it's revealed that the three Jokers sought to exploit this pain, abducting Joe Chill with the intent to make him a "better" Joker than any of them could ever be.
The Criminal, seemingly the oldest and most serious Joker, convinced the other two that in order for the Joker to be "better" and more effective, he has to mean something to the Dark Knight on an intrinsic level. He can't just be an undefined arbiter of chaos without a meaningful identity anymore. It's for this reason that they abduct Joe Chill, seeking to make him the best Joker of them all. The pain and suffering he caused Bruce would absolutely provide the deep meaning the Criminal is looking for. Naturally, dealing with Joe Chill on any level is hard for the Dark Knight, but that starts to change when he inspects Chill's cell, finding a stack of unsent apology letters Chill had written to Bruce Wayne over the years, even before he found out he was deathly ill with cancer. Combined with the confession video the Jokers made, which shared Chill's genuine remorse and regret for his actions, Batman was able to see the pain and suffering Chill dealt to himself on the fateful night in the alley behind the theater.
The result of this revelation is that Batman is able to save the man who killed his parents with a diminished inner conflict in Three Jokers #3 from Johns and Fabok. The act of saving Chill is in and of itself an act of forgiveness, which Chill certainly seems to deserve, all things considered. However, this was exactly what the Comedian, The Killing Joke Joker, was counting on. He had his own motives separate to the Criminal, who he shoots in the head (leaving him as the only remaining Joker, after the Clown was killed by Red Hood in the first issue). The Comedian never wanted a superior Joker. In his mind, the Joker should be that agent of chaos, serving as nothing and everything to Batman simultaneously. Furthermore, having Batman save Chill was all part of his grand plan to become better by a different means.
It's an incredibly intriguing added dynamic for Batman and the Joker's relationship going forward. The Comedian was jealous that he wasn't the one who had caused Batman the most pain in his life, so he had to create a means to heal that first wound so he could sur it, thereby becoming the "better" Joker. It looks as though the Comedian was successful, as Bruce later stays with Joe Chill until the very end on his death bed, holding his hand.
Joe Chill did a horrible thing by killing the Waynes. However, his actions after the fact communicated a repentant soul seeking redemption and forgiveness, which Batman gave to him in Three Jokers, seeing Chill as genuine and deserving. Regardless of the fact that it was the result of the Joker's designs, seeing Batman receive some relief, healing, and closure from his trauma is a really strong element to this story and very important for Batman fans to see as part of his ongoing portrayal as a character capable of growth.
