Batman #450 – “Wild Card” – Marv Wolfman/Jim Aparo/Mike DeCarlo
This one starts with the cops finding a judge (known as the “Hanging Judge”) hanged in his apartment. Commissioner Gordon is sure the Joker is behind it, even though he supposedly died in issue 429. Gordon still hates the Joker for crippling his daughter Barbara, something his fellow cop (Hanrahan) tells the other cops … and us, just in case we forgot. But it seems like there’s a copycat in action; we see the real Joker (still recovering from his wounds) watching a news report on the judge’s death.
He doesn’t appreciate someone using his methods, especially since he doesn’t find this particular murder funny. When Batman hears about Joker’s return, he sends Tim Drake (and the rest of his class) to Japan to keep him safe. Batman tells Alfred he wanted to kill Joker last time they fought and he’s worried he might actually do it next time. That night, Gordon and Hanrahan go to a fundraiser held by a rich investor (though he talks like a snake-oil salesman) named Curtis Base, who’s trying to talk a bunch of rich people into investing with him. The cops are there because Base has received threats, but the Joker 
manages to get inside anyway. He sics a pack of dogs on the crowd, tells a bunch of crappy jokes, kills a few people, and robs everyone at the party. Gordon finds Base tied up in the back room, but Gordon thinks something was a little off about the Joker … especially when the cops outside tell him nobody has come in or out of the building. Later, Base lets his assistant (Marty) in on his secret: he was masquerading as the Joker to rip off all the rich people at the party. Marty isn’t cool with his boss wasting people, so Base ends up tossing him out the window (planning to blame his death on Joker as well). When
the real Joker hears about his doppelganger’s latest exploits, he digs out his old red helmet (which he wore when he first became Joker) and goes out to commit a crime of his own. We learn that Joker has apparently lost his sense of humour (such as it was) and seems to be having some kind of PTSD over killing Jason Todd. When Base strikes again, Batman agrees that something is wrong about “Joker’s” latest schemes. Meanwhile, the real Joker has had enough of some upstart abusing his name and decides to do something about it.
Batman #451 – “Judgements” – Marv Wolfman/Jim Aparo/Mike DeCarlo
This one continues from the above story, with Batman and Commissioner Gordon that they might kill Joker when they see him again, and Joker worrying because he can’t seem to get back into committing crimes. Curtis Base is revelling in the feeling of power he gets from pretending to be Joker and it’s making him cocky. He slaps one of his henchmen around for questioning him and the henchman (Bobby) decides he wants out. Batman tracks him down and Bobby tells him
about Base’s masquerade. The real Joker follows the same trail as Batman and gets the location of Base’s next heist from Bobby. Batman, the cops, and the real Joker all show up to stop Base, but Gordon and Batman’s indecision lets Base get away. Hanrahan does manage to wound the real Joker in the arm, which brings back all the trauma of the last time he was shot. Base decides to take out all his opposition at the Ace Chemical Plant, where the (real) Joker got his start after falling into a vat of chemicals. Base ambushes Batman and 
Gordon, but gets jumped by the real Joker. Base decides to emulate his hero by jumping into a chemical vat, but it turns out to be a rather strong acid and he dissolves. Batman and Gordon take Joker in and send him to Arkham Asylum … where he seems to feel like his old self again.
Detective #617 – “A Clash of Symbols” – Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle/Steve Mitchell
This story is mostly told in flashback, but the framing story has Batman searching for the Joker, so I assume it takes place in between the two issues above (or possibly before issue 450). The framing story has Batman pounding a guy who tries to rob a fortune teller. As a reward, she offers to try and find Joker’s whereabouts with her tarot deck. While she’s divining, Batman starts thinking about the power of symbols and recalls a case involving Joker that happened three years ago.
The flashback starts with Joker robbing an exhibit of symbolism, looting and destroying various priceless artifacts. Bruce Wayne is there and manages to change into Batman. After taking out some of Joker’s men, Batman ends up pinned under a totem pole … which Joker lights on fire. The totem pole is too heavy to move, but Batman makes like Spider-Man and lifts it by channelling his inner bat. The bat symbolism kinda takes over and Batman goes after Joker, kicking his ass. In the present, the fortune teller says her sight is clouded, but warns Batman that his quarry is dangerous. Batman heads out into the city, vowing to find Joker and take him down again.
Detective #618 – “Shadow on the Sun” – Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle/Dick Giordano
This one starts with Tim Drake dreaming about being a hero, specifically about being the new Robin and fighting at Batman’s side. Tim is helping Batman investigate someone who’s been siphoning money from bank accounts. A computer search finds a guard with a shady past, so Batman decides to keep an eye on him. We get an interlude that take’s place in an unspecified Caribbean country. A man makes offerings to the Obeah gods and warns his son never to open the locked cupboard he prays to. The man has some kind of attack (which he claims is asthma but cures by smoking a joint) and heads out to take care of some
business. At Wayne Manor, Tim gets a postcard from his parents, who are (coincidentally) vacationing in the Caribbean and let him know they won’t be back for a while. We see the Drakes (arguing as usual) flying over Haiti when their pilot gets a call from the Obeah Man, who orders him to land at a makeshift airstrip in the jungle. The pilot is a believer in obeah, so he obeys and the Drakes are captured. In Gotham, Batman trails the shady guard (Reynolds) to see if he’s connected with the electronic bank thefts. Turns out Reynolds has been raiding the vaults and selling jewellery, which 
doesn’t connect to Batman’s case. Batman takes Reynolds down, along with some punks who are pissed off at Reynolds for inadvertently ripping them off. In Haiti, the downed plane is crashed in the jungle to make it look like an accident, while the Drakes and their personal secretary are taken to see the Obeah Man. (The pilot who obeyed the Obeah Man’s orders is shot as a reward.) In the Batcave, Tim tells Batman he hacked into the bank’s computer so they can trace the thief next time he steals some money. A news report about the Drakes’ plane going missing distracts Tim, but Batman tries to trace the electronic thief as he raids WayneTech. The thief (who calls himself the Moneyspider) detects Batman’s tracing attempts and evades him. Tim goes to his room to brood about his missing parents, wondering if it’s okay for a hero to cry.
Legends of the Dark Knight #9 – “The Hangman’s Tale” – Grant Morrison/Klaus Janson
Batman announces his arrival back in Gotham (after last issue’s trip to Austria) by taking down a crazed hostage-taker. Batman confronts the mob boss Morgenstern, making him admit that he was the one who poisoned Ottavio, using Mr. Whisper’s murders as cover. Morgenstern tells Batman what happened twenty years ago, when he and the other mob bosses tracked Whisper down and killed him because Whisper was killing children and it was bringing too much police attention. But Whisper was
impossible to kill, like Rasputin. They finally tied him to an anchor and dumped him in the water, but that obviously didn’t work either since he’s back now and killing off the mobsters in revenge. At Wayne Manor, Batman tells Alfred how his trip went, showing him the drawing of the ancient cathedral that matches perfectly with the new one in Gotham. Batman muses over sacred geometry and figures his dreams about his father mean he must’ve known something about Whisper (or Winchester, as he called himself when he ran the school Bruce attended as a child), but the same night Bruce left school 
was the night his parents were killed. We see Whisper opening the time capsule in the cathedral (two days ahead of schedule) and strangling a guard with a piece of cord he finds inside. Later, Batman goes to a chemical plant where Morgenstern is supposed to be meeting Whisper, but finds the place full of dead bodies … including Morgenstern’s. Whisper ambushes him and knocks him out, tying him to a conveyor belt. Whisper has set up a death trap worthy of the old Batman TV show, with the ultimate outcome being Batman gets his head crushed by an oil drum. Whisper knows Batman is Bruce Wayne and admits he took his victims from the school. Bruce would’ve been next if his father
hadn’t figured things out and taken him from the school. Unfortunately, he never got a chance to report his suspicions to the cops, since he was murdered the same night. Whisper then does the classic villain move of telling the hero his entire plan. Whisper knew the extra 300 years of life he got in his bargain with Satan would run out (and those 300 years are up right away), so he captured his own soul in the cord and buried it in the foundations of the cathedral (way back in 1790) to hide it from Satan. He’d designed the cathedral to be a “soul trap”, so he could kill everyone inside at the same time. He brought plague victims with him and 
distilled a plague virus from their bodies, and he’s rigged things so that when the cathedral bell rings for the dedication it’ll shatter the plague vial, killing everyone in Gotham and channelling their souls through the sacred shape of the cathedral. But Batman will already be dead by then, since Whisper has rigged his death trap to kill him an hour before the main event.