Outside of the video game series, Joker appears as the central character of the 2013 comic book, Mass Effect: He Who Laughs Best, which explores the backstory behind how he became the pilot of the Normandy.

Aspects of Joker's characterization, such as his depiction as a skilled pilot who excels in spite of his limited mobility caused by a genetic disorder colloquially known as brittle bone disease, as well as his defensive attitude towards other characters who engage him in a conversation about his condition, has been the subject of scholarly analysis published in academic journals.

In an interview with MTV which was published a month before the release of the first Mass Effect, Green revealed that he decided to accept a role for the project as he thought Joker was a "cool character" and that it would be "a lot of fun".

[7] Green compared his work experience to the Choose Your Own Adventure interactive gamebook series, since he would record several potential options within a dialogue tree, which is determined by a specific direction chosen by the player.

[7] Green was not obliged to strictly adhere to the script and was given some creative freedom to occasionally ad-lib Joker's reactions as long as it was contextually appropriate, particularly in conversations which do not involve a technical or gameplay instruction for the player's benefit.

[7] In promotional videos for subsequent Mass Effect sequels which featured Seth Green, he described Joker as a lone wolf who is uninterested in getting involved with any group.

In one of the final missions, Joker demonstrates his exemplary skill at piloting the Normandy by successfully dropping off a Mako tank in a landing zone that is much smaller than what is permitted by Systems Alliance regulations.

In the event that the outcome of the suicide mission results in the deaths of every member of the squad including Shepard, Joker is shown confronting the Illusive Man in an alternate version of the game's ending.

In the game's original endings, the Normandy is hit by a wave of energy released after Shepard activates the Reaper countermeasure known as the Crucible on the Citadel in spite of Joker's frantic efforts to evade it, and crashes on a remote planet.

Subsequent post-launch downloadable content elaborates on Joker's potential fate along with the surviving crew of the Normandy, which varies depending on the player's choices throughout the game's narrative.

To prove a point that he is a competent pilot who is not given opportunities because of discriminatory attitudes towards his condition, Joker hijacks the Normandy and takes the ship through the trial course, and successfully completes it while being pursued by station security.

[15] Kate Cox from Kotaku praised Green for lending essential tension-breaking humor to the Mass Effect series through his voice work as a bold and impertinent spaceship pilot.

Da Silva Leite cited Joker as an exemplary demonstration of how a video game's narrative could meet accessibility guideline principles of non-discrimination and respect for differences, since he is primarily presented by his characteristics as a ship's pilot in the universe of Mass Effect as opposed to his mobility disability.

She compared the self-disclosure of his identity as a physically disabled person in the first Mass Effect to that of the real world act of coming out by LGBT individuals due to their similar dynamics of power and knowledge.

[20] Adan Jerreat-Poole interpreted Joker's depiction in the video game series as a signifier that the futuristic setting of Mass Effect is one that remains ableist and invested in hegemonic settler masculinity.

However, Jerreat-Poole's reading of Joker's body, movement, and language during his appearances in the Mass Effect trilogy led him to conclude that the character is overall a positive depiction of disability because he demonstrate agency through his tone of voice.

Jerreat-Poole interpreted Joker's frequent use of sarcasm in his conversations with others as a critique of the cultural narratives of ableism as well as what he termed "crip exceptionalism and overcoming": examples of in-game dialogue were highlighted to support the notion that Joker asserts agency through volunteering information about himself on his own terms, and that he talks about his condition through mockery and ridicule, which exposes the ableist attitudes of mainstream society and registers complaint against a healthcare system that intends to "fix" him.

He wrote that Joker's unapologetically slow movements and considerably less mobile body stands out in a universe filled with superhuman abilities or technological enhancements, and interprets his refusal to be fixed or sped up as a resistance to the hypermasculinist ableism that is prevalent and widely celebrated in the action video game genre.