How Scary is the Joker?
Posted by dailypop on October 6, 2008
As the DVD release date of Batman – The Dark Knight nears, I have to ask myself, just how scary is the Joker??
Celebrating his 70th birthday next May, Batman has recently seen a revived interest both with comic book fans and with the ‘guy on the street’ (but not Joe Six Pack – he thinks comics are for communists). With Grant Morrison writing the era-defining Batman R.I.P. for DC Comics, the late inclusion of his vision of the Joker may seem as rich as having chocolate cake with your glass of Chimay (something I do not recommend). However, Morrison has been building up to this appearance with his first year on the comic when an incredibly unusual issue was released centered entirely on the Joker himself.
Dubbed ‘the clown prince of crime,’ the Joker has taken on near-mythic proportions of late. This may be attributable to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns where the Joker was catatonic in a padded cell until Bruce Wayne took his tights out of mothballs and strutted his aged hips across the rooftops of Gotham City. The idea that these two characters are cosmically linked is an appealing one. The idea that Batman continually re-invents himself (mainly due to editorial re-direction, yet Morrison sought to acknowledge that every wacky Batman story took place) would inevitably lead to a similar position for his arch foe.
The Joker can easily be seen as a personality addict, a character that is constantly re-inventing himself to fit into the mad world he lives in. Let’s face it, when a man with a magic ring and a host of aliens watch the world constantly from a satellite… a guy wearing makeup doesn’t look that unusual. The Joker isn’t exactly a brilliant mastermind of crime, he just (as the late Heath Ledger’s character reminds us) ‘has a plan.’ Playing the role of the laughable buffoon or the deadly scientist, the Joker can be seen as many things in his numerous comic book appearances, but do they all add up to a master criminal?
The tactical element of the Joker is what makes him so deadly, because he is just so insane! His schemes are often absurd and laughable if they did not have such a poisonous tip to them. In the Dark Knight Returns, the Joker hurls bombs made out of baby dolls from a roller coaster. The Joker’s obsession with mixing the mundane with the insane perfectly juxtaposes the rich orphan dressed as a bat with a host of hi-tech wizardry. This may be why the two have become cosmically linked in their dance of death, one of the most brilliant moments in the modern Chris Nolan film.It can plainly be said that in his own mind, he is just doing what makes sense to him. To the Joker, the world is incredibly violent and hostile and his keen perception of this state of affairs merely allows him to better relate to it.
The fact that the Joker is so incredibly clever simply gives him free reign to do as he likes. It is truly tragic that Batman is the only super hero capable of understanding him because (again, as illustrated in the excellent Dark Knight flick), he could never kill his foe. This produces an endless source of amusement for the clown prince, one that he hoots and hollers to… even over the screams of his victims.
But is a guy dressed in a clown suit all that scary?
Look out!
He also knows karate!
Recommended:
Batman: The Man Who Laughs
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Batman Chronicles, Vol. 1
Batman-The Story of the Dark Knight
Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys!
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