With so much great horror to read, I haven’t had the time to
actually talk about the new Joker
movie starring Joaquin Phoenix and depicting yet another origin of the Clown
Prince of Crime. Purists may quibble about a superhero movie being discussed
here, but if there’s any villain who embodies the horror aesthetic, it’s the
Joker. Looking at the movie, I can see where they get the comparisons to Taxi Driver. The Man-Who-Would-Be Joker
Arthur Fleck does seem like a modern-day Travis Bickle, Gotham is portrayed as
an urban pressure cooker as real as New York, and the one percenters in charge become
the figureheads of everyone’s misery. Comparisons aside, Joker is a fascinating view of one man’s descent into insanity exacerbated
by the circumstances of his existence. When
everything that Arthur has believed in is revealed to be flawed or outright
lies, he begins to believe that nothing matters, that existence is a joke, and
that is when the Joker that has been fascinating and terrifying audiences is
born.
But Joker has been around nearly as long as his nemesis, and
like Batman, Joker has gone through some evolutions and depictions which have
evolved him into a truly scary villain that pushes Batman to his limits. Joker
will be a story that, while not canon, will sculpt the mental image people have
of Joker, just as these five graphic novels have shaped the dynamic between
Batman and the Joker.
5) Batman: Under the Red Hood. While the story focuses on Batman and Jason Todd, the one Robin
who was killed by the Joker and was later resurrected (Comics!), it does offer
some explanation as to why Batman, who already takes the law into his own gloved
hands, hasn’t simply snapped the clown’s neck or done something to truly end
his horrific cycle of escape, terrorize, and get recaptured. It’s when Jason
Todd, who has taken up the masked identity of the Red Hood (a historic name for
fans of the comics), says that Batman must kill him or the Joker, a gun to the
madman’s head. Todd explains that if their positions were reversed, he would
hunt down the clown and kill him, something Batman refuses to do. He even tries
to rationalize it by saying that it’s not Scarecrow, or Two-Face, someone who,
according to Todd, had filled graveyards. Batman, his voice full of pathos,
confesses that he thinks about killing the Joker every day and in many brutal
ways, but he ultimately doesn’t because he knows that going down that path,
where murder is seen as a solution, means never coming back. Because that could
mean becoming . . .
4) The Batman Who Laughs. This is a Batman from a dark universe, one that is identical to our
Batman except he finally makes the choice and kills the Joker. The Joker is, of
course, prepared (one could argue he has always been prepared), allowing Batman
to be infected with a toxin that slowly turns the Dark Knight into an
amalgamation of Batman and his greatest enemy, a whipsmart tactician with no
moral compunctions about killing everyone who can impede his goals, which
typically involve the destruction of everything. This is also not hyperbole.
This guy has taken out entire universes. Yes, universes.
It is in this collection
that the Batman Who Laughs tries to not just destroy the Batman but make sure
he suffers the same fate. Batman, Joker toxin changing him, must marshal his
forces and use his wits and deteriorating self-control to basically defeat
himself. We talk about the Batman Who Laughs killing off entire universes, but
he also stems from a dark universe, once created out of others’ nightmares.
This villain and the circumstances that made him, that made Batman into the
villain is what Batman probably fears the most.
3) Batman: Death of the Family. Fans may have been aware of Batman and Jokers’ battles in comics
for years, but this collection acknowledges that the Joker in particular is
aware of that dynamic. In fact, it is his whole purpose for the heinous acts he
commits on Gotham and its citizens (bringing up a salient point about how much
crime Batman causes versus how much he stops, but I digress). The Joker has
returned, with a renewed mission, depicted by wearing his recently removed face
as a mask. He strikes out not at Batman directly, or threatens Gotham overtly.
Rather, Joker turns his attention to the various Robins and other sidekicks
Batman has accumulated over the years, his family. They are indeed more to
Batman than cannon fodder. They are the people he trusts the most, but they are
also his support system. The Joker, however, sees the Family differently. He
sees the Family as holding Batman back, so he sets out to eliminate them,
ultimately forcing Batman to encounter another fear that probably motivates
him, his actions being ultimately futile in preventing their deaths.
What this comic also exposes is how Joker genuinely believes
(as much as the Joker can believe in anything ) that he is helping Batman
become better by getting rid of what he sees as dead weight. In the Joker’s
eyes, it has always been he and Batman, locked in eternal conflict until one or
both are dead. It is the Joker’s true purpose for being, these tangles with the
Dark Knight. Everything else, in his mind, is a distraction. The Joker’s
relationship with Harley Quinn is a textbook abusive relationship that the
Joker never reciprocates. His true love, always was and always will be, is
Batman, who gives his twisted existence meaning.
2) Batman: Damned.
In this obvious sharp right turn into horror, Batman must find help to solve a
mystery: who killed the Joker? To help solve this mystery, he gets help from
dashing supernatural rogue archetype John Constantine, who serves as both foil
and tour guide, taking the Dark Knight through a Dante’s Inferno-esque head
trip that has the Batman rediscover Bruce Wayne, the man, and Batman, the
symbol. His understanding of both could be shattered as clues begin to point to
himself as the lead suspect perhaps finally breaking his no-killing rule.
While this is a non-canon story, taking place in a much
darker DC Universe, it does reveal the dark psychology underpinning Batman and
Joker’s relationship. Batman has strictly adhered to his no killing rule, no
matter the emotional and physical costs to him and members of his family. And
yet the Joker is always testing that boundary, always trying to push Batman to
break that rule, even if it means the death of the Joker. This comic ultimately
explores the Batman possibly being pushed over the edge, but also the Joker
finally succeeding in what he wanted all along: dragging Batman into the muck
with him.
1) Batman: The Killing Joke. The one cited by many as the ultimate Batman/Joker story. If you ever
watch the DC Animated movie, just skip that completely unnecessary Batgirl
storyline and get to the main event. It’s one of many Joker origin stories
(this one establishing that Joker remembers his past differently from day to
day with him referring to his past as “multiple choice”), and like the Joker
movie, it shows a man pushed to his limits until he snaps, leading to the
famous remark that all it takes to become the Joker is “one bad day.” And what
a decidedly bad day it is.
The Joker movie has lent itself to controversy with some
saying it’s a manifesto for how to unravel society, even providing a rationale
in that society is controlled by those in the upper echelon of wealth. Some
have referred to Phoenix’s acting as he delves deep into the “bad day,” actually
a series of ugly truths that, once peeled away, reveal some disturbing aspects
of Arthur’s life. But this movie does owe its existence to The Killing Joke, and this work has influenced the works on this
list and countless others. It is one of the first works that predicts that the
ultimate end of this conflict is the death of one or both. While Batman will do
anything he can to avoid it, Joker will happily accept their mutual
destruction.
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