Five Particularly Cruel Moments From The Joker
Joker Goes On TV To Express Guilt And Actually Kills Everyone in The Dark Knight Returns (Tie) And Twists His Own Neck To Death
Some people say the Alan Moore and Frank Miller’s take on the Joker are too dark and stray too far to be considered canon, but I have to kindly disagree. This character is written by different writers, and those writers are allowed to go as dark or as golden age as they like. I, personally, appreciate both forms of The Joker. Actually, I would say as a result of Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight, I may actually prefer the sicker version of the Joker now, actually. And these two moments from The Dark Knight Returns book are pretty tapped.
I like it when pop culture bleeds into my comics, literally. I will regret this sentiment later, though.
So to start, the Joker basically goes on David Letterman and kills everyone. I know that sounds sadistic and a little bit too blindly homicidal (and pardon if a bit too timely as well), but he doesn’t do it with the intent of specifically killing those people. No, those people were just fuel for him to egg the Batman on. Get him to react. Just like with Gordon, he does a series of twisted things (beating the Catwoman and dressing her like Wonder Woman) to get Batman to break his ultimate rule, which he almost does.
Yup, Batman breaks the Joker’s neck (some say neck, some say spine).
We know this was a darker version of Batman, and we know he did things that golden age Batman would have never dared thought of, but for me, this was the ultimate win for the Joker. Showing Batman he was just as dark and twisted as he was. That they were, in many ways, one and the same. But even laying there, paralyzed by Batman’s hands, the Joker pushes it that much further by (somehow) twisting his own head and neck in such a way that it kills him.
Ultimately making it look like Batman did kill him and leaving Batman with the thought that the Joker did, indeed, get the last laugh and Batman didn’t have the balls. Come on, even Hannibal Lecter isn’t that messed up.
Hey, Let’s All Help The Joker Kill Robin With A Crow Bar From Death in the Family
I blame you guys for this even more than I blame the Joker. Well, not you guys, but your older brothers and hipster Dads.
You see, in 1988, DC held a (now infamous) poll where people could call in and vote on whether the Joker kills Robin or not. This raises so many WTF’s I cannot even begin to explore them all. But I will try. First off, way to cash in on the 900 number phase of the late eighties and early nineties DC. Second, what a wonderfully light hearted choice to put in the hands of the readers. Lastly, HOLY SH*T, THEY CHOSE TO KILL HIM???!!!!
I would love to see this comic redrawn by someone who could actually show different expressions on The Joker’s face.
Yes, not only did “put Robin to death” win by only a few hundred votes, but they decided that the most efficient way to do this way to have his skull beaten in with a crowbar and then have him blown up. That’s as subtle as walking in on your girlfriend cheating on you with a robot you programmed to provide her company while you were at work. And ofcourse, like every other comic story, it has since been retconned, and now Jason Todd has been proven to be alive, and has been brooding and wearing a red hood, all because of that douchebag who was on the Real World with Puck but now writes comics, Judd.
No, really, Judd Winick from the Real World San Francisco is the one who brought Jason Todd (dead Robin) back (Red Hood).
Even with the dial-ins and the rewrites, the fact of the matter is The Joker beat a kid to death with a tire iron. May not seem calculated, but when you think about how Bruce Wayne had lost everything he had ever loved, and vowed to protect this kid, it was a crushing blow. And it also reflected a broken society, calling and paying a number to have a child killed. What was that? Perhaps WE are the real Jokers.
Wanna See A Magic Trick…
Nowhere in the list did I say this was all from comic books, so all you guys rolling your eyes and running to the boards to call me out, please allow me a moment to explain my decision.
Do I even need to say anything else? One of the greatest character introductions in the last twenty years of film.
Heath Ledger redefined that character for a good number of people. Writing him is one thing, and he was written well, but figuring out a voice and mannerisms, and making them distinct and compelling, without making it feel like a caricature is an incredibly tough thing to do. It is even harder to do when the character is already established and loved. And it is EVEN HARDER TO DO when every person on the web is saying you can’t do it (which was EVERYONE’S general thought when they heard the news and before they had seen the makeup) and Heath Ledger nailed it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QehZjjwb7-I
Ofcourse, few of us at the time knew he was actually heavily influenced by this:
For whatever reason, knowing Ledger’s Joker was secretly inspired by Tom Waits makes his characterization even more amazing to me.
Heath Ledger jumped so far into the character, from speech to walk to talk, you lost site that you were watching an actor. More than anything, you felt you were watching a madman. I get much more in depth about how I feel about Ledger’s Joker over here, but the more I think about his death, the more I realize something.
Heath Ledger pretty much became the Joker, right? So much so, some say it killed him. Which, in turn, is the cruelest thing The Joker has ever done. He bled into our real world and killed somebody. How incomprehensibly f*cked up is that?
They say when enough people fear something, they then give it the power to manifest.
A solid list for sure, but there was one glaring omission; Joker kidnapping Robin, torturing him, and hijacking his brain in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. He kidnaps the Tim Drake Robin, a prepubescent boy, tortures him to destroy his personality and makes him into a miniature Joker, complete with the frozen grin, green hair and chalk white skin. Like in the Killing Joke, he documents the process and shows the films to Batman. It is an incredibly dark, twisted, and sadistic scene, made all the more shocking because it is from a film based on a children’s cartoon. As an added bonus, you get the amazing voice work of Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill’s Joker.
heath ledger did a great job, for sure, but i honestly wish crispin glover was the joker. he looks the part, has the acting chops, and is so freakin weird and invested in his roles (willard, anyone?) . he is so dynamic, would have been amazing.
yes i know, ledger fan boys, let the death threats come
I thought Lee Bermejo’s Joker design was out before The Dark Knight.
+1 for Tom Waits interview.
-1 for Soulja Boi.
The problem with “The Joker” is that it only VISUALLY echoes Ledger’s Joker, and really isn’t much like ANY Joker. “Joker” just shows as another sick deviant, not the deranged malevolent genius. Also? The guy who wrote it is a misogynist piece of shit who openly says he hates women in his interviews, who set OUT to make Joker a sleazy greasy violent creep in this story instead of who the character is. All you need to do is read his take on Harley Quinn in an interview about “Joker” from the sadly now gone Wizard Magazine to need a shower.
“I see Harley as like a stripper, she’s there to look at, not to have any substance. I don’t wanna know your name, I don’t want to know your life story, just show me your tits and dance baby!”.
And yes, that’s a verbatim quote, I have the issue right here in front of me. Brian Azzarello is a glaring example of everything that’s wrong with the comics industry, and why most of it still runs on a neanderthal mentality when it comes to female characters.
While I also believe that the Joker is a complex enough character to allow various interpretations, I moreso agree with Penny Marie in saying that “The Joker” was mostly just offensive and shocking for it’s own sake.
There was no cleverness to Azzarello’s version of the Joker, no dark message to be reflected back from the mirror, no point to it all. It’s a crappy book with no depth that really doesn’t offer anything new to the character IMO.
If you thought voting to kill Jason Todd was sick, what in the hell do you think of our society now that praises The Joker? You can say we praise the performance by Ledger, but you know that isn’t true. We like the character, the chaos, the violence, and the ability to hurt anyone and everyone beyond recovery. This whole list is about he was able to hurt people, and how awesome he is. Don’t get me wrong, good list, but over the last four years since that movie came out, the knot in my stomach has been getting tighter and tighter. I don’t think film influences society beyond what it’s morals are, but I think the reaction to film mirrors society, and this is disturbing.
Im pretty sure Waits and Ledger started hangin out before Dr. Parnassus. Penny you should relax. The Joker is a sleazy, greasy violent, creep. Do you think he should be some misunderstood, anti-hero?
While all of these are good, they’re pretty famous. Apart from echoing Return of the Joker’s inclusion, one of the key Joker moments for me comes from one random issue in the ’90s.
The basic plot is that a man has kidnapped his wife and child, then killed himself. In trying to rescue them, Batman realizes the man was in Arkham recently and celled next to the Joker. Confronted, Joker admits he suggested and encouraged the man’s madness by communicating via morse code, then tells Batman where the child should be. Batman races to the location, and saves her from drowning just in time. Returning to question the Joker again, he expresses surprise that the clown helped him, and that the girl was alive to save. The Joker responds that he realized Batman had grown to expect him to kill all the victims & so ensured this one lived, so that from now on there would always be that shred of hope inside his foe that could be crushed on any given occasion.
It’s a throwaway, stand-alone comic, but that moment to me encapsulates the potential for cruelty in the Joker. He may not always commit crime ‘for the evulz’ but when he does, he goes the extra mile to wrench the knife deeper.
The Joker (Especially Heath Ledger’s Joker) connects with our darker side and makes us question human nature, he makes us ask ourselves if we could be him and that makes him the greatest modern villain out there. The only character who I can think of that is in the same league as the Joker is Norman Bates but even he doesn’t come close. As someone who is interested in becoming an author some day I will always look to the clown prince for inspiration when writing a villain, actually I was thinking that it would be quite cool to take a Hunter S. Tompson-esque style, a king Lear inspired plot and insane villain like the Joker and just see how it turns out.
I never even thought of crispin glover being the joker…you just broadened my mind man. I love crispin, and it would have been very epic to see him as the joker.
Jim Aparo drew Joker the way he was supposed to. The Joker doesn’t HAVE different expressions. He’s always smiling. Duh-DOY.
I agree completely with Return of the Joker. I would also include when he shot Sarah Essen in the head, walked right outside and surrendered to Commissioner Gordon in front of everybody. After kidnapping a bunch of babies, of course.
no, I disagree with drunkenjunk.the Joker is not sleazy in the least-he’s probably the top class in the heirarchy of villains.there’s a difference between criminals and villains,and the Joker lands well on the villain side.what I’m trying to say is,think of it as regular society.there are the bums,the middle class,and the high ups.what we call criminals-burglars,bank robbers,etc.- would fall under bums.then there’s villains like Two-Face,who are evil and sick but not quite twisted enough to be a hugh up.and then there’s the Joker,who is not only sick,twisted and evil,but also an absolute genius.he takes evil beyond sleazy crimes and turns it into something that makes your jaw drop and your mind stutter.the words “oh my God” are often uttered more in reaction to the Joker than in reaction to an actual event.
A wise man once told me:
Do not write about Batman, man.
Any form, the Joker, any of it.
Those fans are rabid and there is
NO way you can please them all.
That man was Kevin Smith.
And that conversation never happened.
But I pretend it does, and it feels authentic, don’t you think?
“Actually, I would say as a result of Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight, I may actually prefer the sicker version of the Joker now, actually” This is the only part of the article that bugged me, just because of how many times you said actually 🙂 Other than that, awesome read!
I agreed with this list, until you put Heath Ledger’s Joker on it. First of all, if you’re gonna put a moment from The Dark Knight in this then the “Magic Trick” was the worst one to put. How about when he kidnaps Harvey and Rachel? How about when he blew up the hospital? How about any scene in which he actually did something cruel?
Second of all, Heath Ledger’s Joker is no where near as awesome as you say it was. He was annoying and only did one even remotely funny thing. The “Why so Serious” quote was incredibly nerve wracking. Also what was up with that annoying ass tongue thing of his.
I stopped reading as soon as you insulted Jim Aparo.
… Where’s the rest of the article?