I was just going to put a comment to my post on CBR’s interview with Snyder about Batman #38 when I realize that he has turned into a LARGE assay…sorry for this, but I really wanted to touch a few things here. Please…bear with me.
Ok, now to my opinion. I had been waiting some time for this story line since the last one…though well written, hinted me to a transformation of Joker into this gory Halloween monster that lost all the essence that has made him a lasting villain in the Batman Universe for the last 75 years. His “insanity” had been taken to an extreme that have made it even a stranger to those who have followed his evil deeds for decades. Don’t take me wrong…the story was WELL WRITTEN (even in those homoerotic undertones that sometimes were sprinkled over the main story), but I was worried that this new ghoulish faceless clown was going to be the standard of the new DC 52 continuity. I was not too thrilled by the idea, to tell you the truth.
Fortunately, the new storyline reinstates the Joker in the continuity of the DC Universe as we, the fans, really want to see him (and I sigh in relief). A large tsunami of chaos and perversity with the only goal of proving a single point: ‘No matter how hard you fight me, no matter how many times you kill me, you’ll never defeat me. I’m more than you ever will be. I’ll always be here. In every corner, in every alley even if you’re not looking. Because I’m part of this city, of every citizen and I am even part of you Batman; you just didn’t see it before and I will show you now so sit tight and enjoy the show.’
And Joker now returns in all his glory…and WHOLE PERSONA (thanks Mr. Snyder)…to bring to the city of Gotham his favorite brand of pure and absolute chaos.
That is what Joker loves and that is what we fans love see him doing. That is what made Ledger’s Joker famous. He is so outside of the regulations of society, that there are no bars or limits in his behavior. He is disturbed (HELL YES HE IS!), but that does not weaken him. Instead, it makes him in my opinion stronger. A force to reckon with; a true scary enemy that does not conform to standards of madness or greed, or anything you know might drive a criminal and you really can’t measure in any way. And how do you find a weakness on something you can’t neither understand nor predict? Scary thought…even for the Batman, I’m sure.
About his origins… I agree with Snyder in when he says that Joker is really not insane in the clinical sense of the word. Outside of society’s standards yes, but Joker in my opinion is a very bad man with a very disturbed sense of good and evil, not a nutcase that needs a padded cell all the time. He’s calculating, cunning, and he definitely has his own agenda.
And Batman knows it too. He’s never being deceived by the Joker’s so called “madness”.
We are the fools that can’t conceive such a concept in human behavior and quickly label someone so deranged as “CRAZY”. He just likes to be evil. He rejoices in other people’s suffering. He rejoices in chaos…
Still, reinventing Joker is like swimming in choppy waters, I’m sure no one knows better than Snyder himself. (and a brave man he is by proposing just ANOTHER origin for the Clown Prince of Crime to add to his already large repertoire) because this could quickly get out of hand and become so cheesy and flat, that his will be all a waste of time to accomplish just…NOTHING at the end. We could end with a Clown Prince so fantastic and mystical that we lose track of the real meaning of being Joker.
But Snyder’s abilities as a writer have been well cemented with his previous successful storylines (Court of Owls an example). I think this new Joker is in capable hands to set the new questions and mysteries surrounding our Clown Prince of Crime in the 52 Universe. Questions that hopefully future writers will be able to try to answer in stories that would add dimensions to this new Joker mythos.
And why am I enjoying this new Joker story line so much? Because it is fresh, it is mysterious, and so far…ambivalent (is Joker’s secret real, or one of the multiple origins he likes to create for himself as another lie from the master manipulator he is?). With Joker we’re never sure what to expect.
I also believe, that as long as we don’t lose perspective of the man underneath the clown face, this new vision of a man who is probably as old as Gotham city itself offers a lots of opportunities to explain his survival through the ages (Remember, assuming previous stories still apply in the 52 Universe Joker has been electrocuted, beaten to a pulp, shot more than once, hit head on by a truck, fallen from buildings, and lost his face that he “miraculously” regrew).
And this new and refreshing beginning also offers countless of new venues to experiment with the character.
What made this man the way he is? We have seen from long living villains like Vandal Savage, Ra’s Al’Ghoul (even Marvel’s Apocalypse) that long lives tend to cause this already twisted souls to eventually lose their empathy for the human race. They feel superior and outside of the norm. Is this what happened to him? If so…why finally settle in Gotham? With this kind of immortality, one would imagine that Joker would have had travelled all over the place, right? And what is this hinted connection with the Court of Owls? Why has this obsession with Batman lasted this long (75 years is a very long time). Is Joker enjoying seeing his enemy get old and weak gives him a new sense of pleasure of his own superiority?
Then we have to consider that this might be one more of Joker’s lies. One on top of countless others he has made over his life to hid what or who he really is, because the man he was is not important. Only Joker matters now.
We’ll have to wait until Snyder finishes his “last” Joker opus to see what really in store for our favorite ever smiling, deadly Clown, don’t we? So bring the next issue forth I say and let’s see where this story takes us…
