Joker and Joker 2 missed a key side to the Batman villain

We live in an environment where words like “reset” and “regain control” are well known. Hollywood executives use the term “multiverse” very seriously. No one can talk about “Batman in the movies” anymore – you have to be specific. Nolan Batman? Batman Snyder? Reeves Batman? Bryan Singer’s Magneto, or first class one? Remy’s Spider-Man or Spider-Man or the MCU version? Superhero movies no longer have to explain comics. they can only yes It’s like comics – a place where creatives can come in, put a spin on a long-standing character and see what the audience thinks of it.

The gift of this era to me as a comic book fan and critic is a new thought experiment: What would I think of this superhero movie if it were a comic book? Does the film find some insightful words to say about a character from decades ago? Does it perform well in this area relative to all the other stories that have come before it?

I think Matt Reeves’s batman In fact, it might have been better served as a 12-issue alt-universe miniseries, giving the show’s characters more time to breathe this new version of Gotham. On the other hand, the original Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse have so There’s a lot to be said about Spider-Man’s themes of responsibility and identity, and while the animated film was so creative in its form, converting it into a comic would definitely take away some of its magic.

But this year, as I considered Todd Phillips’ Joker Dualism, I found my experiment running aground. put on hold My own issues with Phillips’ writing and directingDo these two movies — which recast the Joker as the sometimes pathetic, sometimes dangerous failed comedian turned successful murderer Arthur Fleck — have anything to say about the iconic supervillain? How does this statement compare to the comic itself? and Clown: Pas de deux Now live on Max, it seemed like a good time to reconsider the issue.

My conclusion: Todd Phillips’ Joker movies don’t have anything to do with the Joker comics because they don’t address the Joker character in any identifiable way at all.

The variability of roles is a sign of its strengthbut the characters are not endlessly variable. How many Mutation is acceptable until a character becomes unrecognizable, a subject that has spilled a lot of metaphorical blood in both digital and in-person forums. But I think we can agree that the line exists.

You can slowly change Batman – give him gun, so that he can kill criminalstake his money and friends, give him a costume with a different theme – he’ll just end up being the Punisher. We can debate where exactly the line is between the two of them, but that line exist.

I believe that, in the case of the Joker, this quote is about his interiority.

Phillips made many changes to the Joker. His movie gave him a name, Arthur Fleck, and an inciting incident: getting roughed up by some corporate bros and then blowing them all away. They gave him mommy issues and a desire for a romantic partner, and removed his rivalry with Batman and his background in the world of dramatic supervillains and powerful superheroes. pas de deux Has Arthur ever wondered out loud the question, “Who is Arthur Fleck?” — recited a sad and profound joke during closing arguments at a trial in which he chose to defend himself.

You can make a lot of changes to the Joker because good characters are mutable. You can completely remove him from An environment where superheroes and villains are commonplaceor eliminate Batman entirely, thus eliminating his rivalry with him entirely. you can make him stupid liar or a terrible psychopath or a lego man. You can give him something to worry about, like “Let Batman acknowledge me,” or give him some obstacles to overcome, like “Accidentally evading taxes”.

But if you give the clown a resolvable human interiority, I think you’ve stopped engaging with the idea of ​​a “clown” in any meaningful way. I think it’s the fundamental core of his character that has been honed, sharpened, and compressed by 80 years of Joker stories and hundreds of creative minds to a state of perfection.

We like to say that the best supervillains are mirror images of their heroes, which is funny when applied to Batman and the Joker because I don’t think anyone has an answer when asked, “What’s the opposite of Bat?” Will answer “clown”. Dig a little deeper, and you can find some polar opposites to their typical traits: They’re equally dramatic in their fear, but their goals are opposite.

Batman is taciturn while Joker is talkative; Batman is dark while Joker is colorful. Batman represents order and the Joker represents chaos. But be careful! Batman is mercurial. He’s not always scary, cold, and lawful, and the Joker isn’t always flashy, deadly, and philosophically chaotic.

The one constant about Batman is that he does the things he does for very specific reasons. His motivations are known and constantly reiterated to the audience. His central character’s trauma is notorious for being frequently revisited in adaptations. it has Memes become immortal. Spider-Man follows, Batman this Origin story superhero. Thus, by the power of narrative, the Joker is the villain of the counter-origin story.

We don’t know why he did it. It’s not even clear he knew. Inside he is a black box, opened to embody our deepest fears about inhumanity between people. type of titan They tried to give the Joker an inspiring origin story, but none of them succeeded in creating an impressive one. While we should never assume something is impossible just because no one has done it yet, I also think we need to learn from history.

Even recent history is enough: It’s hard to find a compelling emotional thread if you can’t peer inside the protagonist’s thoughts, but Matthew Rosenberg and Carmine Di Giandomenico’s 2022 series clown: a person who no longer laughs Get around this by playing a guy who’s not sure if he’s actually the Joker, or just someone who’s been brainwashed by the Joker into being Joker Bait. 2019 Collection by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino Joker: Killer SmileMeanwhile, there’s actually a series about the Joker’s new psychiatrist.

2021 for James Tynion IV and Gilliam March clown The series tells a fascinating story about the Clown Prince of Crime, based on the extremely convincing observation that former Police Commissioner James Gordon may be the only man in Gotham City more personally wronged The Joker is better than Batman. Their book features Gordon Come to me if you canThe hunt for the Joker, considering whether the killer should be shot for the sake of humanity rather than arresting him.

The clown said to the thief

That’s why I strive to apply Todd Phillips’ framework of “Is this a good Joker story?” clown and Clown: Pas de deux. The Joker resists origin stories and clear motivations because they fundamentally oppose the narrative purpose he serves as the sum total of everything Batman is against. At Batman’s most immutable moments, he would say, “One pointless thing happened to me, and that’s why I have to stop more pointless things from happening.” What makes the Joker the perfect foil is that, before he At his most immutable, the Joker is a machine that makes senseless things happen.

If you remove Batman as the character created by the Joker, you might still have a Joker story on your hands. If you change the Joker and make him the protagonist of the story, you might still have a Joker story on your hands. but if you do all this and You examine who the Joker is and why he does what he does – you simply don’t make stories about the Joker anymore.

That’s fine! There are plenty of characters who aren’t the Joker, and I think we can agree that some of them are even pretty compelling. But you didn’t tell me anything significant or new about the Joker, a character honed over 80 years into an efficient narrative machine that makes no sense. You’ve made him understand. You create a new character for your story and add the name Joker to him.

I think that’s what I’d most like to explain to any creative person, like phillipsviewing the superhero genre as a means to an end. I don’t just want to point out the faux pas of ignoring the work of creators who have come before you, and picking up other people’s toys instead of “playing in the space.” Not because I don’t think it’s important, but because I just think that if you’re someone who sees superhero movies as a means to an end, you probably won’t mind being rude to comic book creators.

What I want to get into the minds of the people who make this particular type of superhero movie is that comics have work done. What you’re ignoring is decades of evidence of what’s successful and what’s not, or that it only works if you do it like this. Phillips thinks Joker lacks origin story freedom to take action on one’s ownwhich does not indicate the absence of his origin story, despite the opportunity to create one in 80 years, it does not mean that it is significant.

Refusing to learn from decades of hard work on developing the same characters is rude, sure. But this is also shooting yourself in the foot.