Farewell, Mistah J
Dec. 8th, 2011 04:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
filkertomSadness. Artist Jerry Robinson has passed away at the age of 89. He worked extensively on the Batman comics in the 1940s, and was either the creator or co-creator of Robin the Boy Wonder and one of comics' most enduring and vibrant villains, The Joker. He also had a hand in the creation of Alfred Pennyworth, Batman's butler, and Two-Face, which makes him as central to the mythology as anybody.
What's your favorite Joker story? Surprisingly, at least to me, mine is neither "The Laughing Fish" nor "The Killing Joke", but the Batman Beyond animated movie, "Return of the Joker". Mark Hamill is of course perfect as Mistah J, and his hatred of (and determination to gain his long-term vengeance against) his truest foe simply reeks from every frame.
What's your favorite Joker story? Surprisingly, at least to me, mine is neither "The Laughing Fish" nor "The Killing Joke", but the Batman Beyond animated movie, "Return of the Joker". Mark Hamill is of course perfect as Mistah J, and his hatred of (and determination to gain his long-term vengeance against) his truest foe simply reeks from every frame.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-08 10:15 pm (UTC)The other being Darrell K. Sweet.
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/12/darrell-k-sweet-1934-2011
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-08 10:26 pm (UTC)(Not to add to it, but I didn't get that job. I didn't do well enough on their test, but everything else in the interview was good. I'm hoping I may be able to get a lesser position and work my way up from there.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 12:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 12:06 am (UTC)"The Killing Joke" is one, of course. It portrays the Joker (and to a lesser extent Batman) as a prisoner of fate. His entire life was completely destroyed by a series of circumstances over which he had marginal control at best, ending with the canonical acid bath that disfigured him. Without a center that could hold through all that, he sought (and seeks) relief in the only way he knows- by adding to the chaos, by lashing out at random, in effect embracing the forces which destroyed him and defining himself as such. At the end we see, in a calm, lucid moment, the man the Joker once was, alone, helpless, and resigned to personal torment... and, at the same time, see his reflection in Batman, likewise a prisoner of his own past.
"Going Sane" is, I feel, a bit underrated. The Joker's insanity requires a target, something to push against, something which gives a sense of feedback and leverage. Without Batman around, the lashing out provides no challenge, and thereby no conflict, and we get to see the Joker questioning himself... for a time, at least. I think this story best illustrates that the Joker, for his chaotic and murderous insanity, is also a very intelligent man- and, in almost every respect, Batman's equal and opposite.
Finally, there's an episode from the first season of The Brave and the Bold in which Batman is thrown into an alternate dimension where DC-prime's heroes are villains and vice-versa. Here we get to see him team up with the Red Hood- Jack Napier, in this world, was a crimefighter or resistance fighter against the evil and corrupt supers of his world. We get to see the vital difference which the Joker lacked- a strong sense of self that allows the Red Hood to continue where the Joker cracked up.
Not being much of a DC reader even when I gave a damn at all about superheroes, that's all I can say or suggest, and likely half of it is wrong anyway. But you asked.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 12:11 am (UTC)Yep. I've confused "Going Sane" with something else for which I can't remember the derivation. Ah well. Still looks intriguing.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 12:24 am (UTC)I also liked the episode where the whole city thinks some low level wannabe killed Batman and Joker did his "I was suppose to kill him!" monologue and he leaves a jewelry store robbery in progress when Batman didn't show up.
I agree about the Batman Beyond movie and both his movie appearances.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 12:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 01:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 05:11 am (UTC)I think that's something that people sometimes forget. The Joker isn't just insane, he's also evil with a capital E. He's also very intelligent and has gotten the drop on Batman on more than one occasion.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 08:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 09:54 am (UTC)No, wait -- yes, I do...but it's one you may well have never heard of. It appeared in the paperback tie-in anthology The Further Adventures of the Joker, edited by Martin Greenberg and published back in 1990 (in the era of the Tim Burton Batfilms). It's called "Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard", and was written by Edward Bryant and Dan Simmons.
I give you a moment from the climax (not to worry, I'm absolutely not spoiling the key twist):
What you need to understand is that I grew up on syndicated reruns of the Adam West Bat-series, and so my first Joker was Cesar Romero. And as cheesy as that show was, I've always thought that Romero's incarnation of the character got one thing absolutely right: namely, that what makes the Joker unique are the jokes. Mark Hamill and the B:TAS writers generally understood this, too -- but by contrast, a lot of influential comics canon has (to my mind) gotten far too carried away with the Joker as elemental psychopath and Chaotic Evil Incarnate. (Nolan and Ledger in The Dark Knight are guilty of this, too. As brilliant as Ledger is in the movie -- and it's an amazing performance -- I disagree violently with that interpretation of the character.)
Anyhow. I highly recommend the Bryant/Simmons story (and the rest of the anthology is pretty decent, too).
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 10:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 10:55 am (UTC)Not necessarily the best Joker story ever; maybe not even in the top 10 -- but one I remember fondly.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 11:50 am (UTC)After discovering that the "fortune" he's inherited from an underworld associate is mostly Monopoly money, and getting a bill from the IRS, the Joker starts plotting a crime spree to pay it off. One of his stooges asks why they don't just run.
"Look, Bunky, I may be crazy enough to fight Batman, but the IRS? Nooooo, thank you!"
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 01:01 pm (UTC)Also: does anyone remember the Emperor Joker storyline some years back?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 01:56 pm (UTC)If you like what you hear in those nine episodes, you might listen all the way up to Episode 42, "Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard." Through various machinations and time/space travel, Joker has gained near-godlike powers, has captured nearly all of the Batman family, and intends to kill them, resurrect them, and kill them again for eternity. Until one of Batman's team (a previous villain, now converted) pulls a spectacular joke on Joker.
Through all this, Bell's Joker sounds a little like Mark Hamill's, but smarter, more off-handed and more willing to ad-lib. In Episode 19, "Opening Act," he insults an army of thugs about to beat him to death. "Their trials weren't on Court TV, they were on Mystery Science Theater 3000!" You have to hear Bell's delivery of the line. It's precious.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 05:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-09 09:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-10 02:05 am (UTC)