Rhapsodies

I really would have liked to have liked a little more time to think about The Joker, but the Magic Tupperware is a cruel mistress.

The Joker is one of those characters that I’m never sure where to go with. I think people try to put him on a pedestal because since he is currently Batman’s primary villain, he has to be just as competent as the Bat and thus one of the most dangerous villains in the DC Universe. While I’m happy with making the Joker brilliant and dangerous, I’m not sure if I agree with that approach.

Also, I think that DC Comics have gone a little too far with the whole monster clown thing. If he really were as bad as he’s been in the last decade or so it wouldn’t just be the cops and the heroes who would be hunting for him.

So in my approach, I would start by downplaying him down back to the “Clown Prince of Crime” just a bit with Heath Ledger’s anarchist trickster. This leaves us with a high-ranking “freelancer” he’s not exactly in a real position of power, after all where’s the fun in that? But at the same time, he’s someone who’s very much a wildcard (pun attended) acting in the name of laughs and chaos that nobody can afford to ignore.

I’m sort of quoting Fredric March as Edward Hyde here, with Joker laughing in the rain. (regrettably, rain in the nighttime is almost impossible to do with the hatching I’m doing here.) I’m afraid the whole shirtless thing makes him look a little bit like the Jared Leto’s version… It’s unintentional, sorry.

PS: I’m finding the beginning of a tangent, the punning of “clown” and “crown” have me thinking of the Joker as an underworld version of Bonny Prince Hal… but if that’s the case, who’s Henry IV and Hotspur? … or Falstaff?