![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The Swingin’ Sixties Batman series has fallen in and out of favor with fans over the years, with some decrying its deliberate unseriousness and others praising its vibrant design and tongue-in-cheek performances. It was this account of the Clown Prince’s creation that Alan Moore and Brian Bolland would draw from in their seminal 1988 graphic novel The Killing Joke.Ĭesar Romero, from the 1960s ‘Batman’ TV show. When he emerged from the cauldron, the villain was cursed with green hair, corpse-white skin, and that unnerving perma-grin. Published in 1951, Detective Comics #168 revealed that the Joker was once the Red Hood, a masked criminal who fell into a vat of acid while attempting to escape from Batman. (When that fails, he tries to crush them with massive dice.) His tendency toward such spectacular set pieces grew even more pronounced after the rise of the censorious Comics Code Authority in 1954.ĭuring this transitional period in the character’s history, Bill Finger devised his most frequently cited origin story. After that, his crimes evolved into traps and heists that were elaborate, comical, and largely harmless - see Batman #44 (1946), in which the Joker wins big at a casino and is inspired to build a huge slot machine to try and off Batman and Robin by dropping giant coins on them. The Joker’s “venom,” a poison that leaves a macabre rictus grin on its victims faces, made its first appearance in the character’s very first rampage.īut the killings stopped in 1942, by which point the Joker was one of Batman’s most popular and frequent opponents. In his first outing, the Joker is a cold-blooded maniac with an unnerving smile, who goes on two separate murderous crime sprees before Batman brings him down. The result was a villain unlike any of the gangsters and mad scientists Batman and his recently added sidekick Robin had ever faced before. Both Robinson and Kane, who for decades received sole credit for the creation of Batman, designed the character on the page, while Robinson and Finger helped develop the concept of the Joker as Batman’s nemesis. Finger provided inspiration in the form of a clown-face logo from Coney Island and, crucially, a picture of actor Conrad Veidt playing the disfigured, permanently grinning title character in the 1928 horror film The Man Who Laughs. Robinson produced a joker playing-card design. The exact order of events varies depending on who you believe, but in essence, the character was a hybrid of influences. (Batman first appeared in a separate series, Detective Comics, which gave DC Comics its name and in which he still stars to this day.)īut the creation of the Clown Prince is shrouded in controversy, with the three men involved - writer Bill Finger and artists Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson - each offering a different account of how the Joker came to be. The Joker debuted in Batman #1, the Spring 1940 launch of the Dark Knight’s dedicated comic-book series it also revealed the superhero’s origin for the first time and contained the first appearance of Catwoman. Here’s a quick guide to the madcap history of the Caped Crusader’s deadliest enemy …. But the story of the most infamous villain in Batman’s rogues gallery is itself as interesting as any of the character’s adventures either on screen or the printed page. “It was one of those scenes where, given how complex the narrative was, by taking it out, it kept the story moving in a way it needed to,” he said.Laugh it up, film fans! Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is almost upon us, ready to unleash a wave of crime - and think pieces - the likes of which Hollywood hasn’t seen since Heath Ledger terrorized Gotham City in The Dark Knight over a decade ago. The Planet of the Apes franchise veteran also explained where the moment would have appeared in The Batman, taking place shortly after a key murder. “It’s not one of those end credits Marvel or DC scenes where it’s going, like, ‘Hey, here’s the next movie!’ In fact, I have no idea when or if we would return to that character in the movies.” He went as far as to describe the deleted scene in question, which he ultimately concluded “wasn’t necessary.” “It’s not an Easter egg scene,” Reeves said. Unfortunately for fans who want to see more of Keoghan as the supervillain, director/writer Matt Reeves told Variety this month that the scene in the theatrical rendition isn’t there to set up Joker as a major baddie for the sequel. Since The Batman picks up two years into Bruce Wayne’s journey as the titular character, his chat with Joker at Arkham offers a few tantalizing hints at their history. ![]()
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