tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1683921750421460204.post6165328818998830950..comments2023-12-21T02:21:43.238-08:00Comments on STOP ME IF YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE ...: The Joker - A Simple Trickster in a City full of DevilsKeith Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09191397165163257948noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1683921750421460204.post-85651549062086656882010-05-07T22:59:47.565-07:002010-05-07T22:59:47.565-07:00Looks like someone theorized right :)Looks like someone theorized right :)Lemonheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06295266731689562623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1683921750421460204.post-82617613189736756582010-01-18T04:32:12.426-08:002010-01-18T04:32:12.426-08:00I just came here to post about that ...
There'...I just came here to post about that ...<br /><br />There's a huge sense of irony as this "new, deadly" Black Glove, with minions the Club of Heroes, attempt to destroy Batman. This happens, and what do we see? We see Joker kill El Sombrero - a poser. We see Joker kill "El General" and become a finger of the Black Glove. Then he tells the rest of them, he'll come for each of them in turn.<br /><br />In the papers later, we find out that Cardinal Maggi too has been murdered, presumably by The Joker.<br /><br />And what's more? Jezebel Jet is murdered, presumably, by Talia al Ghul.<br /><br />Joker and Talia are the two classic Bat-villains that Morrison has been using. And why? Because of all his villains, Joker and Talia are OBSESSED with Batman. It's a love/hate thing, and they have a relationship with Batman. And they don't like new people coming in and changing that relationship.<br /><br />One would presume Joker and Talia also got payback on the "electronics mogul" and Al Khidr, the "sheik" ... and that the Black Glove is down to just two fingers. And that's why Joker chose "the Dead Man's Hand" with a Joker as a wild "final finger". He's calling the Black Glove a dead man.<br /><br />That being said - I'll admit, yes, nothing Joker has done is actually that chaotic. He set up a pattern for everyone to see - basically saying "life and death are a game that HE will always win at" and he stuck with the pattern.<br /><br />So while he's sort of "representing" being "beyond good and evil", he's not actually actively filling that role this arc so much as validating that claim - he likes things the way they were. He'd adapt. Batman would adapt. They'd focus on one another.<br /><br />Now, the interesting thing will be if Hurt really is "Bruce after 10,000 years" (He'd seem to be, since it seems like HE is the one who put those paintings of Bruce throughout history in Wayne Manor when El Sombrero was installing the death-traps) then it seems like Joker knows it.<br /><br />Which would mean that when El Penitente called Oberon Sexton on the phone and said "your sins have found you out", it was Bruce Wayne calling Joker.<br /><br />And that just opens a whole other can of crazy worms.Keith Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09191397165163257948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1683921750421460204.post-65936041661945013472010-01-16T15:39:39.039-08:002010-01-16T15:39:39.039-08:00Interesting analysis; I think the general flaw wit...Interesting analysis; I think the general flaw with it is that if Morrison is trying to set the Joker up as an agent of chaos, he's failing at it pretty miserably. For all the talk of chaos the Joker may immediately subscribe to, all he's been shown doing is killing people, trying to kill people, or having elaborate fantasies about killing lots more people.<br /><br />Now, that's fine if one views chaos as equivalent of evil, or general maliciousness. But that would put Batman, who is clearly on the side of good, also on the side of order, making order the equivalent of good. And that's a lazy bit of writing that gives us the exact type of fascist jerk-ass Batman Morrison is trying to get away from.<br /><br />The Joker's behavior in RiP wasn't so much him embracing chaos against Hurt's embrace of evil as it was Joker essentially one-upping Hurt. Joker actually wanted to be one of the Black Glove, remember? (Or at least, he said he did.) Even post-Clown At Midnight, Joker is like a demonic Reese's Cup; delicious milk-chocolate Chaos covering a creamy Evil center.<br /><br />Of course, since the story is still on-going, this could easily change; if Oberon really is the Joker (and I think that's a very sound theory; there has to be some reason he won't show his face, after all), then the paradigm changes. But as it stands now, Joker didn't act as a wild card; he acted very true to form.E. Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04211698571194443222noreply@blogger.com