| Adaptations of the Joker in other media | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Jerry Robinson (concept) Bill Finger Bob Kane |
| Original source | Comics published by DC Comics |
| First appearance | Batman #1 (Spring 1940) |
| Films and television | |
| Film(s) | Batman (1966) Batman (1989) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) The Dark Knight (2008) |
| Television show(s) |
Batman (1966) Batman: The Animated Series (1992) The Batman (2004) Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008) |
Although Batman's archenemy, the Joker, originated as a comic book character, he has appeared in several other media. The Joker has been portrayed by Cesar Romero in the Batman television series, Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's Batman, and Heath Ledger in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, which posthumously earned Ledger the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Larry Storch, Frank Welker, Mark Hamill, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jeff Bennett, Steven Blum, Richard Epcar, John DiMaggio, Corey Burton and Brent Spiner have provided the voice for the character in animated form.
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Cesar Romero portrays the character in 19 episodes of the 1960s Batman television series. The Joker of this series is characterized by a cackling laugh and comedy-themed crimes, such as turning the city's water supply into jelly and pulling off a stand-up comedy-themed bank heist. In one episode he competed with Batman in a surfing contest. Romero refused to shave his distinctive mustache for the role, and it was partially visible beneath his white face makeup. Romero reprises his role in the 1966 film Batman. A parody of Batman, Joker has his own "utility belt" and "Jokermobile". Stories sometimes saw Joker teamed up with the Penguin and Catwoman. In the movie, he is teamed up with both of them and the Riddler as well. The only information on his past life is a remark by Batman that the Joker had been a hypnotist in his youth.
The Joker is portrayed by Jack Nicholson, serving as the main antagonist in the 1989 film Batman. In the film, the character is a gangster named Jack Napier, the right-hand man of crime boss Carl Grissom (Jack Palance). Napier is disfigured during a confrontation with Batman (Michael Keaton) in a chemical factory; he is shot in the face by a ricochet from his own pistol, which severs the nerves in his face muscles, before falling into a vat of chemicals. Although there are many versions of the Joker's origins, the filmmakers decided to use one loosely resembling the origin in the 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, in which he is disfigured when he falls into a vat of chemicals at the Axis Chemical plant. The filmmakers thought this origin was the most familiar to their audiences and that it fit with the themes they wanted to elaborate on. The chemicals bleach his skin and turn his hair green and lips red, while his trademark grin is the result of botched plastic surgery in the immediate aftermath of the accident.
Driven insane by his reflection, he kills Grissom and takes over his gang, launching a crime wave designed to "outdo" Batman, who he feels is getting too much press. He describes himself as a "homicidal artist" who makes avant-garde "art" by killing people with Smilex gas, which leaves its victims with a grotesque grin. Bruce Wayne confronts the Joker, and later recognizes him as the mugger who murdered his parents. The Joker kidnaps reporter Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) and attempts to massacre Gotham City, but Batman foils his plan. During the ensuing battle, Batman and the Joker discover each other's identities and realize that they "made each other". As the Joker is about to escape in a helicopter, Batman ties a grappling hook onto the Joker's leg and attaches it to a stone gargoyle; the Joker falls to his death when the gargoyle breaks loose of its moorings.
There is a flashback scene showing Napier's murder of Bruce Wayne's parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, in an alley. The young Napier is played by Hugo E. Blick. The young Napier reappears in the 1995 film Batman Forever, played by David U. Hodges, in a flashback by Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer) of the night his parents were killed.
Nicholson's performance was very well-received; Newsweek's review of the film stated that the best scenes in the movie are due to the surreal black comedy portrayed in this character.[1] In 2003, American Film Institute named Nicholson's performance #45 out of 50 greatest film villains.[2][3]
During the OnStar "Batman" ad campaign, the Joker appears in one commercial, played by Curtis Armstrong. Roger Stoneburner makes a cameo appearance as the character in an episode of Birds of Prey. Mark Hamill, who voiced the Joker in various animated shows throughout the 1990s, provides the Joker's voice in the scene, and he is the only one of the two actors to be credited.
The Joker's existence is hinted at the end of the 2005 film Batman Begins, where Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) reveals the existence of an armed robber/killer who leaves Joker playing cards at scenes of his crimes. He later appears as the main antagonist of the 2008 sequel, The Dark Knight, portrayed by Heath Ledger, who told Sarah Lyall of The New York Times that he viewed that film's version of the character as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."[4]
In this film, he is a bank robber targeting Mafia-owned banks, whom Gotham's crime families reluctantly hire to kill Batman (Christian Bale) after he offers them his services. It is gradually revealed that he desires to upset social order through crime, and that he defines himself by his battle with Batman.
Costume designer Lindy Hemming described the Joker's look as being based around his personality, in that "he doesn't care about himself at all." She avoided his design being vagrant, but nonetheless, it is "scruffier, grungier and therefore when you see him move, he's slightly twitchier or edgy."[5] Unlike most incarnations, where his appearance is a result of chemical bleaching, this Joker sports a Glasgow smile, and accentuates it through unevenly applied make-up and dyed green hair. During the course of the film, he tells conflicting stories about how he acquired the scars, which involve child abuse and self-mutilation. He carves Glasgow smiles into his victims' faces as well, in lieu of the post-mortem smiles created by Joker venom.
Unlike the previous film and comic-book depictions of the Joker, this one eschews gag-based weapons common to the character, in favor of knives, firearms, and an array of explosive devices. In the film, the Joker is responsible for the death of Batman's childhood sweetheart Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and District Attorney Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart).[6] During the film's climax, the Joker threatens to blow up the city to manipulate people into escaping on two boats that he has rigged to explode, one filled with civilians and the other with prisoners; he threatens to blow them both up at midnight unless one of them destroys the other first. When neither boat destroys the other, Batman tells him that his plan has failed, and throws him off the edge of a building. However, Batman saves his life by catching him with a grappling hook. As Batman leaves him for the authorities to arrest, the Joker says that he will win the "battle for Gotham's soul" once Gothamites learn of Dent's actions as Two-Face. Batman takes responsibility for Two-Face's crimes to keep Dent's work for Gotham from being undone.
Ledger's portrayal of the Joker was widely praised by critics. On February 22, 2009, Ledger posthumously won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.[7] He was the fourth actor to be nominated for the portrayal of a comic strip/comic book/graphic novel character (the others being Al Pacino in Dick Tracy, Paul Newman in Road to Perdition, and William Hurt in A History of Violence), and the first to win.
The Joker is voiced by Mark Hamill in several animated shows in the DC Animated Universe:
A different interpretation of the Joker appears in the animated series The Batman, voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson in English and Naoki Tatsuta in Japanese. This incarnation sports a purple and yellow straitjacket, fingerless gloves, bare feet, wild green hair, and red eyes. The Joker also moves and fights with a Monkey Kung Fu-like style using his feet as dexterously as his hands, and often hangs from the walls and ceilings (as the series progresses, these abilities do not appear as much). His appearance becomes somewhat refined later in the series, where he adopts the more traditional garb of a purple suit and spats, but he still has wild hair and wears no shoes, save one episode. In "Strange Mind", Dr. Strange and Batman travel into the mind of the Joker to find the Joker before his accident as a low-level office worker who once dreamed of "making people laugh". His lip color also changed with his outfit, from a bright red to a dark, almost blackish, red.
In the animated feature The Batman vs. Dracula, he is temporarily transformed into a vampire with paler clothes, claws, fangs and supernatural powers.
In the TV show Krypto the Superdog, the Joker's trained pet hyenas, Bud and Lou, are villains and enemies of Ace the Bat-Hound and Krypto the Superdog. The Joker himself does not appear in the show, but is mentioned on various occasions.
In Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Deep Cover for Batman!"[8] a heroic alternative reality version of the Joker called Red Hood appears and is voiced by Jeff Bennett. He is shown to be an extremely capable fighter, able to hold his own against multiple members of the Injustice Syndicate. In addition, he wields projectile weapons shaped like spades (a reference to his alternate universe counterpart's playing card motif). Like the Joker, this Red Hood was disfigured after falling into a chemical vat at the Ace Chemical Plant. In his case, he was already a superhero and was actively dropped in by Owlman. His sanity is said to have been "Bent, but not broken." Red Hood then tries to rally his world's heroes (alternate versions of the villains from the "normal" universe) against the Injustice Syndicate, but they are defeated. Red Hood escapes and tries to use a device to recruit help from an alternate Earth (Batman's universe), but he is captured by the Syndicate. After Batman is attacked by his alternate-reality doppelganger, Owlman (sent to Batman's universe on a reconnaissance mission), he journeys to Red Hood's dimension. During scenes in this episode, the Red Hood's face is shown, but in shadow, showing a bit of green hair and a wide grin that clearly resembles the Joker. After the heroes are freed and the villains defeated, Red Hood thanks Batman and hopes his counterpart can return the favor. Sure enough, in the next episode "Game Over for Owlman!", Batman is forced to team-up with the Joker in order to defeat Owlman, who has impersonated Batman and ruined his reputation in his absence. When the Joker asks Batman what made him takes his chances working with him, Batman briefly has a flashback of his last moment with Red Hood and replies "Something a friend said".
The Joker himself made his debut on the show in the episode "Game Over for Owlman!" (a continuation of "Deep Cover for Batman!") also voiced by Jeff Bennett. His appearance and personality is very similar to the Silver Age version, as drawn by Dick Sprang.[9] With the police and some of his superhero friends after him, Batman has no option but to team up with Joker to stop Owlman's crime spree especially when Owlman was upstaging Joker. During that time, the Joker briefly becomes a hero, but ultimately goes back to his evil roots because being a good guy was "just not him". Joker makes an appearance in "Legends of the Dark Mite!" along with the Penguin and other Batman villains. Joker appears in the teaser to "Hail the Tornado Tyrant!" when he is being tailed by Batman and Green Arrow during a series of robberies. He is captured after his car's many means of propulsion are destroyed by the combined efforts of the heroes. Joker also appears in the episode "Death Race to Oblivion!" as one of Mongul's racers. He creates tough obstacles for Batman and the others until after he is out of the race. He occasionally provides a play-by-play of the race while doing so. He is transported to a cell with the other losing villains and later put in a green cell created by Guy Gardner's power ring. Joker appears again among other villains in a bidding for a supersonic weapon held by arms dealer Joe Chill in the episode "Chill of the Night!" He later appears in "Emperor Joker!" as the primary antagonist along with his love, Harley Quinn and again in the episode "The Knights of Tomorrow!". In the Scooby-Doo crossover created by Bat-Mite, Joker was voiced by Corey Burton. In typical Joker style, he takes over an episode, which is called "Joker: The Vile and the Villainous!" where the roles of protagonist and antagonist are reversed. Even the theme song is a "Jokerized" version, with several of his fellow criminals shown. He reappears in "Night of the Batmen!", where he plans to make everyone on Earth insane just like him. He also captures Green Arrow, Plastic Man, Aquaman, and Captain Marvel: all were substituting for Batman, who was critically injured while fighting Kanjar Ro. Fortunately, Batman makes a special exosuit to free his partners and foil Joker. In one last attempt to kill the Dark Knight, Joker tries to electrocute him with his Joy-Buzzer, but Batman anticipated this and counterattacks by shocking Joker himself. He also appears in both the opening and the main plot of "Triumvirate of Terror". In the opening, he was seen playing baseball with the Legion of Doom against the Justice League International. In the main plot, Joker tries to kill Batman and Vicki Vale by launching a giant exploding pie onto them. But, as a predictable result, Batman escaped, freed Vicki, and dodged the pie before it hit. However, the Joker managed to make his escape. He later met up with Lex Luthor and the Cheetah, both who were having trouble dealing with their enemies Superman and Wonder Woman, respectively. They agree to switch enemies to destroy them. As such, Joker went after Wonder Woman. However, before he could kill her with a giant hammer, Luthor teleported the heroes and villains to their hideout, where they were going to kill them all on a worldwide broadcast. Fortunately, just as the villains switched heroes to fight, the heroes did the same, triple-teaming on them to defeat them. He also appears in the opening for "Powerless", where he has assembled a group called the Jokers of All Nations to fight the Batmen of All Nations. This team is made up of an Inuit, a hockey player, a Scotsman, a Cossak, and a sumo wrestler. Joker also appears in the opening for "Crisis: 22,300 Miles Above Earth" where he was hosting a celebrity roast to literally roast Batman. He has also invited Clock King, Gorilla Grodd, Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Kite Man, Gentleman Ghost, Black Manta, Riddler, and Solomon Grundy to the roast. The Joker has even forced Jeff Ross to roast Batman, but it turns out that Ross was a distraction for Batman to escape the roasting stick. When Joker tried to escape, Jeff got in his way and knocked him out. His final appearance was in "Mitefall" as one of the guests at the series cancellation party set up by Ambush Bug. He was mainly seen alongside Harley Quinn.
A parallel earth, heroic version of the Joker called "the Jester" appears in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths voiced by James Patrick Stuart. He is a longtime ally of that Earth's Lex Luthor and a former member of their world's Justice League. He sacrifices his life taking out two supervillains in the process at the beginning of the film so that Luthor can escape and get help for their Earth which has been besieged by the villainous Crime Syndicate of America. Back at his lair, he is shown to have a monkey called Harley, whom Lex sadly informs that "the Jester is never coming back".
"The Joker's Playhouse" (2010) was an original video animation produced for Fisher-Price Imaginext's DC Super Friends and included as a DVD insert for the toyline. The episode features Joker taking over the Hall of Justice and the Super Friends running the gamut to reclaim it. The Joker is voiced by John Kassir.
The Joker appears in the animated original movie which is based on the same book, Batman: Under the Red Hood, voiced by John DiMaggio. As Red Hood, he appears in one of the flashback scenes showing some material from Batman: The Killing Joke, where it is implied that several people have used the Red Hood persona (another nod to The Killing Joke), besides Jason and the Joker. The Joker is hired by Ra's al Ghul to distract Batman and Jason Todd, the second Robin, from the terrorist's plan to destroy the world economy. The Joker lures the Dynamic Duo to Sarajevo, Bosnia, where he beats Jason with a crowbar and leaves him to be killed by a bomb. Feeling guilty for his death, Ra's al Ghul revives Jason with the Lazarus Pit. Years later, Jason returns to Gotham as a crime lord calling himself the Red Hood, purposely taking his murderer's former criminal identity to attract his attention. After his first encounter with the Red Hood, Batman goes to Joker for information in Arkham Asylum. He claims that there is no connection. When Red Hood tries to kill him, Black Mask hires the Joker as a hitman to take down the Red Hood. The Joker kidnaps Jason's eight under-bosses, including the Black Mask, and holds them hostage inside an oil tanker. Jason arrives and reveals that his previous actions were designed to lure the Joker away from the safety of Arkham so that he could kill him. Jason beats and kidnaps the Joker and brings him to Crime Alley. He forces Batman to either kill him or the Joker, or Jason will detonate a bomb killing all three of them. Refusing either offer, Batman allows Jason to detonate the bomb but saves himself, Jason and the Joker. While Jason escapes, Batman takes the Joker back to Arkham.
The Joker appears in the Young Justice episode "Revelations", voiced by Brent Spiner. He was part of the Injustice League, and seen controlling Poison Ivy's plants all over the world.[10] As in the comics, it was him who discovered the Justice League's mountain hideout. He is apparently to be immune to telepathy, as shown in issue #2 of the tie-in comic series when Martian Manhunter tried to enter his mind, but doubled over in pain with Joker replying "Scary in there, isn't it?". He uses switchblades as weapons, similar to Heath Ledger's portrayal. He also has a fourth-wall awareness, shown when he looks into the camera and says "Admit it: you can't turn away".
The Joker appears in numerous Batman-related video games, often being the main antagonist:
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