Ron Novy, a lecturer at the University of Central Arkansas, argues that what Batman and the Joker have in common are formative traumas that highlight how easily order can slip away. Bruce Wayne, of course, saw his parents killed in front of him as a child, thus learning an unwelcome lesson about how peace can be upturned and the law can fail.

Novy draws on Alan Moore's semi-canonical Batman: The Killing Joke to explain how the Joker's experience mirrors Batman's own. In Killing Joke, the man who'll become the Joker is a struggling stand-up comic forced to turn to crime. His pregnant wife dies just before a botched break-in at a chemical plant, where the comedian falls into a vat of chemicals that turn him into a chalk-faced, green-haired ghoul. Seeing his reflection, his mind finally breaks, and a villain is born.

Throughout Killing Joke, the Joker keeps returning to his theory that "one bad day" is all it takes for a morally upright person to access their depraved side. If anyone can sympathize, Novy points out (as have others), it's the prematurely orphaned Bruce Wayne.

By Novy's lights, Batman and the Joker have each "glimpsed behind the curtain of appearances," learning all too well how artificial, and easily broken, are the rules and codes that keep the world running smoothly. The difference lies in how they use their insights. One fights to preserve the system; the other takes a jackhammer to it.

Novy doesn't mention The Dark Knight, possibly because that movie makes too much of the hero-villain kinship to support his conclusions. Even so, his essay and Heath Ledger's anarchic portrayal of the Joker — by turns acerbic, childlike, barbarous, and oddly feminine, as if he were bored even with the unwritten rules about how a man should walk or talk — seem to be in a kind of accidental dialogue.

At one point, Ledger's Joker is called crazy, and he flatly refutes it: "I'm not. No, I'm not." It's the most serious we'll see him in the whole movie. If anything, Ledger's Joker believes he's the sanest guy around. He understands things on a level that almost no one else does — the only other person operating without illusions is Batman himself.

It's that shared alienation, Novy suggests, that makes Batman and the Joker such perfectly matched foes. Though it's a bone-deep character trait that they only have in common with each other, it's also what drives their struggle — what Novy calls "a relationship without which each one would cease to be who he now is." Or as the Joker puts it in The Dark Night, "I think you and I are destined to do this forever."

What is it like to be a Batman? [The Philosophers' Magazine]

Apparently, the Joker would have to be crazy to team up with other Bat-adversaries, as he regularly does in the comics, especially those written by Jeph Loeb. After all, the Joker's satisfaction in defeating Batman goes down the more people are involved, because he derives maximum satisfaction from disposing of Bats himself. (Assuming the Joker actually wants to kill Batman, which isn't really his goal anyway.) Of course, the Joker's chances of defeating Batman go up if he collaborates with other villains — but then the law of diminishing returns kicks in, so each extra villain you add to the scenario only increases the Joker's effectiveness by a small percentage.

In a second blog post, ShadowBanker (who appears to be smarter than a lot of non-shadow bankers) examines a scenario where two or more Bat-villains team up and actually succeed in defeating Batman. Is it in their interest to betray each other? Answering this question requires game theory, the prisoner's dilemma, and a chart showing how Mr. Freeze and Two-Face can maximize their utility. (Short answer: each villain comes out on top if he betrays the other... but not if they both betray each other.)

If only Gotham City's nastiest actually thought about the prisoner's dilemma before they decided to work with Hush or Black Mask. Someone needs to toss Brad DeLong into a vat of chemicals so he can smarten those rogues up.

Looking like a bulkier, meaner version of a Kubrick, the new range of toys from DC Direct - due to debut next year - is explained thusly by the company:

Kick off 2010 with a powerful and cute new look for your favorite DC Comics heroes - BATMAN, GREEN LANTERN, AQUAMAN - and more. Blammoids, a new wave of boldly designed toys from the team at DC DIRECT are unlike anything you've experienced before, but you'll definitely want to experience them again. A striking, energetic and kinetic take on the heroes you hold dear, how could you not want to collect them all? They bounce. They BOOM. They're collectible. They're Blammoids. They're fun.

I have to admit, I kind of love the weird cubiness of the Superman, and the other characters are if anything even better (Come on, look at that Aquaman):
Also, it's worth noting that Blammoid Superman is apparently a mean son of a block - Look what he's done to poor Blammoid Lex Luthor:
Blammoids will invade your lives starting next year. Watch your arms.

According to the Associated Press, Army Spc. Christopher Lanum had allegedly stabbed a fellow soldier at Fort Eustis, Virginia.

According to the FBI affidavit filed in federal court in Montowski's case, Lanum was dressed in The Joker outfit at the time of an argument early Sunday with his Fort Eustis suite mate, Spc. Mitchell Stone. Montowski told the FBI that Lanum idolized the character.

After stabbing and using a stun gun on Stone, Lanum and his girlfriend fled the scene in a mini van, and were pursued by police. When he refused to drop his shot gun and fired, the van went under fire by police. Stone survived.

This saddens me to no end. I beg anyone out there who needs help or starts relating to the incredibly troubled character, the Joker, in a serious manner to seek help immediately.

Apart from the droves of Nurse Jokers, and the standard Star Wars fare (if there's a con with out a Stromtrooper I don't want to know about it), this year had a lot of surprises and classics. Of course there were the Jayne hats, because Joss Whedon was there...what else do you wear to see Joss?? But the biggest surprise was the sheer number of fans donning G.I. Joe wear. Also, is that a lady Snake Eyes I see? Enjoy the round up, and good work guys - especially you, Bat-Mite and Teen Titans.

Spider-Man	Star Wars	Ghostbusters
G.I. Joe	Comic Characters	TV, Movies And Random Fantastic
Watchmen	Batman	Jayne Hats

We could not have compiled this list with out the help from our many volunteers and the very talented Istolethetv and Ellen Wright. Please check out their amazing collections as well.

We'll start with the obvious ones. If you're looking for some last minute Hallowe'en comics, you're looking for Marvel's Essential Marvel Horror Vol. 2, packed with reprints of old 1970s horror comics from Marvel's comic-code-and-therefore-toothless era. Which isn't to say that they're not awesome. I mean, come on: Brother Voodoo? Gabriel The Devil Hunter? Sheer comic gold. Then there's Dark Horse's Ghost Omnibus Vol. 1, which offers a two-gun totin' spectral crimefightin' femme fatale. I can't believe this one hasn't crossed over into the movies yet.

You might also want to spend Hallowe'en with Image Comics' Screamland, which looks at what happened to the classic horror monsters of yesteryear after they'd been replaced by computer-generated effects and spat out of the Hollywood Machine. Completely recommended.

Otherwise, it's a week dominated by superheroes - Marvel is putting out a new Warren Ellis series Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes, which ties in with his current Astonishing X-Men run. Though I'd point most people in the direction of the one-off, more fun, X-Men: First Class Giant Size Special instead. I'd also recommend Ultimate Captain America Annual, which will hopefully explain why the Black Panther ended up being white, blue-eyed and... well, Captain America.

DC is having a particularly Bat Week - In addition to the Joker graphic novel, there's also the collected version of the manga series Batman: Death Mask. It's not all Batman, though: Fans of cosmic-powered jewelry, classic ring-slinging action get their day in the sun as well, with the reprint anthology Green Lantern: In Brightest Day, or the rescheduled Final Crisis: Rage Of The Red Lanterns oneshot, which sets up next year's The Blackest Night storyline.

Me, I'd suggest that whether it's a brightest day or a blackest night, the complete list of this week's new comic releases shouldn't escape your sight. And while you're looking out for things, the Comic Shop Locator Service is worth a peep as well. Because, no matter what the weather, comics can make you happy... or, at least, keep you busy until Friday night.

The gloom and doom begins with the titular baddie—wearing Ledger’s thickly scarred, elongated smirk—inexplicably released from Arkham Asylum. He stomps his way through the wrought-iron gates before flipping the city the bird. We spot a recidivist! Since it’s no fun being privy to the protagonist’s unpredictable, sinister thoughts, we’re instead saddled with Johnny Frost, a taciturn career criminal/Joker groupie who acts as our uncharismatic narrator. His arc is a sincere, if obvious, one—wrestling with his conscience in the face of escalating carnage—presumably making him an unwitting foil to his boss who steals the spotlight handily. The Joker, you see, shrugs off his post-prison ennui by instigating a bloody turf-war involving a rogue’s gallery of Gotham villains: among them The Penguin, The Riddler, and Two-Face. His goal, of course, isn’t lucre, but rather, power.

Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo make a few half-hearted attempts at psychoanalyzing their merciless muse—a prison story here, a fleeting expression of vulnerability there—to no end. Perhaps this is for the best: Few deep interpretations, if any, rival Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s Batman: The Killing Joke. And after all, what made Ledger’s portrayal of the felon so transformative was the utter disregard for his motivation, punctuated by the Joker’s cheeky, bathetic explanations for his facial scars. In contrast, this graphic novel suffers a bit from the singularity of its central character. Where Ledger (and his script) imbued the Joker with a searing mix of wit and fiendishness, Azzarello makes him a ghoul who rattles off a few puns about Two-Face’s unfortunate cutaeous condition. Bermejo’s illustrations, meanwhile, dither curiously between nicely crinkled, craggled renderings and the occasional richly painted panel—for no discernable reason.

Where is Batman during all of this? Intriguingly, the man in black is intimated but not really name-checked; that leaves The Joker as our mercurial anti-hero. Azzarello’s clever set-up would work, but for the almost-categoric unlikeability of this brutish evildoer, which isn't helped by the lack of insight into the politics of the underworld. Here, the baddies simply hunt and spar prodigiously, quaking in their boots as the marquee star shows off his knack for setting-off explosions. When all is done, it's hard to take this Joker, which feels more like a dazzling spree than a gripping story, too seriously.

The book hits stores Oct. 29.

Image courtesy of DC Comics

The original graphic novel by the fan favorite crime writer marks the start of a exciting time for those wanting to see more of what made The Dark Knight so special; a week after this unofficial sequel to this summer's box office smash - Azzarello says that his take on the character is "eerily similar" to Nolan and Ledger's - hits stores, the Batman RIP storyline finishes in Batman #681 (Again, featuring a showdown between Batman and the Joker - although the grinning one doesn't seem to be the main badguy behind Bruce Wayne's near-death experience judging by what we know so far). The week following that, Kevin Smith returns to Gotham City for the first issue of Batman: Cacophany - offering what may be the last brand new Bruce Wayne adventure for awhile. It may have seemed that DC weren't making their most of Dark Knight fever this summer, but now it looks like they were just saving up their goodies to make sure that they'll own the holiday season...

EXCLUSIVE: Preview Azzarello and Bermejo’s JOKER, the original graphic novel! [MySpace]

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I'm seriously hoping this doesn't come down to Joker vs. Lex... that would be kind of sad.

Joker/Q image uses Joker concept art by Lee Bermejo.

Honestly, my main quibble about these images is that he looks a bit too much like the plague vampires from I Am Legend, and has none of the grubbiness of Heath Ledger's final version. You can see bigger versions, and the rest of the images, over at Slashfilm. [Slashfilm]

So hmmm... If these pics are real — and they do look real to me, even though Harvey Dent's hand isn't scarred — then I can't wait to hear the dialog in this scene. The Joker traipses in, in his crisp looking white nurse dress, and it looks as though he revels in Harvey Dent's condition. Since the Joker's aim is to turn the forces of law and order into avatars of chaos like himself, he has to be pretty stoked to see Harvey looking all messed up and crazed. It makes me wonder if we'll see more of Two Face in this movie than we originally thought, since this scene looks like it would lead somewhere interesting. Way more pics at the link: [SpoilerTV-Movies]

The Classics

The Dark Knight Returns: Frank Miller's 1986 reinvention of Batman is still one of his best-known and most well-regarded stories. Sure, a lot of it may not have aged well - all of the Ronald Reagan scenes, for example - but no-one can deny how good it is to see Bruce Wayne come out of retirement to kick some mutant ass and save the world.

Batman: Year One: Going from Batman's retirement to his origins, Miller's follow-up to Dark Knight (illustrated beautifully by David Mazucchelli and Richmond Lewis) provides not only the tone for Batman Begins but also for most Batman comics for about the next two decades. Don't hold that against it, though; melding noir to superheroics with skill and restraint, this may be the best Batman comic ever.

The Killing Joke: The potential secret origin of the Joker, courtesy of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, both at the height of their powers. For the first time since his creation, Batman's most famous nemesis comes over and scary and dangerous, and a million miles away from Cesar Romero... sadly enough for poor Batgirl.

The Obscure

Batman: Year One Hundred: Paul Pope takes a jump to 2039 (100 years after Bob Kane invented Batman, hence the title) and shows us how a totalitarian police state deals with a vigilante Pope describes as "someone with the body of David Beckham, the brain of Nikola Tesla, and the wealth of Howard Hughes, who is pretending to be Nosferatu." Like Blade Runner, but with costumes and punching.

Gotham Central: Unresolved Targets: What happens when the Joker discovers the internet? Why, he starts killing people live on webcam and holds the city hostage to the idea that they might be next, of course. This collection from the sadly short-lived Gotham Central series by Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark (all currently to found on Marvel's Daredevil series) shows us the terror from the point of view of Gotham's cops... who aren't exactly Batman's biggest fans.

JLA: New World Order: Anyone who's read Grant Morrison's take on the Justice League of America knows that Batman can do anything if he puts his mind to it. That's a fact demonstrated best in this first collection, where the Dark Knight single-handedly defeats an alien invasion and saves all the super-powered heroes with only his wits and a box of matches. Garishly-colored superheroics the way you need it.

Batman: Dangerous Dames and Demons: An anthology of comics based on the old animated series from the '90s, all written by that show's executive producer Paul Dini and drawn by various artists from the show, including Bruce Timm. Worth it to see Harley Quinn cut loose in Mad Love alone.

The Admittedly Goofy

A Death In The Family: Post-Killing Joke, the regular Batbooks decided to try out this new murderous Joker for themselves, letting fans decide via phone vote whether or not he'd succeed in killing Robin the Boy Wonder. Fans voted in their thousands, and poor Robin was toast... Well, until they brought him back from the dead a few years ago.

Showcase Presents: The Brave And The Bold - The Batman Team-Ups Volume 2: While both Brave and Bold collections are full of enjoyably stupid Batman stories from the late '60s and early '70s, the second volume is by far the greatest, if only for the stories where Batman meets the ghosts of his dead parents and fights the devil. Here's a clue how that one ends up: The devil wins.

All-Star Batman Volume One: It seemed like a no-lose proposition for DC Comics: Pair up your hottest artist, Jim Lee, with Frank Miller returning to the character that made his name. The problem was that the result was a dark-natured parody of the character who's given to saying things like "Are you dense? Are you retarded? I'm the goddamn Batman" to people who ask why he'd dressed in that ridiculous outfit. Completely over-the-top fun.

Here are some new high-res Joker stills that came out, some of which are totally new. I can't believe the crazy shot of the Joker taking off his clown mask to reveal his real clown face underneath — like a mask behind a mask. Or is the painted clown face the Joker's "real" face? I'm also loving the Joker in what almost looks like and old timey "pistols at dawn" kind of duel. But instead of a pistol it's a semi-automatic. Plus the Joker leaving his calling card.

If you look closely at the face paint in some of these shots, you can see skin....any chance we'll see joker without the black and white make-up? Either way, he looks hella psychotic scary, and Mattel apparently agrees. Collider.com is reporting that Mattel is worried that the 'Heath Ledger' figurines are so frightening that children won't buy them. So collectors are scrambling to get copies of the original, canceled figures, there will be a new, "friendlier" animated-style children's version in stores soon.

[Taylor's Entertainment News and Latino Review]

The cake-baking was our first clue that Warners had gone over the edge. The viral marketing for Knight involved following clues on various websites, which led you to even more websites, which led you to phone lines. Eventually you would be led to a bakery, where you could pick up a free mystery cake. Baked inside the cake was a cell phone, and further instructions. Thankfully, no one actually ingested one of the phones. We can just imagine the lawsuits.

Now, they're taking things in a strangely different direction, by sending muddied novelty packages to people like rock-lite star John Mayer, who promptly posted about the thing on his blog. Is it any surprise that Mayer's label is Warner Music? No, no really. So what are they trying to prove by having their own artists shill the goods and drink the kool-aid?

This reminds us about what Kevin Smith said at Comic-Con last year. It's not like Steven Spielberg has to come down to the Con and promise everyone free handjobs to go see Indy IV. People will go see it regardless. The Dark Knight probably falls into that same camp, right? We just wonder what marketing ploy they'll pull off next. Will Heath Ledger come to your house in Joker-wear and spend the night with you? It could still happen.

Cool Stuff: Dark Knight Promotional Items From The Joker [/Film]