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The Existential Loneliness That Unites Batman and the Joker
The Secret That Made Spider-Man A Killer


12/06/09
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.
is a magnificent turn of phrase--so much more insightful (and crafted) than the article it critiques.
12/06/09
The Joker is a liar. Through and through the Joker is not acquainted with reality or the truth. Whatever veil he can see behind to see the truth of human existence, we should all realize that he isnt even watching the same show as the rest of us. He makes it up as he goes along. In his word any justification is correct.
We shouldnt try to rationalize insane people.
Batman on the other hand sees the flaws of our existence and simply acts as an arbiter of justice. Thats all. He doesnt try to change the world or people through Batman, he just tries to keep it even. And he fails at it mostly.
12/07/09
12/07/09
A Batman blog would fail big time.
12/07/09
12/07/09
I always though that part of the movie was funny. What kind of idiot blows up a ship full of people thinking that they can trust the psycho that put them in that situation in the first place. Its completely illogical. They didnt spare each other out of the goodness in their hearts. They did it because it made sense. Even a hardened criminal has that much sense.
12/08/09
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12/06/09
Within the scope of TKJ, I think the Joker's backstory is more or less truthful. Within the scope of the DC Universe, it then becomes a question of whether TKJ is canon or not. At one point, I think it was, since Barbara Gordon has forever after been Oracle instead of Batgirl (alternate universes like the DCAU excluded), but I think TKJ itself got rebooted out of canon sometime back.
12/06/09
12/07/09
We've seen plenty of times where a comic book story that was written to be canon was written off later, and others where something that was written to fall outside of canon was "borrowed" in at a later date. Moore's intent only explains what he was thinking when he wrote it, not how DC has decided to treat it over the years. About the only way that you can guarantee how your story will continue to be treated over the years is to get it officially released under the Elseworlds imprint, which TKJ was not.
12/06/09
So can I get college credit since I already figured this out?
12/06/09
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12/07/09
Oh, and it's yin-yang. A ying-yang is something entirely different...
12/07/09
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12/06/09
Part of that might be because what you said about how he "He says things others are afraid to say, mocks our false assumptions, and forces a re-evaluation of our rules" is mostly wrong. At least in the film version, it recalls the bald-faced lie he told Harvey Dent about his not being a schemer. He was the biggest schemer in the movie. He was only foiled by other people working by gut morality rather than by the rules. He may have been smarter and more vicious, but he wasn't fundamentally different from any other sadistic criminal.
Going on, and pointing more at Novy, where I find the dynamic between him and Batman interesting resides entirely within how Batman reacts to him. If one holds to an ethos of captial punishment, then the solution is easy: kill the Joker. Hang 'im! But Batman doesn't, or least he defers those decisions to the State. He isn't The Punisher. So Batman is forced to deal ethically with an insane serial killer. As a proxy for our own criminal justice problems, it's fascinating.
And like how our society doesn't need its sociopaths and pedophiles, Batman doesn't need the Joker. The ying-yang thing is silly. It would suit Batman absolutely FINE to get rid of the Joker. He'd be better off with the Joker gone and further along in his goals, which exist independently of the Joker. Some day, Batman WANTS to retire. That's the whole point of trying to eradicate the criminal element: that glorious day when the Batman is no longer needed.
Maybe the Joker needs Batman as a foil, but that's because he is crazy. Like Jack and Scotland Yard, he needs to taunt, stalk and define himself in opposition to someone.
12/06/09
Some might bring up the point of self-image; wear a mask long enough and it becomes your face. But I think that's wrong too: Bruce Wayne became Batman when he was traumatized by witnessing his parents' murders. It shows in the moody post-college git who came home for the appeal hearing.
Batman may not need The Joker, but he needs a nemesis to keep the focus off his own issues. Hypothetically, if Gotham were clean Batman would still be Batman - he'd just be unemployed.
12/06/09
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Because I'm lonely. Existentially.
12/06/09
12/06/09
Where's two-face when you need him?
12/06/09
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*crickets*
12/07/09