posted
They hired some guy who wrote a few episodes of Heroes to write it.
I guess that hacks like Alan Moore or Paul Dini just didn't cook up good enough explanations, eh?
It's pretty lame so far. They borrow heavily from the Tim Burton Batman film...which while a fun Tim Burton movie, was not all that great a Batman movie.
Some guy named "Jack" is a genius criminal, but he's bored of crime because he's so darn good at it. He meets Harley Quinn as a waitress in a sleazy diner, chats with her...commits a crime...then sees Batman in action and decides to draw his attention because...well, just BECAUSE.
Oh, and there's all sorts of "cute" foreshadowing. Destiny! "Clever" references! WHEE!
I swear, this "Hey! Let's give a major story to this guy, he's a TV WRITER" thing is getting old. Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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DC Comics has had an official origin for the Joker for decades.
He's a criminal. He puts on a Red Hood to commit crimes. He falls into chemical waste during a job that was foiled by Batman. He came out with his skin and hair changed to make him look the way he does now. That is all.
It's very similar to the origin of Plastic Man, though he wound up a hero.
"He used to be a crook but he reformed and then He reformed and reformed and reformed again!"
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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"The Killing Joke" is the only origin story for the Joker ever needed - including the fuzziness about whether that's actually what happened or not.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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The greatest thing about Moore's Killing Joke was that sometimes the Joker remembered his origin one way, and sometimes another. It made perfect sense, and it gave them an excuse to create all the Joker origin stories they wanted without taking away a shred of the character's mystery.
To give him a history and call it "official" is taking away that trump card.
As for Burton's first Batman movie . . .
I really consider it Sam Hamm's Batman movie. Burton was wayyyy reigned in on that one, as is apparent from the second film, where they didn't reign him in at all.
And I think Sam Hamm did great. I enjoyed his Dark Justice series, too, the series he wrote for Detective Comics around issue 600 for the Batman's 50th.
The movie was, to me, a public introduction of the darker Batman character that readers of the comics new since the 70's, but that the film and television watching public was completely unaquainted with. It was a bridge, and I think it was an effective bridge.
And the script was great. Some of the best lines never made it in to the movie.
"Aw, can't I keep her? I'll feed her! Honest!"
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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A great film, in which Batman coldly and indifferently kills HOW many guys?
(I know the very earliest Batman stories have him killing criminals and even using a gun, but that was dropped quickly.)
The character in that movie didn't resemble the Dark Knight Detective of the comics anymore than he resembled the Adam West version.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Lisa: DC Comics has had an official origin for the Joker for decades.
He's a criminal. He puts on a Red Hood to commit crimes. He falls into chemical waste during a job that was foiled by Batman. He came out with his skin and hair changed to make him look the way he does now. That is all.
It was decided over twenty years ago to make the "Red Hood" story ambiguous and uncertain. It's true that Batman once fought a crook known as the Red Hood, but who he was, why he was wearing the Hood, and how he became the Joker, or even if it was the same guy wearing the Hood each time is no longer clear.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: The Killing Joke is apparently the source material for the Joker in the upcoming movie.
They're taking that as inspiration for how he'll be portrayed, yeah. Not the campy, over-the-top Nicholson version...but a disturbed, scary guy.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
On another note, Harley Quinn had an excellent origin in Mad Love, one that made the transition to the "mainstream" DC Comics well.
Why turn her from former Arkham Asylum psychiatrist driven insane with love into lowbrow diner waitress? It's far less compelling.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Dagonee: "The Killing Joke" is the only origin story for the Joker ever needed - including the fuzziness about whether that's actually what happened or not.
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Wow. I took the "Meets Harley Quinn as a waitress" to be just another strange coincidence along the way to them eventually meeting at the asylum. I didn't realize that it meant they'd worked together, well, forever.
So, just toss out every pre-Harley Joker comic I own, becaue they're not part of the "official" cannon anymore, huh?
Stupid . . .
quote:The character in that movie didn't resemble the Dark Knight Detective of the comics anymore than he resembled the Adam West version.
That's an interesting point.
I do think it was an accurate portrayl of the Batman in the comics at the time. This was just a few years after Miller's Dark Knight series, when Robin had just died, and Batman was sort of losing the boundries he'd always had--ostesibly because he didn't have a "Robin" around to keep him in check, but really because they were moving the comics closer to the Miller portrayl.
You can certainly count me in the Denny O'Neil camp in the O'Neil vs. Frank Miller arguement over who Batman really is and what he stands for.
And I certainly think the people trying to emulate Miller have gone a long way in damaging comics and characters's souls.
(Which is actually what Infinite Crisis was supposed to be about--restoring some of the heart and soul of some characters who'd lost them in the post Dark Knight era.)
I actually just got the Burton movie for my birthday--I'll have to watch it again and get back to you.
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Batman hadn't quite yet lost his nobility and purity by '89. It wasn't until by the time the second movie came out that comicsBatman fully transformed into the always angry/too smart/life-denying manchild/paranoid ultra-jerk version. The one they recently tried to so hard to exorcise.
Fortunately, during that era I had the excellent Dini/Timm version and tie-in comic to provide an alternative.
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