Fair enough. I disagree.
I think if he didn't look the way he did, his actions would lead to a different end result than Arkham every time.
I think you're a bit naiive about the way society treats criminals and why.
I think that if somebody who looked more normal/human busted into Barbara Gordon's apartment and shot her and whatnot, they'd get sent to prison or worse. So--for me--the permanent nature of his appearence does affect the character.
Yes, if that's all he'd done, he might get sent to prison. But The Joker has done far more than shoot one person, and had done far more before he hurt Barbara. If that person who looked normal had the list of crimes The Joker has...he'd be sent to an insane asylum, just as he is in the comics.
Think of it this way: People who wear scary masks to commit bank robberies or rapes and murders don't always get to sent to insane asylums. People who commit insane crimes on the other hand...do.
It's not the visuals.
It's the actions.
Absolutely YES, to your question. But the truth is appearnance makes an outstanding difference in society's views...especially in the subject of skin tone/race.
To a casual Batman fan like myself, I've only seen Joker as an evil guy who has white skin and green hair. The lips aren't even that important to me. But when someone has abnormally different skin and hair, it's abnormal to society. It's like a new race or something. It automatically differienciates normal and abnormal.
Sure does. He's abormal in appearance. I won't argue that. But they don't lock The Joker in Arkham instead of sending him to prison because he looks like a clown. They lock him away because of the nture of his crimes. They perceive him as insane.
Black/white/asian/spanish/etc....we're all seen as different by a large majority just by the element of our appearance. But it's normal because it's real and you born with it. Born a man with white skin/green hair and it's unreal/abnormal to us. It's even more abnormal than an albino just because of the abnormally green hair.
The fact that you're stuck looking like something different is much different than being able to change. Being able to change a deformity to something more humane (flesh toned skin) makes you more human...or less abnormal. When you take away that permanent aspect/appearnace, you take away the tragedy of an abnormality.
The Joker's look may well be considered an abnormality, and I won't argue that but we don't send people to asylums because they look differnt. We send them there because they cannot seem to control their actions, and their actions frighten and confuse us.
It is not about the visuals.
Question: What do you think gives a character more dimension? What character inflicts you with more curiousity? A man who applies makeup to LOOK abnormally different? Or the looks of a man born, permanantly created/changed that IS abnormally different?
The first one. Because I immediately ask myself "Why does he do this? Why does a normal person take it upon himself to become this grotesque parody of life? Why would someone with nothing to lose otherwise become something so horrible?
Someone born or saddled with a defect is someone born or saddled with a defect. There's no mystery, and no depth to that person's appearance. It's just something that happened to them.
Far more interesting is the person who CHOOSES to look like that.
