I'm Reading Your Stuff: General News and Discussion Thread

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

I have to imagine the DCU Joker will lean comic accurate anyways, so I'm all for new takes in the Reeves' verse.

I think the "elephant man" aspect to this Joker could make him a fitting character foil (not to mention Hush, Clayface, Two-Face) to the "Bruce Wayne" side of Bats -- Bruce's exposed face a symbol for his fear of vulnerability, openness, and forming human connections again. Could Joker and his monstrous face, and the uninhibited attitude towards life and himself he's cultivated as a result, ironically be the one who helps Bruce gain some perspective on all this.

 

[DeadlyWest]

There's definite room to modify the design for whenever Joker appears properly seeing as all we saw of him was out of focus and a closeup of his mouth. I think the "really bad case of acne" mouth will be here to stay, but everything else can be refined and tweaked

 

[Boom]

Truthfully, the only design element I'm still wary of is the patchy hair, but that might work for me too once I get a good look at it.

Genuinely love the makeup work otherwise. Gives me flashes of The Elephant Man, or Lon Chaney's movie monsters.

 

[WayneMB]

and why would the design need modifying. only thing that would need changing is hair and he's 100% gonna have more hair so.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

I don’t see them changing the design beyond tweaks. It’s not my favourite, but it’s a swing and I want them to stick to their guns.

What will be key to me is the costuming. If he's done up in an overly grungy style it'll be a little too much for my personal taste but if you stick Barry's Joker in something classy or flashy the grotesqueness would pop more. Now would be a particularly good time to bust out the old school wide brimmed Joker hat.

 

[J.Drangal]

I don’t see them changing the design beyond tweaks. It’s not my favourite, but it’s a swing and I want them to stick to their guns.

What will be key to me is the costuming. If he's done up in an overly grungy style it'll be a little too much for my personal taste but if you stick Barry's Joker in something classy or flashy the grotesqueness would pop more. Now would be a particularly good time to bust out the old school wide brimmed Joker hat.

Yep, took the words right out of my fingers.

Pushing this deformed character even further into the freakish with a destroy looking wardrobe would probably take him into the cliché territory I was alluding to in previous post. Like something straight out of an edgy/try-hard slasher.
But if it contrasts with a neat outfit... Everything always works better in contrast.

I can't remember if Reeves referred directly to Elephant Man, but I believe Merrick's disturbing/attractive/memorable image has a lot to do with the fact that his deformity contrasts with the distinguished attire.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Yep, took the words right out of my fingers.

Pushing this deformed character even further into the freakish with a destroy looking wardrobe would probably take him into the cliché territory I was alluding to in previous post. Like something straight out of an edgy/try-hard slasher.
But if it contrasts with a neat outfit... Everything always works better in contrast.

I can't remember if Reeves referred directly to Elephant Man, but I believe Merrick's disturbing/attractive/memorable image has a lot to do with the fact that his deformity contrasts with the distinguished attire.

He did! Mentioned it as one of the key inspirations for his Joker.

 

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

and why would the design need modifying. only thing that would need changing is hair and he's 100% gonna have more hair so.

Not that he needs modifying but it should be noted that Reeves said he’s not yet the Joker in the prison scene, so this may not be the character actively putting any intention into his look (and he just happens to have green hair and red around the mouth for whatever reason), whereas when he becomes Joker, he may employ more purpose to his look (ie, slickin back the hair as a mockery of civilized men).

 

[Johnny Frost]

Small detail that I hadn't noticed before, in Gates of Gotham it is said that Edward Elliot (Thomas Elliot's ancestor) comes from a family of newspapermen since his grandfather created the Gotham Herald, and then in The Batman we have an Edward Elliot who happens to be a journalist, definitely not a coincidence and makes me wonder if Gates of Gotham could be an inspiration for the sequel.

 

[Mindreaper21]

That’s actually not a bad idea. I feel that there’s enough story in the comics about Hush for Matt to work with and do something truly phenomenal with his character.

I would even love to see a version of The Architect. His steampunk design would mesh really well with the tone of the saga. There’s plenty to play with there. Of, course he’d have to do something other than setting off bombs, but he could interesting.

 

[solidsnake86]

Just on the jokers look. I think I recall Barry mentioning that the prosthetics on the mouth were painfully. So if anything, they may tweak the design for comfort.

 

[WatchProtect]

Something that I'm sure probably wasn't conceived yet but I wonder if we will come to learn that Joker's been receiving "Bliss" as well in Arkham

 

[Mindreaper21]

Something that I'm sure probably wasn't conceived yet but I wonder if we will come to learn that Joker's been receiving "Bliss" as well in Arkham

Good catch! Maybe he gets addicted to it and eventually modifies it into his Joker toxin?

 

[WatchProtect]

Good catch! Maybe he gets addicted to it and eventually modifies it into his Joker toxin?

Yep, something like this. Honestly, they could just counter-actively say that both Riddler and Joker are being given Bliss. Maybe that's why Riddler's so "emotional" in his Arkham scene. (Which is something I've heard people complain about)

 

[TheSmoothKnight]

This Bliss drug is very interesting. When Oz say it’s a “party drug” , Sofia gave out sarcastic laugh and said “sure” and then the 2nd time in the club scene when Oz said it again , the camera quickly pans back to Sofia went a blank look on her face. Looking forward to see how powerful this drug is and it would be awesome if we get a hint of Hugo Strange or Jonathan Crane.

 

[The Shape]

I don’t see them changing the design beyond tweaks. It’s not my favourite, but it’s a swing and I want them to stick to their guns.

What will be key to me is the costuming. If he's done up in an overly grungy style it'll be a little too much for my personal taste but if you stick Barry's Joker in something classy or flashy the grotesqueness would pop more. Now would be a particularly good time to bust out the old school wide brimmed Joker hat.

See, I personally don't think it's much of a big swing at all. In fact, it seems like more of a safe/generic choice to make him look so deformed. If we're being honest, he just looks like a more ****ed up version of Heath's Joker so far. He has his own perma-smile, but with a facial deformity around the mouth instead of knife scars. You're right that the costuming beyond Arkham will be important, because so far, he looks gross and unkempt a la Ledger's Joker. The prosthetics also seem to do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of the look here -- more so than Heath's.

I really would have loved a more traditional Joker look for this version. No deformity, no scars, no perma-smile. All live-action Jokers in the mainline movies have had some sort of "gimmick" or prosthetic to their look. Nicholson had the classy look with the original frozen perma-smile (which I love), Ledger had grungy look with the scarred perma-smile (which I love), Leto had the urban/ghetto look with the grille and tons of tats.

I don't think the answer to making The Joker come off as scary is to literally make him look gross/scary. It would have been more daring and a bigger swing to not have any of that for this Joker. Let him just be a guy with white skin, red lips, and green hair. Find a way to make that look cool with the right color tones. Make him scary through the actor's performance and the character's words/actions. Let him be clean cut and a snazzy dresser when he's out of Arkham. We already kind of have a grungy, stripped down, less polished version of Batman himself going on here. It would have been cool to see the opposite of that in this new Joker.

Despite all this, I'm still very down for whatever happens and open to it all. I'm sure Reeves will do the character justice.

 

[WayneMB]

considering all the chirping about wanting "normal" and "classy" joker, it certainly is in fact a swing lol. i for one am tired of "hot" joker. i want ASHOSE

 

[antsman41]

Imagine getting dumped into acid… your skin, your hair, and everything else would be ****ed up.

Just look what bleach does to people.

 

[Mindreaper21]

Imagine getting dumped into acid… your skin, your hair, and everything else would be ****ed up.

Just look what bleach does to people.

Harvey knows all too well about the dangers of acid.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[The Shape]

considering all the chirping about wanting "normal" and "classy" joker, it certainly is in fact a swing lol. i for one am tired of "hot" joker. i want ASHOSE

No one said he should be "hot", and The Joker by design does not look normal. The point was you shouldn't need a horrible facial deformity/disfigurement and perma-smile to create an effectively creepy version of The Joker.

I'd rather see a Joker with minor prosthetics to accentuate the nose and chin (like ASHOSE Joker) as opposed to a more extreme version of Heath's Glasgow smile.

 

[Johnny Frost]

 

[Chip Chipperson]

View attachment 106987

Harvey knows all too well about the dangers of acid.

Ah yes, Face

The sworn enemy of Man

 

[AndyTrevino]

I agree that Joker’s look is a bit too much. Making him look more like a zombie is less terrifying to me than a more traditional looking Joker. I really hope they pull back and go for more of a vampire look with blotchy skin and severe acne scars. I don’t think the deleted scene is really official, so there’s an opportunity for change.

View attachment 106656View attachment 106659

The design choices they've made are way too meticulous and specific for them to drastically change the design like that.

Even if they do tweak it, I suspect the general DNA of the design will remain the same i.e. short messy hair, lopsided permanent smile, the general "diseased" look he has about him.

 

[AndyTrevino]

Yep, took the words right out of my fingers.

Pushing this deformed character even further into the freakish with a destroy looking wardrobe would probably take him into the cliché territory I was alluding to in previous post. Like something straight out of an edgy/try-hard slasher.
But if it contrasts with a neat outfit... Everything always works better in contrast.

I can't remember if Reeves referred directly to Elephant Man, but I believe Merrick's disturbing/attractive/memorable image has a lot to do with the fact that his deformity contrasts with the distinguished attire.

Not sure why I haven't posted this yet, but here's a mood board I designed for Keoghan's hypothetical Joker wardrobe over a year ago.