The Reboot Joker

[Rodrigo90]

Honest to God, I'm sick to death of all these Joker threads...

 

[KillerWolf]

Honest to God, I'm sick to death of all these Joker threads...

Indeed.

I returned from seclusion from internet (taxmen and debt collectors) just a few days ago and saw here that Jared Leto is rumored to play the Joker. I didn't even bother to find out how the rumor got started and even now I've no idea what is the source of it and how much legitimate it is.

And that is how much I'm sick of the Joker himself.

 

[JOE]

If only he wasn't voicing the talking Roadkill.

What does that have to do with anything?

 

[AnneFan]

What interpretation would people be after? Grungy or prissy?

I think I'd like Joker more on the prissy side this time, while being no less dangerous.

 

[king666]

What interpretation would people be after? Grungy or prissy?

I think I'd like Joker more on the prissy side this time, while being no less dangerous.

Arkham Asylum's Joker would be cool.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Er... Why ?

This Joker is gonna be called crap because he's the first since Ledger. If they go for something different to Ledgers Joker and Nicholsons that could lessen the hate and I think it'd be visually interesting

 

[Darkness Falls]

Judging by the Batsuit i'd say we'll see a more comic style joker this time around

 

[Boom]

Judging by the Batsuit i'd say we'll see a more comic style joker this time around

And from the sound of it, Ayer seems to be embracing the comic book side of things.

 

[John-An]

Which is the same reasoning I felt it was worth bumping. For all we know Joker could (even if not likely) be rebooted elsewhere such as a small cameo in BvS. The SS bit of info is still just an unconfirmed rumor sir

It's THR ... the Joker is locked for SS... Jared Leto is not confirmed thought

 

[Two-Face]

Jared Leto's Joker vs Ben Affeck's Batman could work well if Leto is also signed for solo Bat film.

 

[regwec]

Can we please get the dapper white skinned green haired red lips classic joker before we get the New 52 Texas chainsaw massacre Leatherface lite version.

Yes, please, for heaven's sake. I don't know what it is about this particular character that invites people to affix their own "EXTREME!!!11" tastes to him and assume that would be a good idea.

I think the "Death of the Family" concept worked, just about, precisely because it was unusual as an interpretation of The Joker. Though bloodthirsty, The Joker is usually dapper, effete, princely and rather refined. Here he was stripped to nothing but a boiler suit, with even his face rotting on his skull. It illustrated the sense of finality to the story, and the notion that this time he was here to destroy everything.

Thrust into a DC movie without any of that context, it would just be Zombie Clown Monster. Kind of scary for kids, but not 1% of what makes The Joker interesting.

What interpretation would people be after? Grungy or prissy?

I think I'd like Joker more on the prissy side this time, while being no less dangerous.

He should be theatrical, and seductive in his evil charm. We should be able to see what Harley Quinn sees in him. Once his plans are in ruins and he is cornered with only a rusty razor blade between him and justice, we should see the daemonic, howling nightmare from the Arkham Asylum comic erupt from the neatly tailored exterior.

 

[craigdbfan]

That's exactly what I want this go around regwec.

 

[Iceman]

I want classic comic Joker this time, will be nice to see a significant difference between this and Ledger's version.

 

[Sonic1002]

I've posted this one on both DeviantArt & Instagram (and has weirdly circulated more than I thought it would haha):

Permawhite, Some Arkham-verse/TDRK influence, with self-applied lipstick & eye shadow. A touch of 'Batman: RIP" with the slicked hair and lack of eyebrows.

 

[Gamma Goliath]

I hope they put prosthetic evil eyebrows on leto. Altho I'll be fine if they dont.

 

[Victarion]

I'm fine with an amoral albino with a sick sense of humor. Something gaudy...yet dandified.

 

[TheBuzz]

If I'm writing it, here's my introduction of the Joker (This could also work in Gotham, but on principle it can't be done unless the show lasts 10 years).

We start with a guy we'll call Jack. He's somewhere between 25 and 30, only a year or two out of grad school, and recently hired as a chemist for a pharmaceutical company. Said PharmCo has recently released the most effective anti-depressant to date, available only in transdermal patch form. People are reporting dramatic improvements in mood and it is the only medication reliably effective against bipolar disorder. Of course, there are some down sides. Side effects include reduced melanin and brittle hair, teeth and nails. It's also dangerous if overdosed.

What Jack discovers is that only the slightest tick above the tolerated dose can lead to psychosis, dissociation and hysteria. PharmCo knows this, and this is why it is only released in a transdermal patch. Most accusations and lawsuits are quickly dismissed as the result of deliberate overdose, and even with all the lawyer fees PharmCo is still making money hand over fist.

So Jack decides to go all Edward Snowden on them and begins leaking documents to the media under the pseudonym "redhood". PharmCo catches him. What happens next depends on how much you want to stick with the (likely) canon origin of the Joker. The purer take would be for thugs to drown him in a vat of the drug and, believing him dead, toss him into the river. The take I like better is that they slap about 100 patches of the stuff onto his arms, legs and face until he goes cookoo and they then check him into Arkham, where his tales of evildoers in PharmCo will be seen as just another delusion. At first he still looks normal, but is catatonic. Then he screams for three straight days. Then the screaming suddenly transfers to laughter and within two weeks he has fully transitioned.

The drug is pulled from the market, but having worked on it himself the Joker easily synthesizes an even stronger formula and it becomes the famous Venom.

 

[Bathead]

Nah. Like the original origin better.

 

[TheBuzz]

That IS the original origin.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

That IS the original origin.

Don't take this the wrong way, but... No. What you have come up with is creative, clever in it's way, but it's got at best, Easter Eggs to the original origin from the late Golden Age. I am not even sure it would qualify as a pastiche the way THE KILLING JOKE does. To flat out say it IS the original origin is being loose with the language. Again... Good attempt at modernizing things, but it has WAY too many deviations to consider it simply a modern recreation of the classic origin.

 

[TheBuzz]

Fair enough. Biggest difference is he's not a comedian. I actually would prefer to go the opposite way. He's a deadly serious stick in the mud but he is highly intelligent and shrewd. It doesn't make sense to me that the Joker suddenly acquires those attributes later on. In fact, thinking further I'd put him higher up the food chain than just a new hire.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Fair enough. Biggest difference is he's not a comedian. I actually would prefer to go the opposite way. He's a deadly serious stick in the mud but he is highly intelligent and shrewd. It doesn't make sense to me that the Joker suddenly acquires those attributes later on. In fact, thinking further I'd put him higher up the food chain than just a new hire.

Well... You've also excised BATMAN from the proceedings as well. The fact that it's Batman's involvement that contributes to him getting the chemical bath is part and parcel of his obsession with the Caped Crusader, at least in the original telling of the tale. Here, Batman is not involved with his transformation at all. Now, you can have that, TDK shows that you can have a Joker whose origin isn't tied into Batman somehow coming into Joker's life before he takes up that identity. But again... To say that your version is in line with the original origin, only modernized, is a stretch.

 

[Rodrigo90]

The only thing I really want to see is Joker's henchmen looking like this

 

[TheBuzz]

Well... You've also excised BATMAN from the proceedings as well. The fact that it's Batman's involvement that contributes to him getting the chemical bath is part and parcel of his obsession with the Caped Crusader, at least in the original telling of the tale. Here, Batman is not involved with his transformation at all. Now, you can have that, TDK shows that you can have a Joker whose origin isn't tied into Batman somehow coming into Joker's life before he takes up that identity. But again... To say that your version is in line with the original origin, only modernized, is a stretch.

I've been thinking about that. One possibility is that Jack is incredibly shrewd and the only reason he gets caught is because the World's Greatest Detective sticks his nose in company business. Batman's insistence on then involving the police results only in them taking a slice and sweeping it under the rug. This is handy because it also connects with Joker's theme of living beyond good and evil because it is Batman's insistence on justice that not only screws the Joker but botches his plan to bring down a company that's doing legitimate harm.

 

[Tg11]

I sure hope Jared Leto's Joker is a cross between Heath Ledger's Joker and Nicholson's Joker in the sense that he is funny but he can be sadistic and as ruthless as they come