But Heath Ledger’s Joker hit a nerve, more-so than Jack Nicholson’s portrayal. From the initial press release showing Ledger in unkempt, frazzled hair, deep raccoon’s eyes and greasy face paint — not to mention the Glasgow smile smothered in red lipstick (an absolutely brilliant touch) — we were seeing the Joker as a punk-rock anarchist; unpredictable, savage, scary.

The Joker hypnotized us with his unpredictability. It allowed us to accept whatever grand plan he could concoct to morally disparage Batman and his city. All plot holes and narrative conveniences were willfully swept under the rug (a fate DARK KNIGHT RISES wasn’t so lucky to escape).

The crucial element to the Joker is his lies. Everything about him is deception: his various origin stories; the location where he put Harvey and Rachel; disguising himself as a cop; disguising himself as a nurse; his betrayal of his own gang; his betrayal of the mob; his air of foolishness; his declaration of being a man without a plan (which he actually has in spades). The Joker is the trickster of myth: not an inept comedian to keep the king happy, but a subversive figure of bedlam holding a mirror to society showing how corrupt and sanctimonious it is.

Of course, the Joker was reinvented again recently, this time as a multi-tattooed, silver-grilled Juggalo gangster in SUICIDE SQUAD. Of all the victims that befell the horrible filmmaking (and there are many), I feel sorry for Jared Leto the most. Marketed endlessly as the next variation on comic book’s greatest villain, Leto went deep, deep into his role only to end up edited as a glorified walk-on part. Part of me wishes he go back into the Ace of Knave’s mindset and visit the studio head’s in charge of the film’s final cut.

Joker: “See, I’m not a monster, I’m just ahead of the curve.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9DHw9xdAys