[SUPERS] My Unofficial Handbook to the DC Universe

[Phantasm]

My personal take of the Joker is a mixture. "There are three Jokers", but they share one body:

The first Joker is Cesar Romero, the second is Mark Hammil, and the third is Heath Ledger, and they all share head space in Joaquin Phoenix's head, as it was his experiences that created the three Jokers sharing the same brain.

[AlexanderHowl]

I like to think that Joker is a malevolent spirit that possesses one victim at a time, driving them insane, which is why 'he' can never truly die, how 'he' escapes prison so easily, and why 'he' always has a different back story. When possessing a new victim, 'he' retains their memories and skills and takes on aspects of their previous personality. When needed, 'he' commits suicide and take a new body, justifying Batman's avoidance of killing 'him', as the only way to trap 'him' is to keep 'his' host alive.

In truth, 'he' has likely existed forever in the region that would become Gotham, but 'he' would have been trapped for millennia by the magic of Lenni Lenape shamans before the European invaders unwittingly set him free during the 17th century by slaughtering the people who imprisoned him. The Joker persona is only the most recent persona of the spirit and a number of horrific crimes over the past few centuries can probably be linked to 'his' various personas. 'He' feeds on pain and suffering and, until permanently destroyed, 'he' will always plague Gotham, though 'he' is not bound to it.

[JulianLW]

My take on the latest Joker movie was that it was suggesting that the Joker is a sort of meme that various people take on - emulating a famous killer from the late 70s (or whatever/Bruce Wayne's childhood) who shot a guy on live TV and inspired a mass-movement of anti-establishment rage. So the Heath Ledger Joker isn't THE Joker any more than any other guy who decides to put on the mask....

Putting on the clown mask is a criminal trademark that a lot of people have done over the years - mostly to inspire fear of a kind very particular to Gotham's history. (Aren't there a lot of guys in Joker masks during the big bank heist at the start of The Dark Knight? The Joker movie seemed to be riffing on some Summer of Sam themes, too.)

All this would jibe with the indeterminate origin story that is part of the Joker's comic-book character. He always emerges full-blown villain, seems to be unkillable, but he has a lot of different and conflicting origin stories, none of which are really confirmed. Because a lot of guys have been the Joker, for various reasons....

Anyway, that's what I thought was one of the coolest things about the latest Joker movie that no one really recognized. The Joker is a supervillain meme that just won't go away, inspired by one original sociopath.

[Anders]

Does Lex Luthor have "Reputation -1: Stole forty cakes"?

[ronwit]

Originally Posted by smurf

One of the questions asked is which is your favourite Joker. For me I like all of them.

Is it possible to make a Joker template with a split personality where the Joker changes personalities reflecting the Actors.

1. Cesar Romero: Child like pranks and over the top performances
2. Jack Nicholson: The narcissist, every thing, no matter how frivolousness is about him
3. Heath Ledger: The Nihilist, wanting to prove futility
4. Jared Leto: The psychotic, does the rounds, collects his money, keeps his his
5. Joaquin Phoenix: The Loner, self loathing, takes his loathing out on others

If you include Hamil's animated Joker

This reminds me of my oft considered but never written DC Legacy Universe
1) THE Joker has been around since the '40s. Every time he breaks out he has a different plan and a different persona that fits the plan. The plan could be something convoluted and mysterious which results in the Bat getting a pie in his face or running around with a vial that might contain a virus capable of wiping out half of Gotham or just colored water. He doesn't care about winning or losing it's all about the game.

Then there are the wannabe's.

2) In my Legacy Universe every time you see a new actor (voiceover artist), you may be seeing a new person who has taken over the identity.

Superman
Bud Collyer Paramount/radio
Kirk Alyn/George Reeves Adventures of Superman
Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh Superman Movies
etc.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by ronwit

2) In my Legacy Universe every time you see a new actor (voiceover artist), you may be seeing a new person who has taken over the identity.

Superman
Bud Collyer Paramount/radio
Kirk Alyn/George Reeves Adventures of Superman
Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh Superman Movies
etc.

Ah, the Replacement James Bond theory! Yet somehow there is always a Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor. At least with Lex you can say that it's his son (or alleged son in a new cloned body).

[AlexanderHowl]

I thought each new incarnation was occurring in a different parallel of the DC multiverse?

[Otaku]

Especially as I no longer own the comic in question, I based my (mis)understanding of the changes in the mainstream DC and Marvel universes around the struggle of The Brothers.

In the DC Versus Marvel/Marvel Versus DC, we're introduced to two cosmic entities (The Brothers) each representing the totality of either the DC or Marvel multiverses. It was mentioned that the Brothers would regularly clash, basically destroying their respective multiverses, but since the Brothers themselves were eternal, they'd just regenerate and everything would come back.

In hindsight, the idea was probably supposed to represent multiverses of the past or some such thing, but I took it as an explanation for fluctuating "continuity" of their respective multiverses. I'm not sure where I got it, but I took the Brothers as themselves existing outside of space and time, at least in the usual sense, so they could be fighting, being destroyed, but also coming back almost constantly from our perspective. When continuity was altered without explanation (maybe even with another explanation), it was actually because that Brother had been destroyed, and - from an outside perspective - instantly regenerated, but hadn't quite gotten everything right.

[Phantasm]

Quick and dirty first pass for Constantine:

[SNIP]

[EDIT] Oh, you did Constantine already. My bad.

[deanjday]

I am bumping this thread in the hopes that the author will come back to it and continue his amazing work here.