READING JOKER’S PROGRESS THROUGH TWO MOVIES FROM VILLAIN TO NECESSARY EVIL

Abstract

DC’s Joker is perhaps one of the most precious piece of brand for the comic behemoth. Rarely do we see that a villain is so celebrated. A villain who is equal in stature with a superhero. Joker was created as a heartless villain and over time he changed and shall we say matured into an evil ingrained in the society, so deeply embedded, that will remain.The Joker was created upon the philosophy of pure evil, as someone who was beyond reason: crazy, deranged, out of his mind. His ostensibly senseless acts of violence and turmoil only reinforced this assessment.The Joker historically had sported different shades. But when he appeared for the first time in 1940 in Batman comics, he was destined to be ‘the ugly’. The society rejected Joker as it went against everything that was honest and ethical. The comic books till early into this millennium bore the seal of Comics Code Authority (CCA) that among other things ensured that the creators maintained their respect for society, government and parental authority thus sealing Joker’s fate as the abdominal and the untouchable.In 2011, DC dropped the CCA seal and moved on in a major shift from its initial stand on ethics in general. Now, the society, less insecure and more matured, looked for the causes. As the society took a dip into the why’s and how’s of things, the black and white of evil and good now got the shades of grey.This paper asks the basic questions what is the parameter of measuring a villain and how do we separate it from victim and how has Joker transformed from just a pure villain to a rebel with a propensity for nihilism. I will try to seek the answers to these questions through a content analysis of two films-- The Dark Knight (2008) and The Joker (2019).