| “ | Jack? Jack is dead, my friend. You can call me… Joker! And as you can see, I'm a lot happier. | „ |
| ~ The Joker taking up his new identity. |
| “ | Tell me something, my friend. You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? I always ask that of all my prey. I just like the sound of it. | „ |
| ~ The Joker's most infamous quote. |
Jack Napier, better known as the Joker, is the main antagonist of Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher's Batman film and comic series.
He is a Gothamite mob enforcer-turned-theatrical crime lord, Carl Grissom's former right-hand, and Batman's arch-nemesis, as he killed the latter's parents back when he was a child in the mid-20th century.
By the late 1980s, Napier is discovered to be in an affair with Alicia Hunt, Grissom's mistress, so his boss sets him up to be killed by the Gotham City Police Department, but Batman's fateful intervention leads to a freak accident that changes Napier both psychologically and physically, inciting him to don his favorite deck card's mantle, get back at Grissom, and start scheming how to take Gotham City over for himself.
In Batman, he was portrayed by Jack Nicholson. As a younger man in a flashback, he was portrayed by Hugo Blick. In a flashback sequence in Batman Forever, he was portrayed by David U. Hodges.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Even though he does respect Batman as well as his enemies in general, it's out of caution and doesn't make him honorable in any way.
- Although he is comedic and somewhat cartoony after his disfigurement, most of his jokes are to prove how much of a depraved and dangerous sociopath he truly is and his jokes are only funny to the audience as he is taken deadly seriously in-universe.
- Also, none of his comedic moments lighten the mood of the series.
- Even before his disfigurement, he was shown to be a callous, treacherous, sexist, narcissistic, and brutal individual who reveled in crime.
- This live-action incarnation of the Joker is possibly the most perverted and misogynistic, as he makes numerous sexual comments about women, and the fact that he killed Alicia (or so it seemed) so he could replace her with Vicki Vale, whom he developed a lustful obsession towards, implies that he simply views women as objects for sexual gratification.
- To make things worse, his perverted nature is also shown when he breaks into Vicki's home and comments that there is "lots of space" while suggestively looking at Vicki's private parts, hinting at the fact that he planned to rape her sometime.
- He has absolutely no loyalty to anyone but himself, as he views his loyalty to his own boss as a burden and kills his right-hand man in a fit of rage.
- Although he is absolutely and unbelievably crazy and out of his mind after his disfigurement, he possesses a clear moral agency and is fully aware of his actions; he can meticulously plan and premeditate crimes and atrocities, holds himself accountable for his crimes, and manipulates people into doing his bidding so much that his psychosis does not excuse or even mitigate the gravity of his heinous crimes.
- Even after his death, his actions left a huge impact and would continue to haunt the citizens of Gotham for years, as Roscoe Jenkins, the new mayor, stated that the city became more beleaguered as criminals were inspired by the Joker's insanity.
Background[]
- It’s stated that even as a child, he was already violent and unstable, with a bad habit of harshly punishing other kids for being mean to him. This is made all the more concrete by his killing Antoine Rotelli as a trick response to his cruel remarks about his disfigurement. This infers that, unlike his other portrayals, he genuinely never had any redeeming qualities.
- Murdered Thomas and Martha Wayne instead of just letting Joe Chill rob them. He also tried to shoot their son, Bruce Wayne, when he was a boy, only sparing him when Chill snapped him out of his dissonance.
- This makes Napier responsible for Bruce becoming Batman in the first place and would cause the latter to have nightmares about the murder of his parents and develop post-traumatic stress disorder for the rest of his life, for which Napier is ultimately responsible for in the long run.
- He and Carl Grissom managed to rise through the ranks of the criminal underworld to the point where they became the dominant criminal empire in Gotham City.
- In the novelization, it is implied that he committed acts of rape at some point.
- He started an affair with Alicia behind Grissom's back.
Batman[]
- When he is alone with Alicia, he insults Grissom behind his back and claims that he wishes to tear out Harvey Dent's lungs.
- When Alicia notes how handsome he looks, Napier condescendingly remarks that he didn't ask.
- During a meeting, he gives the idea of causing some damage inside Axis Chemicals, which leads to Grissom betraying and setting him up, leading to his transformation into the Joker.
- Murdered Lieutenant Max Eckhart, his corrupt liaison in the Gotham City Police Department, for no reason other than spite.
- After becoming the Joker, he murdered Grissom and the mafia higher-ups to take control of the crime syndicate after he was betrayed.
- While Grissom did backstab him, he only did that because he learned that Napier was having an affair with Alicia, even though Grissom trusted him and held him in high esteem as his right-hand.
- He mixes his deadly Smylex gas into everyday items, causing a string of deaths and facial mutilations on unsuspecting innocents, among them are models Candy Walker and Amanda Keeler (whose corpses he used to make a commercial for his product), due to violent allergic reactions.
- The distribution of Smylex also goes to claim the lives of other Gothamites, like the newswoman Becky (who died on live television), an unnamed man, and possibly another man he kidnapped for his commercial, acknowledging in subtitles that he isn't even an actor to boot.
- He disrespects Alicia a lot for no reason, even though Alicia does nothing to him to invoke such cruelty.
- Gasses an entire museum full of people, sparing Vicki, so he can "improve art" by vandalizing paintings and statues, and just so he and Vicki can have some "alone time".
- In Vicki's art, he finds the most pleasure and twisted love in the skull art and tells her with pride that he is the world's first "fully functioning homicidal artist".
- Scars Alicia's face with acid, driving her insane in the process. He then tells Vicki that Alicia threw herself out of the window in order to make space for Vale.
- Attempts to scar Vicki by spraying acid from his trick flower onto her face.
- Takes advantage of Gotham City's 200th anniversary celebration by baiting citizens with free money just so he can gather them up and gas them with Smylex for his own amusement.
- It is confirmed in the comic adaptation and novelization that the money he had distributed to the citizens of Gotham City was fake.
- He takes his anger, after Batman takes away his balloons that diffuse the Smylex, on his loyal right hand, Bob, by shooting him dead after asking him to hand him his gun.
- After shooting Bob, he realizes he can no longer control his impulses and quickly translates the slight regret into more hatred towards Batman, also handing Bob's revolver to the guy behind him to start clearing the streets.
- Tries to send Batman and Vicki falling to their deaths from the top of Gotham City Cathedral, even nearly succeeding with Vicki when he acted like he was going to help her up, only to "lend her a hand" by giving her a trick hand, almost causing her to plummet had Batman not helped her back up.
- He almost posthumously succeeded in making Batman and Vicki fall to their deaths, as Batman had to save them both when the ledge broke with his hook.
Trivia[]
- Jack Nicholson was going to reprise the role of the Joker in the cancelled fifth installment Batman Unchained as a hallucination in Batman's mind caused by the Scarecrow. Furthermore, Harley Quinn would have been in the movie, portrayed as the Joker's daughter, who is trying to avenge his death. Had it happened, it's unknown if it would affect his Pure Evil Status, but as Batman Unchained was cancelled due to the poor reception of Batman & Robin, he still remains as Pure Evil.
- Interestingly enough, this sounds similar to the plot of Batman: Arkham Knight, where, due to Scarcrow's fear toxin, the Joker manages to return as a parasitic spirit inside Batman's mind and psychologically torments the Dark Knight over his tragedies and failures while trying to possess him, while Harley Quinn tries to avenge the death of the Joker. However, all of that is suspected to be happening in the new comic book series Batman '89: Echoes.
External Links[]
- Joker on the Villains Wiki
- Joker on the DC Wiki
- Joker on the Batman Wiki
- Joker (Earth-89) on the Batman Anthology Wiki
- Joker (Earth-97) on the Batman Anthology Wiki
- Joker on the DC Extended Universe Wiki
- Joker on the VS Battles Wiki
- Joker on Wikipedia
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 Pure Evils
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