zwolanerd

You’re jokin’, you’re jokin’,
I can’t believe my eyes
You’re jokin’ me, you gotta be –
This can’t be the right guy!

-Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas, summing up most folk’s reaction to the most recent picture of Jared Leto as the Joker

“Why does he have tattoos??”

“What’s with the caps on his teeth??”

“One purple glove?!?”

Here’s the thing I’ve learned in my 43 years on Earth: people gripe. About everything. All the time.

You might not be old enough to remember, but in 1988/89, people griped a lot about Michael Keaton playing Batman. Conversely, most people thought George Clooney would be a great Batman. Then people were worried about Christian Bale being Batman. And then people griped a lot about Heath Ledger being the Joker. That last one is the hardest to imagine now, years later, but it happened.

So you’ll forgive me if I’m not going to get all bent out of shape about this most current Joker. Is it necessarily my thing? Not really (particularly his “Damaged” forehead tattoo… I think his pallor and the green hair maybe give hints in that direction?). I don’t really understand teeth grills/caps in general, either, another sign of my age, I suspect.

To be honest, I don’t really get how this Suicide Squad movie is going to go, anyway. If I understand the concept correctly, the government has put together a team of psycho criminals to do dangerous jobs so they earn… what, reduced sentences? A) I don’t want the Joker to have a reduced sentence. Dude kills people for chuckles, remember? B) He escapes all the time, anyway.

 

So, yeah, I’ll hold off on judgment until I’ve seen the movie. I’m guessing it’ll be fine.

Tags: Batman

Written by: Mark