Alternate versions, mass media and pop culture: Ahhh DC comics and their 52 parallel universes… Over the years we've had a female Joker, a vampire Joker, a nineteenth century Joker, a pirate Joker, a transvestite Joker, a sane Joker and even a heroic Joker! His first on-screen incarnation came with the memorably campy sixties Batman tv show. Player by Cesar Romero (who refused to shave off his moustache leaving it obviously visible under his makeup) this Joker was little more than a petty thief and an eccentric (rather like the character as he became due to the introduction of the Comics Code in the fifties). A darker version appeared in the 1989 Batman film, directed by Tim Burton, and featuring Jack Nicholson as a maniacal but not overly Joker-ish Joker.
The most effective portrayal so far remains the version from the 1992-1995 “Batman the Animated Series” cartoons (and the subsequent “New Adventures” and spin offs). Portrayed in the series' trademark stylised film-noir iconography and brilliantly voiced by Mark Hamill (of “Star Wars” fame) this version fuses a child-like flamboyance with a surprisingly dark vicious side (particularly noticeable in the “Mask of the Phantasm” spin off movie, and the Batman Beyond “Return of the Joker” spin off).Hamill also voices the Joker in the pilot of the live action series “Birds of Prey”, for a brief “Killing Joke” inspired flashback sequence. Since then, Joker has appeared in in various fan films (including the highly enjoyable “Patient J”) and the new “The Batman” cartoons as a wild haired, barefooted lunatic, less menacing but still mad. Joker is set to be the star villain of the upcoming “The Dark Knight” movie (the sequel to the impressive “Batman Begins”) and will be played by Heath Ledger.
Why I like him: Okay, so why do I like an insane mass murderer so much? Well, partly I guess I just like to be scared, partly the fact that he is often genuinely funny, partly it's the catharsis of extreme violence, and partly it's the treatment of him as the epitome of insanity and the flip side to Batman. Joker represents an utter release from the conventions of sanity, morality and gender stereotypes, in fact even from conventional views of insanity. He just does whatever he chooses, for better or worse. As Batman's nemesis, he's also perfect, like Batman he has no “powers” as such, other than his own ingenuity, and it often seems that he knows more about the Bat than Batman himself…
Bruce Wayne a.k.a Batman
Character: By rights the top of this list needed to be a superhero, and what superhero offers more room for thought, pop-culture references and all round scary grittiness than Batman? Probably the darkest “hero” in mainstream comics, Bruce Wayne, as everyone knows, became a crime fighter after a troubled childhood following the gunning down of his parents after they took him to see the “Mark of Zorro”.
Billionaire playboy by day, grim vigilante by night, he's unusual in that unlike most superheroes, his “true identity” is the Batman, and his “mask” is the dumb but good-natured Bruce Wayne. Part of what makes him so unusual as a superhero is the fact that he has no “powers”, instead he has years of training, billions of dollars and an analytical mind, in a way he's a better role model than more accessible heroes like Spiderman or Superman, in that he achieves his goals as a crime fighter without the aid of radioactive animals, aliens or other assorted mishaps, he is, simply, a man in a mask. The darkness of Batman as a character (and as a comic book series) caused trouble with the establishment of the Comics Code Authority in the fifties, forcing the writers to go for a campier variant, similar to that of the sixties tv show, the success of which also forced writers not to use the “New Look” darker version prepared in 1964. When at last the tv show faded, Batman could at last return to his roots, and has een terrifying small children and unnerving adults ever since.
As protector of Gotham City, possibly the most miserable place to live in any comic universe, the modern Batman has gone through some pretty hellish situations. Some of his sidekicks have been murdered, he's been “broken” by steroid-enhanced muscle man Bane, he's witnessed a cataclysmic earthquake and helped protect the ruined city from marauding gangs. He's a hardened, frightening creature, so hard to work with that even his long term friend and ward Dick Grayson, the original Robin, stormed off and left him. His relationships are often short lived, thanks to his secretive nature and the risk, though he has had a son, named Damian, by Talia al Ghul, the daughter of supernatural supervillain Ra's al Ghul, and he has a long term on/off relationship with the former thief and vigilante Selena Kyle, better known as Catwoman.
Just found out that the Death movie is properly underway: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_Me
Hurrah!