Saturday, September 21, 2019

The Joker and Madcap



Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix is getting a lot of critical praise.  I'm not sure how much it will reflect the villain we know from the comics, but I am definitely curious to see it as just a character study.  The influences from movies like Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy are evident in the trailers, and having Robert DeNiro in a supporting role invites the comparisons even more.  I'm just going to consider it an Elseworlds version of the Clown Prince of Crime and enjoy it for what it is.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

You mean, in the same way that Halley Berry, as Patience Phillips, was an Elseworlds version of Catwoman? Then, how come DC hasn't ever adopted that particular character name for any monthly comic book version?

As Jason Mamoa might say: "Your hypothesis doesn't hold water."

Carycomic said...

@Anon: Just wait. Ms. Berry's version of Catwoman will turn out to live on one of those six remaining mystery-Earths left over from "Flashpoint." All you got to do is have some...patience.

;-)

Anonymous Hello room service, send up a room ! said...

Speaking of patience, Ross, how about a Doctor's convention? At 15, You have enough candidates in the labels for "An Unruly House Call!" Do no harm vs do no good.

Wait till the patients get a look at these jokers.

Glenn said...

Frankly I am all Jokered out. Adding him to Suicide Squad IMO partly ruined movie along with voodoo priest Enchantress and Mil Ops team to accompany Suicide Squad.

Bob Greenwade said...

My understanding is that the Joker film is intended from the outset to be a Black Label (that is, Elseworlds) version, and not to be taken as canon to any other version of the character.

Similarly, Halle Berry's Catwoman movie, while not great by any means (and certainly not up to her usual stellar quality), isn't quite so bad if taken the same way.

det_Tobor said...

@Bob, I think the problems with the Catwoman film were on a few levels. Based on the opening theme, a Catwoman has almost always been around like Swamp Thing has. Passive magic seems to be at the cause of the transformation. Her new strength, speed and so on are not things we saw her work on to develop as they suddenly did.

Joker has had nothing definitive in his past other than having also been Red Hood. He wants to break Batman's spirit for the sake of showing how human he really is.

The problem with Elseworlds is that people come along who don't know anything and don't care about the subject material and say "Yes, this looks good " and create their own universe. Cap helping to form the movie Avengers is such an example.

If people don't care or have talent, treatment of the original material may not do any better either. Say hi WB DC -- reader's choice of movies.

What would I be going for to see this Joker movie?

Anonymous said...

From the trailers I saw, he's apparently going to be depicted as an anti-hero. Sort of like Michael Meyers; that is, if HALLOWEEN '78 had been directed by Sergio Leone!

Mighty Rao said...

I wish to God that Warner Bros. would put more thought and care into the next Superman movie and, in turn, put some effort into building the DCEU than all this extraneous Elseworlds nonsense.

For the past 30 years they seem to be OBSESSED with anything Batman related and it's been hurting their movie series.

DC50 said...

Mighty Rao said...
I wish to God that Warner Bros. would put more thought and care into the next Superman movie and, in turn, put some effort into building the DCEU than all this extraneous Elseworlds nonsense For the past 30 years they seem to be OBSESSED with anything Batman related and it's been hurting their movie series.

🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 clap. clap. clap. clap. 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Simreeve said...

Carycomic said...
"@Anon: Just wait. Ms. Berry's version of Catwoman will turn out to live on one of those six remaining mystery-Earths left over from "Flashpoint." All you got to do is have some...patience."

Or maybe it was one of the Earths created in the 'dark multiverse' shown in the 'Metal' storyline, which got broken-up as unsuitable rather than added to the "proper" Multiverse?

Carycomic said...

I wouldn't know. My local specialty store didn't carry the "Metal" series. The same way they're not carrying the "Doomsday Clock" series!

Apparently, low sales of the premier issues of both convinced them that buying all subsequent issues would be unprofitable.

Carycomic said...

On the upside? I would buy this issue, in a "New Yawk" minute, just to see the Joker's butt kicked for under-estimating Madcap's powers of regeneration! :-)

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