My Favorite Villain
A villain is an evil character in any fictional writing or motion picture. He is an evil incarnate that is always satisfying his wishes and fancies. The story revolves around a conflict between a hero and the villain. He is there to harm the hero and those people who are related to him. He is a genius gone astray or a mad scientist who is using his knowledge to bring devastation and chaos in the world. The major drawback in their personality is their overconfidence and pride. His end symbolizes that “pride comes before a fall” (Francis, n.p, n.d).
The batman a comic strip which appeared in D.C comics was in 1960 televised into a series (Jourdian, n.p, 2001). Then Tim Burton successful conversion of this comic strip into a full-scale movie in 1989 made Batman a household name. He is a very realistic hero who has all the qualities that human beings can possess like detective skills, physical strength, money and a scientific mind. This superhero that has no superhuman qualities about him fights all kinds of evil people from ordinary ones to superhuman foes who possess extraordinary powers. Batman’s various villains are Penguin, Riddler, Scarecrow, Joker, Mister Freeze, Poison ivy, Ras Al Gul and Bane.
Joker the villain is one of the most constant enemies of Batman. His appearance is very deceptive. This Technicolor villain was born when Jack Napier a small-time criminal by the name of Red hood fell into a barrel of chemical where he acquired his bleached skin emerald green hair and red lips. The transformation of petty criminal into a full-blown villain takes place under the influence of the fumes of the chemicals in the container. According to Bill finger, the caricature of joker was initially based on the picture of joker on the playing cards But Kane says:
“Bill Finger and I created the Joker. Bill was the writer. Jerry Robinson came to me with a playing card of the Joker. That’s the way I sum it up. [The Joker] looks like Conrad Veidt — you know, the actor in The Man Who Laughs, [the 1928 movie el] by Victor Hugo based on the Novo. Bill Finger had a book with a photograph of Conrad Veidt and showed it to me and said, ‘Here’s the Joker’. Jerry Robinson had absolutely nothing to do with it, but he’ll always say he created it till he dies. He brought in a playing card, which we used for a couple of issues for him [the Joker] to use as his playing card” (Lovece, n.p, 2005).
Behind the non-serious clown lurks a very scheming nasty creature who is hell-bent on destroying Batman. In his own words
“Jack? Jack is dead my friend. Call me…Joker. And as you can see, I’m a lot happier!” Can see, I’m a lot happier!”
Joker in real life provides amusement to the people here derives happiness out of murdering people. He is vicious who gets pleasure in hurting others. This character takes up multiple crimes from murdering to stealing by tricking to being a sociopath. He is the most preferred of the batman villain is the fact that he is the most versatile of all the villains. There is an element of disbelieve in his character because of his comical appearance He is the most dangerous of all the villains in batman series whose primary motive is to do everything against him. He kills Todd and his female counterpart Barbara Gordon. He tries to emotionally damage him. He is very similar to batman. He is a befitting match for him.
The career of joker has taken many twists and turn. Barbara Gordon once known batgirl is brutally killed and somewhat exposed in Batman: The killing joke Mr Gordon the father is shown the pictures and traumatized by Joker. A Death in the Family presents Jason Todd’s gruesome murder by smashing of his head by a crowbar while trying to save his mother from being blackmailed by joker The Last laugh sees the master villain with an obsession that he is going to die infecting the inmates of prison with his joker poison so that they can escape and make this world a hell. In No Mans land, Sarah Essa Gorden is shot dead while trying to save her kidnapped children. The list of his crime is endless and he uses a variety of weapons to commits his crimes. The weapons are both unconventional and innovative. His joker venoms kill the person by giving them uncontrollable laughter .he implants a microchip containing the imprints of D.N.A of Project Cadmus. He ahs mister freeze gun and poison’s ivy toxic plants as his lethal weapons. Apart from these two he also has various other weapons such as the flower he wears in his lapel sprays, acid, poisonous laughing gas etc. He also has a gun that shoots out a flag labelled “bang”. Half of the crimes he commits are just for fun and he has no particular reason for doing them. According to Joker himself:
“When super-villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories”.
Joker is also known as the “Clown Prince of Crime” and “Ace of Knaves”. As he is both intelligent and his crimes reflect a dark sense of humour, it gives him a sense of pleasure and satisfaction. There have been many portrayals of his character. Many comic books and animated series have presented him as a harmless petty criminal. His victims belong to various categories. Women, children, old and young all fall prey to his crimes. Once he attacked a kindergarten class and gassed them. In the novel The Joker: Devil’s Advocate, he has eradicated a population of almost 2,000 people. Though he has committed a countless number of crimes and killed many people, yet he was never punished by the batman. According to him if batman tries to kill or punish him, batman will commit the same crime he has. This mind game usually works and till now the batman has never killed him. In one of the scenes when the batman is about to kill Joker, he says:
“But that would give you the final victory, making me into a killer like yourself!”
Likewise, Joker has also lost many chances of finally erasing Batman from the list of heroes. Joker has been in almost every movie, comic and series in which batman has appeared. Many video games have been created on his character, in which the player is usually the Joker killing and harming almost everybody in sight. In other video games, the player also becomes Batman, where he has to capture and kill the Joker. He is considered to be one of the greatest villains of all times (Goldstein, 1, n.d).
