Summary

• The Joker's iconic portrayals by Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger have set a gold standard for cinema villains to imitate.
• DC's cinematic villains have attempted to replicate The Joker's style, often straying from the unique qualities that made these characters interesting in the first place.
• Continuously imitating The Joker limits the potential for DC's film villains to explore new and diverse characterizations, preventing them from standing out.

Batman's infamous nemesis, The Joker, is a legendary villain in comics and cinema. Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger, in particular, defined the character for film thanks to their charisma and offbeat nature. However, the character's larger-than-life presence has also made an impact on DC's villains on the big screen, and not all of it is positive.

Thanks to the acclaim of Nicholson in Tim Burton's Batman and Ledger's Oscar-winning performance in The Dark Knight, The Joker has become a gold standard for cinema villains to imitate. The most profound impact has been in DC's own theatrical takes on its villains. Many of DC's villains have tried copying the success of these two actors' takes on the characters. This has yielded incredibly mixed results for the DC Universe, with some actors turning out decent performances while others have resulted in poor imitations of The Joker. In both cases, they come at the expense of the source material and ditch what made these villains unique in the first place.

Updated February 15, 2024 by Joshua M. Patton: The Joker is one of DC Comics' most iconic characters, and for 84 years audiences have not tired of the character, who ranges from a silly jokester to the most terrifying of homicidal villains. The character has become archetypal, and many villains in live-action adaptations emulate him. This article has been updated to add background details on the Joker's creation and comport to CBR's current formatting standards.

The History of the Joker In Comics, Film and Television

The Joker was created in 1940, though who created him remains a subject of some controversy. The creators of Batman, Bill Finger and Bob Kane, are credited with his first appearance in Batman #1 in 1940, as is Jerry Robinson. Both Kane and Robinson admit that Finger showed them an image of Conrad Veight's character Gwynplaine from the 1928 film The Man Who Laughs. Gwynplaine is the son of a royal Lord whose face has been disfigured into a permanent smile. In the comics, his origin is given as a former costumed criminal known as the Red Hood who was disfigured after falling into a vat of chemicals as Batman tried to stop him.

However, the Joker is an unreliable character, and he's been given many origins in stories like Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, Paul Dini's "Case Study," and others. A recent story in the comics suggested three different people are acting as the Joker. The character quickly became Batman's most popular villain. He appeared in Batman, the 1966 television series and film, played by Ceaser Romero. In Tim Burton's Batman in 1989, Oscar-winning actor Jack Nicholson played a definitive version of the character, dying at the end of the film. The late Heath Ledger also played the Joker in The Dark Knight, and in that continuity, the character survived and is presumably incarcerated at Arkham Asylum.

Actor Cameron Monaghan played two versions of the character in Gotham, a pair of twin brothers who each menaced young Bruce Wayne, Jim Gordon and the Gotham City Police. Joaquin Phoenix played Joker in an origin story film of the same name in 2019, and the sequel -- a musical co-starring Lady Gaga -- is set to debut on October 4, 2024. Also, fans expect Barry Keoghan's version of the character to appear in Matt Reeves's universe of Batman films and series. Joker will also appear in the new DC Universe helmed by James Gunn. There is no shortage of Joker adaptations in live-action and animation, but the character's power goes beyond even just his own appearances.

Joker's First and Most Recent Appearances

Villains Like Lex Luthor and Riddler Imitate The Joker - Even If It Doesn't Fit

Many of DC's cinematic villains have tried to replicate The Joker's style. Whether it be Nicholson's swaggering gangster charm or Ledger's eccentric master of chaos, many villains have attempted to ride their coattails. Among the most prominent are Jim Carrey's Riddler and Danny DeVito's Penguin, both borrowing from Nicholson as over-the-top villains played by prominent celebrities. In particular, Penguin has a circus gang at his disposal, while Riddler shares Jack Napier's obsession with Batman and his taste for grandstanding comedic antics. Even Paul Dano's Riddler has elements of Ledger's Joker, as his depiction as a terrorist committing gruesome murders and broadcasting threats to Gotham City calls Ledger to mind. While these imitations can be great, they stray from what the characters were and signal the creators cared more about using a proven success than taking a risk.

The flip side is that plenty of DC villains in films imitate The Joker to poor results. Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor was shown to be a disheveled and overly excitable villain who loved destruction, a far cry from the cool-headed schemer the character is beloved for embodying. Likewise, Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face was not the complex tragic villain he's famous for being, but a cackling monster with an affinity for outrageous shenanigans. But none of it compares to Batman and Robin, where Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy overshadow the heroes as scene-stealing villains delivering quips and wearing flashy costumes. With Arnold Schwarzenegger even having top billing over George Clooney in that film, it embodies all the wrong lessons learned from Nicholson's celebrity casting as a ruthless entertainer.

Imitating Joker Restricts What DC's Film Villains Can Be

The downside of DC continuing to chase after The Joker's success is that it limits the potential for what their villains can be. Both iterations of the Suicide Squad show that DC villains have the potential to be interesting and varied characters, while Michael Shannon's General Zod remains a highlight. Even other Batman villains, such as Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face or Liam Neeson's Ra's al-Ghul have proven the Dark Knight's villains don't necessarily have to be stuck in the Clown Prince of Crime's shadow. If the upcoming DC Universe films are to stand out, they need to expand the type of villains they can show beyond Joker imitations.

Nicholson and Ledger's iconic Joker portrayals have maintained an iron-fisted grip on DC's cinema villains. This has resulted in many copying their superficial traits without understanding what made them work, leaving audiences with a slew of copycats that are little more than trend chasers. This is a shame because DC has shown its film villains can be more than archetypes. DC boasts a rich catalog of villains to adapt, and they all deserve better than chasing after old glories from the past. This is even more important if the Joker continues to appear in films and television shows, lest the character eventually becomes tiresome because even the Joker himself has to grow and evolve to stay interesting and terrifying to audiences.