WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Batman, now in theaters.
As more trailers and clips for Matt Reeves' The Batman came out, it was inevitable that Paul Dano's Riddler would be compared to Heath Ledger's Joker, using the media to scare the public. The latter was an Oscar-winning tour de force from 2008's The Dark Knight, with Christopher Nolan using the Clown Prince of Crime to cause anarchy and show Gotham's society that it was hypocritical in how it condemned crime but let white-collar villains run free.
In The Batman, The Riddler cut a similar figure, wanting to reset and rebuild a Gotham that mistreated him his entire life, making it clear the elites like Thomas Wayne and their legacies had to pay for feeding off the blood of the poor. However, as Riddler went about his mission, there were key elements that proved while he was better than Ledger's Joker in some respects, he was much worse in others.
How Was Riddler Better Than Heath Ledger's Joker?
The Batman's Riddler was a more calculating, cerebral villain with his cryptic games, pushing Robert Pattinson's Caped Crusader to his limits in their mental warfare. The ciphers and puzzles often wracked his brain, which even had Alfred and Jim Gordon trying to help out. It wasn't like The Dark Knight's Joker, where it was elementary puzzles, threats or one-off quizzes. The clown also came off more reactive, switching from wanting to take The Bat down to feeling incomplete without him, which did reflect his fractured psyche.
In Riddler's case, he was laser-focused due to his introverted ways, manipulating Batman from the start and never wavering from the mission. He held secrets regarding cops, Penguin and Carmine Falcone's mob and even Bruce's family, so he orchestrated everything to keep them all distracted. It allowed him to lurk in the shadows as a master on the chessboard to blow Gotham apart, drown it and kill off key politicians.
It was a masterclass plan that didn't leave anything up to chance, unlike Ledger's Joker, who was undone when both prisoners and citizens refused to be part of his game anymore. That distraction allowed Bruce to get the upper hand and bring the clown down. To that point, Riddler's movement was way scarier and more loyal, as he got folks online to help form an army, proving he was a bigger symbol and deeper ideal by using Batman's theme of vengeance to make an invisible network of terrorists.
How Was Riddler Worse Than Heath Ledger's Joker?
As much as he claimed to be a masked freedom fighter, The Batman's Riddler, though deadly, was more selfish than anything else and came from a personal, whiny place. He hated being an orphan who got bullied at the Wayne Manor-turned-orphanage, and while it was sympathetic, he came off needy and power-hungry, only looking to boost his public image. It's why he lost it when he got arrested in Arkham Asylum, following The Bat insulting him about how he'd be forgotten soon enough.
It confirmed Riddler was still a child driven by ego, allowing him to accidentally reveal secrets that sent Bruce on the path to taking down his army. Riddler undid the job himself and allowed Gotham to start to rebuild while he was locked in a cell. In other words, he shot himself in the foot right when he had victory within his grasp. To top it off, Riddler just didn't have that intimidating aura, which was admittedly due to Reeves keeping him in the shadows to build the mystique. Ledger's Joker, on the other hand, had more of an imposing presence, more dialogue and such while still keeping his background mysterious.
Reeves couldn't strike that balance, as Riddler running through his past was rushed and didn't connect as much to the Wayne orphanage as the director might have wanted in a lackluster, spastic interrogation scene. It just wasn't as powerful as when Ledger's clown met Christian Bale's Batman in the precinct. In fact, this Riddler-Batman exchange felt like a diluted remix, as opposed to when Joker broke The Bat, distracting him so he could kill Rachel and burn Harvey's face. In The Batman, Riddler let emotion trump logic and couldn't even get the ultimate kill right. That's because he botched the explosion on Alfred, which pushed Bruce harder to come after him and unlock clues to stop the crusade.
See how Riddler compares to Joker in The Batman, now in theaters.