Suicide Squad: The Joker Is Coming

Jared Leto's Joker is all the rage in the land of movie hype these days. Our Ryan Mayer takes a look at what is driving all of the hysteria, as he take a deeper look at the character.

The Joker has been one of the hottest topics when it comes to the building of the new DC Extended Universe. For many years now the Joker has been one of the most interesting and well-loved villains in all of comic books and movies. This is a character functions somewhat differently, depending on the artist and their adaptation; but always with a chaotic and frightening flair.

The Joker can be many things but one thing is always certain; he is ALWAYS off his rocker. Batman's greatest nemesis was created in 1940 and debuted in the first Batman comic series. He has always been Batman’s arch enemy and will likely be until the day the character dies; a fact which Batman is made to confront in several of Joker's bigger story arcs.

Through the ages he has grown and changed, from a lightweight jokester to one of the most sinister and purely evil characters in comics history; he even brutally murdered one of the Robins in the Batman arc A Death in the Family. So far, there have been a total of three interpretations of the Joker that have been portrayed on the big and small screens. Actors like Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger have become the psychopath in different eras. When it came time for DC to announce their newest Joker, however, it was a choice that would leave many wondering as to what direction the character would be taken next.

Fans were both excited and a bit weary with the casting of Leto as the Clown Prince of Crime. This comes especially after one of the best Joker portrayal fans have seen in Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. The true question was what kind of Joker would Leto be portraying in Suicide Squad?

Each actor to portray the well known jester of genocide has portrayed him in different ways, while still staying true to the character.

Cesar Romero had the more comical aspect of the Joker, while Nicholson took on the crazy gangster side of the iconic character. Heath Ledger took on a more scary side of the Joker, by playing an insane anarchist who just wanted to watch the world burn.

Now it comes down to Leto, what aspect of the Joker will he be taking on? From set images to the first Image released by of Leto’s Joker it looks like he is aiming for the complete psychopath part of the Joker.

In October, Empire Magazine released a new issue that is heavily based on the Suicide Squad and had The Joker on the cover, which was the best look we have had of the Joker since his first image was released. In the issue Producer Charles Roven states that this version of the Joker that will be well immersed in the DC Extended Universe is “more social” than past iterations and is “a very successful and smart businessman.”

This should be very exciting news for Joker fans because this will be the first time we truly see a Joker that wants to be out in public eye and is not going to hide.

This also seems like a portrayal that is truly going to be talking to someone happily one moment and then have a knife in their throat the next.

By the way the cast of Suicide Squad and the heads of the movie are talking about this iteration of the Joker it seems more and more like he will be truly a psychopath. It will be interesting to see in the movie how Batman and the Joker interact with one another, especially with the Joker having already killed Robin (see trailer).

Both the new Batman and Joker seem to be coming closer and closer to their current comic book counterparts.

As of now we will have to wait and see, but there is one thing all fans of the Joker can be sure of this is going to be one of the scariest and craziest iterations of the Clown Prince of Crime.

 

Ryan Mayer is a Contributor to ComiConverse: Follow him on Twitter: @RMayer94