Post by abishai100 on Jan 30, 2021 5:18:19 GMT -5
Let's face it --- Batman and Joker are the only parallels of good and evil in Gotham. Sure, there're a myriad of Gotham super-villains, some male and others female, who certainly qualify as worthy challengers to Batman and his sense of just reign as a valiant vigilante. There's Scarecrow and Riddler and Livewire and many more of course. However, the Joker is Batman's foil. He's the Fortinbras to Batman's Hamlet, the Billy the Kid to Batman's Pat Garrett, the Satan to Batman's Jesus, the 'Shadow' to Batman's 'Light-Hammer.' I can keep going on, but you get the point! There's no other Gotham or in my honest opinion DC Comics good-evil axis that is as poignant or symbolic psycho-sociologically in the world of comics than the unusual, offbeat, strange, colorful, and always imaginative and intelligent Batman-Joker rivalry.
Why? Maybe it's because Batman is the mysterious 'caped crusader' and masked hero to Joker's clown-faced mayhem artist and trickster. Maybe it's because Batman is the brooding Freudian hero to Joker's anti-Freudian anarchist. Maybe it's because Batman dissects crime like a scientific magician while Joker shatters our sense of civics sanity with his very unique brand of criminality-mischief rationalization. The Joker is the ultimate Devil's Advocate to Batman's ultimate humble masked crusader. Any good Batman or even general comic book fan should therefore examine this very symbolic axis in psycho-sociological terms. I've attempted to add my own brand in this thread, so I hope you find it...illuminating!
Thanks so much for reading,
====
Batman was secretly the Gotham socialite-businessman Bruce Wayne, a rich prince who inherited his father's lucrative company Wayne Industries. Wayne Tower stood at the center of Gotham like a classic toast to the diadems of triumphant capitalism, and while Bruce sat at the top floor like its crowned monarch by daytime, he prowled the city streets at night like a mysterious nocturnal crusader of justice, a masked vigilante we all call Batman (for his strange but thrilling bat-shaped mask and cape-costume). Batman claims he's fascinated by bats, because they're nocturnally intuitive and great survivors, which they really are! Batman has tackled the most hellish faces of crime and darkness in the bedlam of Gotham that intermittently rises and falls like the tides responding to blood moons. These nasty super-villains have included Scarecrow, a fear-toxin wielding maniac, Penguin, a sewer-dwelling maniac, and Poison Ivy, a dangerously seductive female eco-terrorist. However, Batman, like his real-world sane counterpart Bruce Wayne, fully understands that the greatest single threat to the modern city, Gotham City, is none other than the clown prince of darkness, the villainous Joker.
To the Joker, you see, villainy is a mischief performance or staged theatrical act. Unlike other villains who claim crime is an oyster, Joker believes it to be a canvas for unabashed joy. Joker has a clown face makeup and costume and wears a stylish trench coat usually and was toxically poisoned and discolored during a raid on a chemical plant which snapped him mentally and turned a former simple mafia ghoul named Jack into the Gotham hellraiser we call the Joker. The Joker doesn't believe in Gotham's pure light or struggle for sane civics but rather in the general imaginative mischief and human thrill and grinning evil behind causing basic mayhem just in the name of outlandish noise and anarchy. The Joker has no belief system and therefore challenges our good hero Batman in his quest for veiled conversations about aggressive attitudes towards wrought law and justice in a city beset by creative darkness and ugly minds. If Batman reaches out to Joker with his thoughts about the attainability of great Freudian intellect, Joker will simply retort with a candid insult about the joyous sarcasm behind bureaucratic nonsense.
BATMAN: You are a pawn of darkness.
JOKER: Wow, quite bold Batman for a masked weirdo to say!
BATMAN: I'm not a weirdo...like you.
JOKER: Are you sure?
BATMAN: Nothing's for certain, but everyone fears humiliation.
JOKER: Do you think I'm humiliated by you, Batman?
BATMAN: You feel social pressures like everyone else, Joker!
JOKER: I only fear the boredom that will inevitably come with boring patriotism.
BATMAN: Maybe you'll consider such a finality only in the face of deathly departure!
JOKER: I don't fear life...I simply seek the blanket of warm fun which is dark crime.
BATMAN: I understand the mental yearning to rebel against civilization.
JOKER: Do you, because it seems to me you're some kind of masked super-cop!
BATMAN: Well, you're right that I'm an alternative policeman, but I too feel angst towards oppression.
JOKER: I only feel oppressed by God, not by man, Batman.
BATMAN: True, or rather maybe that's true, but man has become your signpost for personal fury.
JOKER: Why, doesn't God sometimes neglect man for his own personal vanities?
BATMAN: If God does that, he'd anticipate some conversation, and so should you as a hellraiser!
JOKER: Are you suggesting that the words of language clear up the mess of reality?
BATMAN: I'm suggesting to you, my adversary, that crime is a face of pain...not gain.
JOKER: We all have our own way of smiling and crying, Batman!
BATMAN: I understand you have your own face of in-sanity, but consider the wisdom of incarceration!
JOKER: What, for private meditation?
BATMAN: Isn't that better than prowling around like a clownish creature of the night?
JOKER: What, if that's true, what does that make you, Bats?
BATMAN: Well, I'm your foil, so, hmmm, a nocturnal staker of the light.
JOKER: So what, we're polar opposites.
BATMAN: Maybe we're brothers in a vision of urban perfection!
JOKER: What's this vision?
BATMAN: I imagine it's a vision of enduring negotiation for the sake of sanity.
JOKER: Maybe we're crusaders on differing sides of the coin.
BATMAN: Fine; then again, maybe our coins will collide someday...in a windfall of chance.
JOKER: In that case, I'll preserve my doll face for ya, Batman.
BATMAN: Right-O.
====
"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)
Why? Maybe it's because Batman is the mysterious 'caped crusader' and masked hero to Joker's clown-faced mayhem artist and trickster. Maybe it's because Batman is the brooding Freudian hero to Joker's anti-Freudian anarchist. Maybe it's because Batman dissects crime like a scientific magician while Joker shatters our sense of civics sanity with his very unique brand of criminality-mischief rationalization. The Joker is the ultimate Devil's Advocate to Batman's ultimate humble masked crusader. Any good Batman or even general comic book fan should therefore examine this very symbolic axis in psycho-sociological terms. I've attempted to add my own brand in this thread, so I hope you find it...illuminating!
Thanks so much for reading,
====
Batman was secretly the Gotham socialite-businessman Bruce Wayne, a rich prince who inherited his father's lucrative company Wayne Industries. Wayne Tower stood at the center of Gotham like a classic toast to the diadems of triumphant capitalism, and while Bruce sat at the top floor like its crowned monarch by daytime, he prowled the city streets at night like a mysterious nocturnal crusader of justice, a masked vigilante we all call Batman (for his strange but thrilling bat-shaped mask and cape-costume). Batman claims he's fascinated by bats, because they're nocturnally intuitive and great survivors, which they really are! Batman has tackled the most hellish faces of crime and darkness in the bedlam of Gotham that intermittently rises and falls like the tides responding to blood moons. These nasty super-villains have included Scarecrow, a fear-toxin wielding maniac, Penguin, a sewer-dwelling maniac, and Poison Ivy, a dangerously seductive female eco-terrorist. However, Batman, like his real-world sane counterpart Bruce Wayne, fully understands that the greatest single threat to the modern city, Gotham City, is none other than the clown prince of darkness, the villainous Joker.
To the Joker, you see, villainy is a mischief performance or staged theatrical act. Unlike other villains who claim crime is an oyster, Joker believes it to be a canvas for unabashed joy. Joker has a clown face makeup and costume and wears a stylish trench coat usually and was toxically poisoned and discolored during a raid on a chemical plant which snapped him mentally and turned a former simple mafia ghoul named Jack into the Gotham hellraiser we call the Joker. The Joker doesn't believe in Gotham's pure light or struggle for sane civics but rather in the general imaginative mischief and human thrill and grinning evil behind causing basic mayhem just in the name of outlandish noise and anarchy. The Joker has no belief system and therefore challenges our good hero Batman in his quest for veiled conversations about aggressive attitudes towards wrought law and justice in a city beset by creative darkness and ugly minds. If Batman reaches out to Joker with his thoughts about the attainability of great Freudian intellect, Joker will simply retort with a candid insult about the joyous sarcasm behind bureaucratic nonsense.
BATMAN: You are a pawn of darkness.
JOKER: Wow, quite bold Batman for a masked weirdo to say!
BATMAN: I'm not a weirdo...like you.
JOKER: Are you sure?
BATMAN: Nothing's for certain, but everyone fears humiliation.
JOKER: Do you think I'm humiliated by you, Batman?
BATMAN: You feel social pressures like everyone else, Joker!
JOKER: I only fear the boredom that will inevitably come with boring patriotism.
BATMAN: Maybe you'll consider such a finality only in the face of deathly departure!
JOKER: I don't fear life...I simply seek the blanket of warm fun which is dark crime.
BATMAN: I understand the mental yearning to rebel against civilization.
JOKER: Do you, because it seems to me you're some kind of masked super-cop!
BATMAN: Well, you're right that I'm an alternative policeman, but I too feel angst towards oppression.
JOKER: I only feel oppressed by God, not by man, Batman.
BATMAN: True, or rather maybe that's true, but man has become your signpost for personal fury.
JOKER: Why, doesn't God sometimes neglect man for his own personal vanities?
BATMAN: If God does that, he'd anticipate some conversation, and so should you as a hellraiser!
JOKER: Are you suggesting that the words of language clear up the mess of reality?
BATMAN: I'm suggesting to you, my adversary, that crime is a face of pain...not gain.
JOKER: We all have our own way of smiling and crying, Batman!
BATMAN: I understand you have your own face of in-sanity, but consider the wisdom of incarceration!
JOKER: What, for private meditation?
BATMAN: Isn't that better than prowling around like a clownish creature of the night?
JOKER: What, if that's true, what does that make you, Bats?
BATMAN: Well, I'm your foil, so, hmmm, a nocturnal staker of the light.
JOKER: So what, we're polar opposites.
BATMAN: Maybe we're brothers in a vision of urban perfection!
JOKER: What's this vision?
BATMAN: I imagine it's a vision of enduring negotiation for the sake of sanity.
JOKER: Maybe we're crusaders on differing sides of the coin.
BATMAN: Fine; then again, maybe our coins will collide someday...in a windfall of chance.
JOKER: In that case, I'll preserve my doll face for ya, Batman.
BATMAN: Right-O.
====
"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)