Thoughts on Joketo.

As a comic-book lover and self proclaimed geek, I was, and still am, a bit skeptical about Jared Leto's casting as the Joker, in the upcoming Suicide Squad movie. The Joker has always been my favourite comic book character (Batman comes second), both in DC and the entire comic world. He's one of the greatest villains ever and Batman's personal archenemy. Add to that, the mind-blowing portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime by Heath Ledger in Nolan's The Dark Knight, and you'll have a horde of geeks worshiping The Joker, unconditionally. So, is it really surprising that the most psychopathic villain in the (comic book) world, should be a figure of controversy? Get it? No? Okay, sorry.

Speaking retrospectively, the casting of The Joker has always been a very hotly discussed topic. Jack Nicholson was hated on when he went under the clown make-up. People cited he was too old to play the Joker and that a 52 year old man could never pull off the crazed up antics of the infamous lunatic. But he was praised for his performance in the 1989 Batman and was the best Joker, until he was dethroned by Heath Ledger. Ledger himself was subjected to abject hate, however, his portrayal shut all the haters up. Therefore, I think its only natural that people have doubts about any actor portraying their favourite characters.

There's only two ways this can go. Either Jared Leto's gonna kill it, or he's gonna suck. The Joker is already such a revered character in comic book history that the reactions to him in the Suicide Squad movie will be highly polarized. They'll either love it or they'll hate it. There is no in-between.

Let's inspect the Joker image now, shall we? Soak it all in.

Honestly speaking, this is way different than how I imagined the Joketo to look like. I was still comparing him with the Ledger Joker when this came out. But, this is effing epic. I know a lotta people hate this, the main reason being the tattoos and the grill. People absolutely enraged and infuriated at the thought of The Joker sitting down to get inked.

["Yeah, could you tattoo a skull with a clown's hat here, and a 'hahahaha' here and a big red lipped grin over here? Oh, and I want 'Damaged' on my forehead too. You down with that?"] LOOOOOL.

The tattoos are mostly symbolic and might not even be in the movie. But frankly, I wouldn't mind if if they were, because it gives a different aspect to this Joker. Every Joker has been a reinvention, with the Jack Nicholson being an over the top insane lunatic, Heath Ledger an anarchic psychopath and Jared Leto what appears to be a mentally disturbed neo-nazi. Stop comparing each Joker to its predecessors. Originality is fascination while banality is boredom. 

But I'll play along just to humor the obstinate asses out there. The tattoos might be something he's obsessed with. An obsession would not be something new to a psychopath, would it? OR maybe, he got them when he was still struggling with bipolarity, when the line between sanity and lunacy was just fading OR maybe, the whole thing is a big tease. As for the grills, maybe, the Batman smashed out his front teeth, and those are actual metal teeth, OR the Joker might just be image conscious now. (Yes, the last one was a joke).

A different take on the Joker might not be that bad, really. An open mind is essential to viewing Joketo without bias. The most important thing is to keep calm and wait till we watch Leto in action. Let's not make the same mistake we made with Ledger, shall we? Peace.

                                                                                        

                                                                              fin.