OK, Maybe He's Not Bruce Wayne

The first time I saw the teaser trailer from JOKER (2019), I was like, "This....is Bruce Wayne." Arthur Fleck...A.Fleck....Afleck. C'mon, right? The little boy that is playing a young Bruce Wayne has literally played a young version of a character played by Joaquin Phoenix. The clues were there! Phoenix even said the "light" of Arthur was much more interesting than the torment (aka the dark). And, depending on the decade and actor, Batman has been known as the Bright AND the Dark Knight. Hot Take here: Adam West and Will Arnett are the most entertaining Batmans (Batmen?).

I don't feel this way anymore. I have procrastinated writing this so long, that my viewpoint has changed. But, I do think that the complicated relationship of the Joker and Batman has yet to be explored to it's full potential. I would love seeing a movie about this. Some people think that the Joker is Batman's twin brother and their dad is actually Alfred. Other people were convinced that The Joker from Suicide Squad is Robin. I'm not with that necessarily, but I think there is definitely more than meets the eye. Why is the world's greatest detective regularly getting bested by this literal clown in Ruby Woo? It doesn't add up y'all!

Joker looks so interesting, and you should know that it is not connected to the DCEU. The upcoming The Batman movie looks like it's going to actually be a detective movie with very little connection to the others. The Long Halloween is rumored to be the story arc this time around. I like this idea as the main villain of that story has a cooler origin story in this one. Also, I mean, Calendar Man is also pretty cool to me. The Long Halloween is a nice change of pace. That's one of the reasons I hold the LEGO Batman movie in such high regard, it was a nice shout out to some of the other bad guys.  Batman has been around for eighty years, not everything has to be about The Joker all the time. Speaking of which, I know y'all are waiting for my thought on IT: Chapter Two. Besides Mortal Kombat, those are the only posts that get real traction. I just wanna say, from the bottom of my heart,

The post is coming! I promise! I just have other things on my mind! There is a lot of process with *that* and I want to make a blog post that does the movie justice.

I don't feel like The Batman will be a rehash of The Dark Knight Trilogy. But, without saying too much, it will be clear that Nolan is also a fan of The Long Halloween.

Since I have procrastinated this post for a whole three months, I'll just add in another post I have been procrastinating because it's basically about the same thing. The rest of this is what I would make The Joker's orgin story be if I had any artistic talent and made comic books.


The end of The Killing Joke is pretty ambiguous. If you haven't read it, I'll just let you know what happened without too many spoilers. I'm under the impression that this is accepted The Joker's canon origin story. I'd prefer there to be no actual orgin story, because I love the anarchy and fraud that I associate with The Joker. I don't want any reasoning, I don't want anything to be canon when it comes to The Joker.  I just want him to be evil.  I'll elaborate why towards the end.

After having "One Bad Day", a man falls into a chemical vat and is driven insane. Years later, Batman goes to Arkham Asylum to try to squash the beef with The Joker.  However, The Joker isn't even there, lol. While The Joker is loose, he has a women in refrigerator moment with Barbara Gordon. I totally get that some people don't think that Bat-Girl qualifies as a WIR, but I read other comics and Dick was PISSED. Speaking of Dick, WIR, and me talking about wtf I know...Even Starfire is a WIR. I am so thankful that comics are doing better with women's story lines for the most part. I also don't really read #edgy comics like that anymore. I much prefer nonsense, so maybe I'm wrong.
 Also, I am a woman and I know damn well what was implied in that panel. He literally took her clothes off and took pictures of her...so he could show her dad. The Joker wanted to show Commissioner Gordon the photos for no other reason than to cause mental anguish. While that's not "technically" rape, it's still sexual assault.

AND for the purpose of the story I want to tell, Barbara is indeed a WIR. Let's not forget the canceled cover that had everyone very angry.
If I was Batman and had to see my friend in that position with my own two eyeballs, I would probably go batshit insane. Especially because in this story Batman and Batgirl were bangin'! I would go crazy. And, we're getting to that.

So, this horrible violence against Batgirl did not make Commission Gordon go insane, even though that was The Joker's goal. He wanted to prove that "One Bad Day" could make a man go insane, since that's what happened to him.
Batman arrives at the amusement park where Gordon and The Joker are at. Commissioner Gordon tells Batman to arrest The Joker to show him that doing things the right way works or some other stupid sh*t that does NOT work on people like The Joker. Batman offers to take The Joker in, because Batman feels like if he does not, him and The Joker are gonna fight to the death. The Joker says it's "too late" for #alladat.So he tells Batman a very unfunny joke, and then the police come. But, the panel looks like this.

Batman killed the f*ck out of The Joker and you can't change my mind. I believe that this is where the title "The Killing Joke" comes in. The joke so bad that Batman had to kill The Joker...But also, you can see that the laughter continues in the picture after. Someone was still laughing.
It was Bruce Wayne, after One Bad Day.


Now, that last sentence.... A mic drop moment. But I am incapable of shuting the hell up. Sorry.
Remember when I said that some people felt like The Suicide Squad movie Joker was Robin because the suit said "haha the jokes on you, Batman!" I understood the suit to symbolize that throughout the eighty years of there being The Dark Knight, there has always been The Joker. And The Dark Knight through whatever means will always become The Joker. It doesn't matter if it's through mental illness,the multiverse, infection, or just One Bad Day, it's his destiny. And, I think that Batman knows this. Like in the last panels of The Killing Joke, The Joker ALWAYS gets the last laugh.

I'm biased, so I like this theory the best. However, what I feel is closer to what is probably going on is based on the Gotham TV show. The reason Batman is unable to properly by The Joker away for good is the same reason The Jokers crimes range from stupid (stealing a kid's report card), to weird (copyrighting fish), to unforgivable (skinning a business partner alive). It's because the crimes are committed by different people.

And, that's a much more intresting explaination and orgin story. There isn't one joker, there are possibly hundreds, maybe thousands of potential Jokers in Gotham. And they've got like a five year head start. Or I mean, maybe The Joker can time travel.