I'm looking at Watchmen the same way. (Haven't reread The Killing Joke in a while--it's very well done, but I confess to preferring Arkham Asylum. Still-and-all, both are wonderful examples of the Joker not spelling out his initials while stealing jewel-encrusted clown masks.[1])
I mean, I'm sure they're going to end up giving us something that is not strictly out of the comic. But the pictures are beautiful and evocative enough that I'm hopeful, and if we end up with something that gets the comic wrong[2], a small piece of my heart will crack.
Because it's looking right, so far. The stage is set. The opening music is apropos. And *please please please* let the mood not break when the actors open their mouths... --- [1] Damn you, Dr. Frederic Wertham. *turns head, spits* [2] Which is totally different from not being the same thing as the comic.
Squee is happy, enthused, and possibly occasionally sexy. (Well, you know, as long as we are not discussing the JtHM character.) Squee is Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow, or possibly just the Scarecrow.
This is the Joker.
I want a serious helping of plausible terror--believably extracted from the other characters, if not necessarily effective enough to disturb everyone in the theater--and at least the finest slice of something actually disturbing to me. Because this is him, my favourite of the small handful of characters I would actually be sorry to see go if the DC Universe vanished tomorrow.
And yeah, it's a movie, and yeah, it's a comic-book movie, and I understand there are limits on how far they can go.
But I want to see the compassion of a habromaniacal shark. Even if it's only sketched out behind the curtain, I want to see terror, and pain, and the utter dehumanization when an empty soul is in charge of the situation. Forget fear in a handful of dust; I want to see black and shrieking evil in a clown's painted grin.
Because that's the Joker.
(...yeah. I geek weirdly when I geek on villains.)
Too bad it's the Joker as he doesn't actually appear in the comics. It's a rewrite that makes the character not suck, I admit, but it has very little to do with the Joker who is a Batman villain.
I am under the distinct impression that "Joker as he appears in the comics" is not a phrase that means much, since he's been reinvented just as often as his archnemisisisis Batman has, over the years.
Really, anything remotely associated with the Batman universe cannot be considered to have a single, "real" canon interpretation anymore. The story's been redone a gazillion times, in every medium.
(At any rate, I wasn't necessarily saying that "this is how Joker should be, canonically", I was more agreeing with torrain that "this is how Joker should be, because that would be awesome".)
Pretty much. (That said, the Joker as he should be to provide maximum awesome does show up in the comics a few times--Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth[1] and (to a slightly lesser degree) The Killing Joke that mhoye mentioned spring to mind, and there are bits of it in Dark Knight Returns--so I have no problem saying that this is him as he appears in the comics. Just, you know, the best bits of him, with the crud filtered out.)
I think the Joker is the only comic-book villain I've ever seen to get an anthology of prose stories dedicated to him alone. A couple are uninspired--the Joker as a child ones really didn't grab me--but F. Paul Wilson's leaves me grinning every time, and Sheri S. Tepper's is a neat and quiet little package.
...yeah, I am a horror fangirl. Anyway. --- [1] Which has got to be my favourite subtitle of all time.
And I couldn't even tell it was Heath till I IMDB'd it, whence the squee turned double. Because the Joker is hardcore awesome with awesome sauce. I hope pretty boy can do the role justice. Still. Squee.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 02:24 pm (UTC)I dropped by to take a quick look, and nearly got startled into... not a shriek, certainly. But something louder than a squeak.
This movie, oh please, this movie *must* be awesome.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 03:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 03:40 pm (UTC)I mean, I'm sure they're going to end up giving us something that is not strictly out of the comic. But the pictures are beautiful and evocative enough that I'm hopeful, and if we end up with something that gets the comic wrong[2], a small piece of my heart will crack.
Because it's looking right, so far. The stage is set. The opening music is apropos. And *please please please* let the mood not break when the actors open their mouths...
---
[1] Damn you, Dr. Frederic Wertham. *turns head, spits*
[2] Which is totally different from not being the same thing as the comic.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-14 04:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 03:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 03:50 pm (UTC)Squee is happy, enthused, and possibly occasionally sexy. (Well, you know, as long as we are not discussing the JtHM character.) Squee is Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow, or possibly just the Scarecrow.
This is the Joker.
I want a serious helping of plausible terror--believably extracted from the other characters, if not necessarily effective enough to disturb everyone in the theater--and at least the finest slice of something actually disturbing to me. Because this is him, my favourite of the small handful of characters I would actually be sorry to see go if the DC Universe vanished tomorrow.
And yeah, it's a movie, and yeah, it's a comic-book movie, and I understand there are limits on how far they can go.
But I want to see the compassion of a habromaniacal shark. Even if it's only sketched out behind the curtain, I want to see terror, and pain, and the utter dehumanization when an empty soul is in charge of the situation. Forget fear in a handful of dust; I want to see black and shrieking evil in a clown's painted grin.
Because that's the Joker.
(...yeah. I geek weirdly when I geek on villains.)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 03:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 04:40 pm (UTC)Which is why I was encouraged when I listened to the teaser trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWw0ov-cAUg) for the movie.
Certainly sounds like they have the right idea.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 06:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 07:59 pm (UTC)Really, anything remotely associated with the Batman universe cannot be considered to have a single, "real" canon interpretation anymore. The story's been redone a gazillion times, in every medium.
(At any rate, I wasn't necessarily saying that "this is how Joker should be, canonically", I was more agreeing with
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 09:11 pm (UTC)I think the Joker is the only comic-book villain I've ever seen to get an anthology of prose stories dedicated to him alone. A couple are uninspired--the Joker as a child ones really didn't grab me--but F. Paul Wilson's leaves me grinning every time, and Sheri S. Tepper's is a neat and quiet little package.
...yeah, I am a horror fangirl. Anyway.
---
[1] Which has got to be my favourite subtitle of all time.
p
Date: 2007-12-13 04:48 pm (UTC)Cillian Murphy is certainly hot too though.
And I couldn't even tell it was Heath till I IMDB'd it, whence the squee turned double. Because the Joker is hardcore awesome with awesome sauce. I hope pretty boy can do the role justice. Still. Squee.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 05:09 pm (UTC)But he won't say what it was.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 09:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-14 04:53 am (UTC)That's enough to scare any Hollywood person.