The Ed Zone
aughty Joker. That’s how Batman’s arch-nemesis was known to everyone in my family. There was an audio cassette of me, aged around six, excitedly shouting. No, you can’t cut me in half and count the rings. Wherever my love of Batman came from – the comics would certainly stay with me for the rest of my life – there was one constant. I was completely captivated by the Joker. Was it Cesar Romero’s faintly-moustached live-action interpretation? Or Filmation’s Lennie Weinrib-voiced animation? Who knows. But by the time Jack Nicholson’s big-screen baddie came around in 1989, my grin was so wide you’d think I’d been affected by Smylex. By this time he was less “naughty” and more full-on homicidal maniac, but hey – you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs. For me, Jack Nicholson is the definitive Joker – if I could capture that moment in time, the Batmania that swept the globe, I would feast like a Skeksis. But time moves on, and we have new takes in animation, graphic novels, and movies. So, with the Joker’s 80th anniversary on the horizon, we take a look back at his naughtiest moments, examine his latest cinematic incarnation, and meet the superhero team he’s taken on previously – the Titans. Ooh, we’ve got a live one here!
