The Tim Burton film offered a name and origin. The animated film Batman- Mask Of The Phantasm, offered another origin. The old story (OTTOMH) Secret Of The Red Hood offered yet another origin. Finally, The Killing Joke offered stil one more origin. None of these are canon. No one, including the Joker, knows what his name was or who he was before the accident. ‘Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another. If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!’ The Joker’s very first appearance included the cold blooded murder of several people and a panel which, while crude when compared to modern comics, is IMHO a marvellous and chilling portrait of pure evil. Eventually, the Joker was neutered and became more goofy and strange than dangerous. In the eighties, he returned to his roots in The Joker’s Five Way Revenge. The Joker has long used a poison that causes laughter, swift death, and a ghastly smile. It was called Smilex only in the Burton film. In the comics, it’s known as Joker Venom.
In Other News
DC is now making a leather and metal replica of Batman’s utility belt. It includes nine storage cspasules with springloaded lids, a (nonfunctional) microphone and walkie talkie hidden in the buckle, and a concealed pocket for an earlier batarang replica. It will be in shops in a few months and will cost over $300.
Fish
I actually like bats more than I like Bat Man. Sadly, not counting zoos, I’ve spotted bats a total of three times. Of those three, one was dead. One was hibernating and curled up so tight it looked like a hairball. The other time, I knocked on a chimney. This caused two shapes to sly out at a strange angle, do a turn and vanish. It happened so quickly, that they were gone before my brain could register ‘Hey! Bats!’ So, if you have more details I’d like to hear them. However, beware that in at least one story, the Joker used a variant of Joker Venom to give fish faces that resembled his own.
I don’t know if it’s true or not but the story I heard about Batman Beyond is that it was the merchandising department that pushed for it. The story goes that they were running out of ideas for making batman toys and wanted some new direction that they could go, and asked for this new futurized batman show as the vehicle to give the toys some legitimacy (moreso than the “arctic attack batman” and such they’d made before).
That Dini and company took that seemingly crazy idea, ran with it and made it a darn good show, while keeping somewhat true to the Batman mythos is the amazing part. (If the story is true, of course…)
I just finished reading *Batman: The Dark Knight Returns * last night, and I have a few questions. Under what circumstances is Batman considered to have “beaten the crap out of Superman”? Batman came out of that fight the worse for wear (seemingly dead), Superman was doing fine once the kryptonite cloud dissipated, and Batman was out of tricks at that point even if he was still conscious. Fantastic story, wonderful plot, but I don’t see the hype surrounding the ending. (Or is this a case of nothing like this had even been attempted at the time, and it was revolutionary for the medium?)
Aw, c’mon. If not for that heart attack, Bats would’ve been able to manhandle the Kryptonian with impunity. Clark was still banged up at the funeral service days later.
So you’re saying the guy standing and attending the funeral was in worse shape than the guy in the coffin?
But how would Bruce have been able to deal with Clark if he hadn’t have had the heart attack? The kryptonite was gone, Bruce’s power link to the grid was gone, his helmet was gone, Green Arrow was out of the equation as was Robin, and he was about to pass out. Clark had a black eye - Bruce had a heart attack.
Bruce chose to have a heart attack. He did mis-time the specific moment a bit … but he wanted it to appear as if he were dead.
And Kryptonite just doesn’t “go away” - it’s a solid at room temperature - the particles of Green K probably settled all around the area.
Let’s put it this way : If his goal had been to kill Superman, he could’ve achieved that goal. His goal was to batter Clark’s ego just a bit while at the same time fooling the powers that be that he’d died.
Within the context of the version of the DCU that DKR is set in?
Enh. He’d probably been hurt before. But Bats really had him at his mercy there, grinding the man’s head into the pavement with his spiked boot and all.
Also, as a further bit of info to address an earlier point of yours : the idea of a Batman/Superman tussle wherein Batman comes out on top was not new. The execution of the idea … with a fifty-plus Batman and the sheer brutality of the fight… was.
Actually, hearing that there was a “Batman/Superman tussle in which Batman comes out on top” was what inspired me to read DKR in the first place. The thought of Krypton Boy getting pounded into the dirt by, let’s face it, a mere mortal, was just too sweet to not go out and buy a copy. I actually reread it twice in the space of a week. Picked up a few details that I hadn’t noticed in previous readings, like in the final panel, Oliver Queen standing in the foreground, with his back to the, uh, camera.
Which reminds me- reading DKR has given me a certain fondness for the Green Arrow, who, I understand, was a bit of a subversive. Are there any Green Arrow serieseseses out there bound up in graphic novel form that I need to read?
There is the purportedly classic “Longbow Hunters” Green Arrow Graphic Novel … which I haven’t read, but have heard good things about.
But there was a recent reboot of the character that started with a 12 (?) issue run by Kevin Smith - “Quiver”, I believe… dealing with GA’s return from the dead and re-acclimatization to the world. The “Quiver” arc is collected in trade paperback form.
See, I never get all of the hype around that fight either. I really don’t buy that Batman could have killed or otherwise beaten Superman under any circumstances at that point (of course, we find out that by DKSA, he could do it easily, but whatever).
Batman needed Superman to get caught in the most powerful weapon ever conceived by man just to get him softened up enough so that Bats could even lay a hand on him. I really don’t see why it’s viewed as a Batman victory. I mean, yeah, it’s impressive what he did, but Superman still could’ve taken 'im. Easily.
