Comparing Batman And The Dark Knight

Madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push!" is an iconic line in a recent superhero film. Signifying irony as well as insanity, this quote demonstrates how easily one may become mentally deranged. Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) films tell the account of a fictional American superhero and his mentally ill archenemy, the Joker. The Joker from Batman and the Joker from The Dark Knight share a similar origin story; however, they have very contrasting personalities and appearances.

In the 1989 Batman film, before the Joker was introduced as the Joker, he was a man named Jack Napier. As a young man, Jack and his partner in crime mugged and killed Bruce Wayne's parents. Before murdering

Wayne’s parents, Jack asked young Bruce Wayne, "Tell me, kid, you ever danced with the Devil by the pale moonlight?” As Jack prepared to shoot Wayne, his partner panicked and urged Jack to leave. Jack put down his weapon and said to Wayne, "See you around, kid.” This scene introduced the start of a toxic relationship between Bruce Wayne and Jack Napier, who later become known as one of the greatest hero and villain duos, the Batman and the Joker. This event sparked a desire in Wayne to protect the citizens of Gotham but ironically Batman is responsible for the “creation” of the Joker. During an action scene, Jack’s cheek is partially grazed by a stray bullet causing him to become disoriented and fall off a catwalk. Batman reaches his hand out to grab Jack’s but doesn’t succeed, dropping Jack into the vat of a boiling green chemicals below. Jack manages to survive this incident but not without the cost of his sanity and appearance, leading him to become the Joker. The prolonged and extreme exposure to the green substance altered Jack’s physical features by bleaching his hair follicles to a green color as well as altering the hue of his skin. For the bullet that grazed his cheek, the Jack went to a plastic surgeon that was unable to fully repair the Jokers face due to the extensive nerve damage. With the nerves being severed, Jack is left with a permanent grinning expression. Upon seeing his disfigured reflection, Jack loses all sanity that remained. He proceeds to smash a mirror and stumble off laughing maniacally, evolving into the notorious Joker. From this point on, the Joker’s true identity and personality develops. The insanity of the Joker is demonstrated through numerous events and comments he makes on the situations he gets into. At one point in the film, the Joker is told that he is insane after vandalizing a museum and gassing civilians to which he replies, “I thought I was a Pieces,” demonstrating his twisted humor. He also claims that he “makes art until someone dies” and considers himself a “homicidal artist.”
In the 2008 Christopher Nolan film The Dark Knight, the exact origins of the Joker are unclear.

The Dark Knight borrowed elements from Batman: The Killing Joke, a 1988 DC Comics graphic novel, which provides an origin story for the Joker. The connection between the two leads to a similar origin story of the creation of the Joker through the influence of Batman. Batman's interference in The Killing Joke causes the Joker to leap into a chemical vat, which severely disfigures him. In The Dark Knight, the Joker himself also has multiple testimonies on how he came to be. He sometimes blames his abusive and alcoholic father for creating his mutilated smile while in a drunken rage one night. The Joker also claims that after his wife’s face was mutilated, he pulled a razor on his own to comfort her by showing that her damaged appearance didn’t bother him. After carving his own cheeks, he says that, “she couldn’t stand the sight of (him).” This disturbing attempt to make her feel better makes causes worse, resulting in his wife leaving him, furthering his mental instability. Although the scars are present on The Dark Knight version of the Joker, the rest of his appearance is cosmetic in contrast to the physiological image of the Joker from the 1989 Batman film. The Joker in The Dark Knight applies chalk white makeup to his face and dark products to blacken the spaces around his eyes. He also dyes his greasy hair green rather than having the chemically bleached green hair follicles of the 1989 Joker who fell into the bubbling green substance. Their personalities differ mainly by the 1989 Joker being more comical while The Dark Knight Joker being more psychotic. The Joker from The Dark Knight calls himself an “agent of chaos” and wishes to drag everyone down to his level of insanity and corruption rather than just kill them

quickly.
The Joker is a vital character in both Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) films, but when it comes down to their individual personalities and appearances, they could not be more different. The Joker in the first film is very humorous while in the second, the character is much more grim and mentally deranged. Both Jokers have psychotic elements, one just stronger and darker than the other. What makes the Joker so intriguing is his contradictory character. His lack of supernatural powers, emotional detachment from the world, and his absence of an exact motive, is what make him the ultimate villain.