Duality

“You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain”. That was a tagline from the 2008 film “The Dark Knight”. To be honest I had some doubts about this movie, since it featured a “new” Joker. On one hand, I was excited, on the other I was sceptical. the fact that I had never heard of Heath Ledger, and that he was about to assay the role of one of my favourite characters in fiction, did not help matters. But this isn’t about the movie, though perhaps the intro to this post seems to point in that direction. This is about the Batman-Joker situation. Yeah I’d say it’s a situation. A very interesting situation. What’s interesting you ask? It’s you. And me. Two sides of the same persona really, staring out in their undiluted splendour.

Ask anyone you know, they’ve all heard of Batman and if you ask them to name a villain, most of them will blurt out Joker. Ever wondered why that is? I mean Batman has a HUGE rogues gallery, with the likes of Mr Freeze, The Riddler, Calendar Man ands Ra’s Al Ghul to contend with. But he keeps coming back to The Joker. Funnily enough, the Joker’s sort of earned this attention really, because he’s done Batman the most amount of damage.

And then, there came this movie “The Dark Knight” where somehow, my view of this rivalry altered. I was scared of Ledger’s Joker. I shuddered when he walked into the room. But, one quote from the movie stood out in my head, long after it had finished. The last part, where Joker’s suspended from a building and goes “You won’t kill me coz of your stupid rule, and I won’t kill you coz you’re too much fun." That got me thinking. What if we had it all wrong? What if Joker was actually a good guy?

OK no. That doesn’t work. What kind of good guy shoots a girl through the spine, sells nukes to Saudi terrorists and kidnaps the police commissioner and tries to drive him mad? A good guy doesn't have go around town holding up the Mayor at gunpoint nor does he get his kicks out of poisoning the water supply of an entire city. Joker’s done it all, with a huge grin on his face. He’s driven Batman up the wall and down again. He’s toyed with him, he’s pushed him to insane limits and he just won’t quit. No matter how many times Joker gets locked up in Arkham, he always busts out. One time, in the comic “Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth”, he just upped and held up the entire asylum on a whim. The Joker doesn't care about anything. He has no morals or a conscience for that matter. Joker is the personification of Chaos in a way. This makes him dangerous, it makes him capable of anything. I guess that’s why in the opening pages of “The Killing Joke”, Batman screams into the inmate’s face.

Batman. The Dark Knight. As a boy he lost his parents to some criminal in a dark alley. He vowed to keep Gotham safe. He donned a suit, trained himself to the zenith, mentally and physically and took on the mantle. He’s kept crime at bay, protecting and watching. Yet even he has his weaknesses, such as his love for Dick Grayson, currently Nightwing. The loss of Jason Todd, who later became an enemy in the form of the Red Hood and of course there’s Barbara Gordon, who took a bullet to the spine. All on account of a madman with a trigger happy finger. Batman feels responsible for the Joker somehow.  So I asked myself, what exactly am I looking at here? On one hand, there’s the hero. He’s got an entire city to protect. He’s pledged allegiance to it and he upholds his vows. Batman sees things and does things that a lot of people wouldn’t even dream about much less have the capacity to even imagine doing. Taking on a half man half crocodile? Going up against one, no two of your best friends, namely Hush and Harvey Dent who are baying for your blood? The psychopath Zsaz, the Penguin and of course Ra’s Al Ghul.

Then there’s Joker. Before he became the self titled “Clown Prince of Crime”, he was a normal guy. He had a job, that wasn't paying, a pregnant wife who got killed. He got angry. That anger was festering in him on the night of that accident in the Ace Chemicals building. In a way, Joker isn't a man. He’s a personification. A personification of a feeling. The feeling of anger, and what it will do to a person if it is turned inwards and allowed to implode. This anger in the man, made him the Joker. Even if he hadn’t nose dived into the chemical vat, he would still have become something to reckon with. perhaps that’s why this entire situation strikes a chord, because in a way Batman is also angry. Just as angry as the Joker is. but the difference is in their paths of execution. Joker uses anger to unleash chaos. Batman uses it to curb damage and protect.

As Plato said “The measure of a man is what he does with Power”. The Batman-Joker situation shows us two distinct ways of using power. I guess that’s what makes the situation appeal to me. Somehow I identify with it, having had an anger management issue myself. So that brings me to one question, and that question is- what if tomorrow, something bad happens and anger surfaces in you. What are you going to do? Are you going to grab a gun and wreak some havoc? Or are you going to try and deal with the situation? Who do you want to be? Batman? Or the Joker?

More importantly, we have seen Superman flip out on us in the comic “Injustice”. But somehow I doubt Batman will follow in his footsteps. The thing is, what happens if he does and the Joker succeeds for once?

The answer is Chaos. Chaos that has led to wars, to loss of life and has never led to anything but pain. So you see, the Joker’s there in the world today. I guess he’s a character intended as a comment on the bad stuff going on. Batman is good, Joker is bad. And we humans are shades of gray. Maybe that’s why this situation is iconic. Because, it’s personal. It’s more than just ink on a page. It's a struggle being played out in our minds. Just as the struggle between these two characters in the comic books.

 

The Bilge Master