The narrative of Gotham and its myriad residents has evolved, been rebooted, rewritten, and subverted countless times over by hundreds of writers and artists, each of whom put their own stamp on the material. There is no such thing as the singular Batman canon. As comic book movies become more entrenched in long-running continuity and cement single actors as the only version of certain characters (for example, it’s unlikely we’ll see someone else play Iron Man after Robert Downey Jr., or at least we won’t do so for many many years), there’s a novelty in seeing how all these disparate versions stack up, and in particular how different actors have put their own unique spin on playing the Joker. All in all, the material actively roots against the notion of comparing Phoenix’s Joker to the others, but it’s also pretty impossible not to do so. This Joker is not designed to be a definitive origin story for the character and its primary influences are outside of the comics. There are no plans to have Phoenix’s Joker fight Robert Pattinson in his upcoming Batman film and he still operates outside of the DCEU, where Jared Leto technically remains the canon Joker. Joker is not so much an origin story for the Joker as it is a possible origin story – one of conceivably many – for a figure who could, under the right circumstances, become a Joker-esque figure. The film and its marketing are so heavily defining Joker as being its own thing, separate from the wider DC canon (even though it does take place in Gotham City and the Waynes are named characters). This is partly what makes comparing Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker to the others so tricky. For many, the Joker is the perfect adversary to the stoic, deeply moral, and ethically focused Batman.
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