Case Study

[espanolbot]

In an nterview about the showrunner of the upcoming show Gotham, Bruno Heller, he implied that the Joker might be coming along at some point in the future. Some people have been kind of wary about this, as the idea of a pre-Joker Joker showing up when Bruce Wayne is 12 conflicts with their idea of the character, but I think that it could work, though not really if they go with the Killing Joke version of the character, which I'm not too fond of to be honest.

As an example of how they could do it, here is a bit of the Paul Dini/Alex Ross story from Batman: Black and White called Case Study.

The story opens with a nurse at Gotham tidying old medical files, and coming across the titular case file while doing so. After reading it, he takes it to his supervisor and explains that it actually makes the case that the Joker isn't actually insane.

Piecing together a story compiled from the Joker's associates (now mostly deceased) from his pre-supervillain days, the case study, it paints the picture of a man who is ruthless, incredibly smart and willing to do ANYTHING to get what he wants.









The nurse says that the case study proves that the Joker is actually legally, or at least provides enough evidence to start an investigation into whether he actually should be in Arkham or a regular prison. After all, the case study implies that the Joker persona is effectively just a creation by the gangster to enable him to do whatever he feels like, with it being effectively excused by the fact that he's "obviously" insane.

He's not mentally ill, or at least not to the extent that makes him not responsible for his actions, but is effectively faking mental illness in order to get revenge on Batman for disfiguring him.

The doctor who wrote the paper goes on to say that the Joker chose to enact his revenge on Batman in means that appeared to be irrational, but were in actuality very thoroughly researched and planned, then brilliantly orchestrated. His actions aren't those of an insane person, they are the actions of a sane man who fakes it to act as a smoke screen, thus the analysis proves that the Joker is actually mentally competant and thus should stand trial and executed for his crimes instead of being locked in Arkham.

A voice pipes up from the doorway, from the person who actually wrote the case study: Harley Quinn. She says that the case study was merely the first version of the thesis she was writing on the Joker, and that it was compiled before she had a chance to actually interview him in person. Once she did so... let's just say that history shows that he changed her opinion on the matter.

She's dragged back to her cell by some orderlies, and the older doctor suddenly changes his mind about actually following up on the case study, after all the very fact it was written by someone who isn't exactly the most...reliable source means that it wouldn't last five minutes in court against a decent defence lawyer. The nurse asks him what he should do with it, and the doctor tells him to lock it away, or burn it, he doesn't care. Chances are the Joker left the case study where it could be found JUST to mess with people.

At this point, it doesn't matter whether the Joker is insane or not, as he now just IS.

---

This version of the character is effectively the one that Paul Dini uses in most of his Batman stories, both BTAS and DCU, which is in turn based off of the version from the Tim Burton Batman movie. It was also used in the Batman Confidential storyline Lovers and Madmen, but version effectively had the Joker as a master criminal who becomes obsessed with Batman due to "Jack" being so good at crime that he effectively lacks any challenge to his skillset. So he becomes fixated on Batman because he's the only person who he thinks can make his life INTERESTING.

I think that a blending of the Case Study and BTAS versions of the Joker could possibly work in Gotham without resorting to a teenage streetpunk version of the character or something. In BTAS the Joker was established as a member of the mob prior to the events that scarred him, who evidently attempted to try his hand at stand-up on the side (but sucked at it), for a time at least.

Considering they've made a point in the previews of stating how Gotham in the tv show is balancing on the edge of anarchy, held in place by the position of gangsters such as Jada Pinkett-Smith's Fish Mooney, it could be a point along the line where "Jack" appears to make a power grab just prior to Bruce becoming Batman. It's an idea anyway, particularly since they already hinted at him in the leaked script for the first episode,
http://io9.com/what-we-learned-from-the-script-for-gothams-first-epi-1530515272

Comments

[icon_uk]

It's an interesting piecemeal of the various Joker origins (and the art is gorgeous of course). I personally prefer a Joker who was a small time nobody until becoming the Joker opened up the demented creativity which he then used to become a successful career, but as the famous line in "The Killing Joke" points out, origins are all multiple choice with the Joker.

[bewareofgeek]

Nice touch on the movie marquee. I wonder if those were Dini's choices or Ross's.

[randyripoff]

So much better than The Killing Joke. This I like. I like the idea that Joker isn't really insane, but uses it as a way to keep out of regular prison.

[korvar]

The Joker isn't insane - a legal term, not a medical one.

He understands right from wrong: he enjoys transgressing boundaries, which means knows what and where they are.

He can control himself: he has been demonstrated the ability to not kill people whenever it suits him. Compare and contrast with the Riddler's compulsion to tell people about his crimes.

He knows what he's doing: he couldn't mock the Batman over and over again if he didn't.

Legally, he's entirely sane. He shouldn't be in Arkham, he should be on Death Row.

[rdfox]

Hell, by this point, his body count is high enough that his mere appearance in public should be enough for either a cop or an armed citizen to blow him away "in self-defense" and just *happen* to empty their magazine into his mouth after he goes down to make sure he's dead. No jury in the world would convict them; no sane prosecutor would ever even bother trying to get an indictment.

Really, Gotham is so dangerous and violent that I'd think even the most anti-gun types would have to admit that open-carry is pretty much key to survival there, with most people packing large-caliber handguns in hip holsters or twelve-gauge shotguns slung over their backs while going about their daily business, purely in self-defense against the particularly brutal costumes they get there...

[espanolbot]

I think that Grant Morrison said that the actual chances of bumping into the Joker and the rest of the Arkham group are actually pretty low considering the size of Gotham overall (unless you deliberately seek them out by going to the Iceberg Lounge or something), it's just that since the stories we read are about Batman, his allies and his villains we just happen to see enough of them to think that they're more common than than they actually are.

It's like bumping into a celebrity, like just because Patrick Stewart lives in New York City (or did, he was on Broadway recently) doesn't mean that you'll bump into him on a regular basis if at all.

[lego_joker]

I've always wanted to see a continuity where the Joker is actually the only member of Batman's rogues gallery that doesn't kill (even the Riddler has a higher body count), but remains Batman's most hated adversary because he's just that big of an asshole.

[espanolbot]

The thing is that it's been established (even in other stories) that most of the Joker's stolen wealth goes towards hiring the absolute best lawyers to get around having him sent to a regular prison, and this is in addition to Gotham's judicial system being so bent out of shape that all the Joker needs to do it threaten or bribe people until he gets sent back to his "hotel".

[lego_joker]

If you want to be hyper-cynical about it, he's "legally" insane because someone signed a piece of paper saying he is, and his hidden bank accounts make sure that no one has a reason to say otherwise. That's how Gotham law generally works, and to an extent, it's how all law works.

And conversely speaking, what would it matter if he couldn't understand right from wrong? With all the things he's done, does it really matter what his motives are?

[freezer]

Am I the only one that finds the fact that they have a case file on The Joker, but no one ever uses the name that's surely there, even if it's just an alias?

[espanolbot]

They say in the scans that every time the Joker joined a gang he'd use a different name, so there technically isn't even a common alias that they can use in this circumstance.

In the DCAU though, he went by Jack Napier, mostly because that was his name in the first Burton movie.

[funbox]

Just for clarification: Is this set in the 40s/50's? Because I'm trying to wrap my head around how they wouldn't have a back-up of the file, JUST in case, especially in such a prolific case, but then again comics. This is fantastic though, and I'd love to see some no-name no-face slowly subtly climb the ranks in the Gotham crime scene.

[espanolbot]

It's based in the anachronistic mishmash of time periods that a lot of Batman stories use, like in the two Tim Burton Batman movies, BTAS and in the new Gotham show (which they've stated is a mix of the 1920s, 80s and the near future).

And it was a private thesis being written by a newly arrived doctor, not a legal document. There was only one copy because it was in its draft stages, and Harley was going to complete it after interviewing the Joker in person... only he drove her insane instead, rendering the document invalid due to it being composed by someone who isn't mentally competant.

[lego_joker]

This story was especially, deliciously old-school. Notice that the theater in the first scan is showing a double bill of black-and-white classic movies, and that Tommy Doyle is visually based off of Orson Welles.

[xakko]

I love the idea of the Joker as a mob boss - it at least lets me believe that he would have a pool of henchmen to pull from who would be loyal to him.

[espanolbot]

Yeah, he has to have some kind of charisma, otherwise people wouldn't hang around him for his numerous capers.

[silverhammerman]

I hope they don't play their hand with the Joker too early, like if they introduce him in the season 1 finale or something that'd suck. I think it would be a mistake to have him going full supervillain long before Batman ever showed up on the scene.

If anything I'd want to see the character pre-Joker, but then they'd lose the mystery of the origin, which would be a pity. And I don't think he should be too much older than Bruce Wayne, early twenties or something would be fine, some kind of crime protege, but I feel like Joker and Batman have to essentially be peers as adults.

Maybe if they leaned into the Red Hood stuff, like we don't know who's under the mask, how old they are, or even if it's one person, that could be something interesting. But doing the Joker without Batman feels like a mistake.

I think the showrunner for Gotham said something to the effet of wanting to do the Batman mythos, but thinking the actual superhero stuff was goofy/unworkable on TV, which has me a bit leery of the whole production. I find that stuff that's ashamed of its superhero origins is rarely enjoyable for me.

[starwolf_oakley]

Bruno Heller is the showrunner on Gotham and the showrunner on The Mentalist. Red John was pretty much a supervillain anyway. Him having "real" psychic powers made as much sense as anything else.

There's a difference between being "ashamed" of Batman's superhero origins and knowing most of it just isn't feasible on a weekly TV show's budget.

[silverhammerman]

True, I haven't watched The Mentalist in ages, but I do remember that Red John all but had a mountain base in the shape of his own face.

I suppose I just expect the worst from DC, and I worry that the show will wind up incorporating every aspect of Batman other than Batman himself. Batman's a huge cash cow though, so if DC thought they could put him on TV they probably would.

[lucean]

I also read the interview with Heller and am really curious how they intend to bring in the Joker in that series, as to me, one of the key components of the Joker that makes him so enduring is that Batman essentially created the Joker.

Now the Dini version could be one way to go with it, although to be honest, I always hated Dini's origin for the Joker as to me it lacked any kind of impact or really psychological depth. It just made the Joker somewhat ordinary to me with little complexity.

Although, based in the interview, I wouldn't be surprised if they were going to build someone similar to the Joker in Nolan movies. A character who was clearly always wrong in someway, but who really came in to life when he finally found that thing to fixate on.

[walkingthroughforest]

What I think would be a neat idea would be if they introduced ALL of the origin stories the Joker has had as different characters in different episodes. The mob boss, the gang leader, the failed comedian, ect.

You never get to know exactly who will be the man that falls into the Ace Chemicals vat.

[junipepper]

That's... a really good idea, actually.

[zapbiffpow]

I think Joker targets people who try to label him sane, both for functional and personal reasons. Kind of a soft spot for him.

As for Gotham, what about the Red Hood Gang from Zero Year? Let's say Bruce leaves at the episode 1 of the last season, then they set up the Red Hoods after that.

[lego_joker]

The issue I've always had with mobster!Joker (especially in the Burton movies) is that there's no real complexity to it. Murderous asshole becomes bigger murderous asshole, whoop-de-doo. Why even show it at all?

That said, I've always rather loved this story. Dini's always been pretty hit-and-miss for for me, but this story is definitely a "hit". Thought I can't help but wonder if that's because the Joker doesn't actually speak in this story - it's just two doctors discussing him (I feel like Dini's supervillain dialogue just gets worse and worse every year). Alex Ross art doesn't hurt, either.

BTW, I'm rather leery about introducing pre-chemical bath Joker on Gotham at all, since it would be very, very easy to fall into pure fanservice for the sake of it. If they're going to do it, I hope they keep it incredibly subtle.