Batman: White Knight #8

[cyberghostface]

"I think a lot of readers think Joker is really sexy, but it’s not okay to say that you think a total sociopath is sexy, right? So! You get rid of the crazy, and maybe this could be the sexiest Joker. Hopefully. This book will make it okay to think Joker is sexy." -- Sean Murphy

Comments

[blueprintstyles]

I don't think the writer really accounted for how villainous Harley actually is in this book. Those villains were under mind control for a straight year, that's a serious violation. And Alfred died because of the attack on the library because he had to unhook himself from his medical equipment to save bruce .

[mesmiranda]

"I think a lot of readers think Joker is really sexy, but it’s not okay to say that you think a total sociopath is sexy, right? So! You get rid of the crazy, and maybe this could be the sexiest Joker. Hopefully. This book will make it okay to think Joker is sexy." -- Sean Murphy

...

No. I just--no. No.

[shakalooloo]

The Joker? With that schnozz, that's the Penguin, for sure.

[matrix_dragon]

"This book will make it okay to think Joker is sexy."

It's the Joker. An abusive, manipulative, mass murdering monster. He's not sexy. He's a monster.

[cyberghostface]

"He's not sexy. He's a monster."

They don't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive concepts. Hannibal Lecter comes to mind.

[cygnia]

Or Tennant!Killgrave

[crinos]

There are people who want to fuck Pennywise thanks to that new movie. And he's a more evil clown than the Joker will ever be.

[beoweasel]

There are people that wanted to fuck Ted Bundy, a man that was an ACTUAL serial-killer, cannibal, and necrophiliac.

[silicondream]

And there have been sexy-but-evil demons, vampires, fairies, etc. for longer than we've had literature. They don't do a thing for me, but they're clearly popular.

[captainbellman]

Problem is, before you can make the Joker sexy you have to make him...not boring.

I've yet to see a writer do that in the last 25 or so years.

[cyberghostface]

Not even the Telltale series?

[captainbellman]

(Quick Google)

Ah. I'm afraid I have never played video games, nor do I intend to. No time.

[cyberghostface]

Did you check out Batman: Europa? That one has Batman and Joker forced to work together when they’re both infected with a virus.

[tcampbell1000]

...Actually, not a better love story than Twilight.

I mean Jack Napier here is sexy, sure, but you can't say he's the same as the Joker or the whole thesis falls apart. Hell, even Harley seems to change her story about whether he is or isn't to suit the emotional climate of the moment.

I'm glad the last chapter of the series gave us a Batman just about recognizably behaving as Batman, but that doesn't excuse his behavior over the previous issues.

And as for the practicality of his operating openly as Bruce Wayne, which means effectively announcing where he can be found, how he buys his weapons, and everything he loves to everybody from the Penguin to Johnny the Fame-Hungry Criminal Newbie, let's just say I have doubts.

[strejdaking]

It all seems like chickening out to me. I don't really see the need to do "you know, Batman would kinda suck in real life" comic, but if you gonna go there, freaking go there. Come on.

Also, isn't it really messed up given the whole police brutality subtext? Again, I don't want a story where the fucking JOKER is a stand in for victims of police, but since we are going there... Or maybe I am reading way too much into this and it's really just a Fanfic to give us a fuckable Joker. Okay. But that just makes the whole exercise seem pretentious.

[mastermahan]

I think White Knight would have been stronger if it hadn't been so wishy-washy. In order to make supporting Napier plausible, Sean Murphy had to basically flip Batman and Joker's morality, so that Joker is a colorful mentally ill thief whose more of a danger to himself than anyone else, while Batman is a brutal civilian-endangering nut. Hell, Harley had to be split into two characters to make things workable.

And you know what? That's fine as a concept. It's an elseworlds, but as long as it's consistent in the story, no problem.

But then towards the end, it starts suggesting that this Joker maybe is a mass killer, and that this Batman really is the responsible do-gooder we usually know. If so, that's a completely different story.

[captainbellman]

I maintain that this premise works ten thousand times better if you sub Joker for Two-Face.

[lego_joker]

Characterization-wise, no doubt, but on plot levels it'd probably be... iffier. Two-Face's brand of villainy is practically invisible compared to the Joker's, so the drama behind his reform would 100% have to be pinned on his friendship with Bruce. I (and probably most of this community) would like it, but the general comics-reading public would probably find it too soap opera-y.

My own vote would probably be for Freeze - he's (potentially) more dangerous than the Joker, but also more sympathetic and not quite inextricably linked with four-digit body counts and domestic abuse. Plus he could supply the city/the Batfam with zillions of (God forgive me) cool toys, explaining why even harder-nosed good guys might back his reform.

[cyberghostface]

I still think Joker works best just because out of Batman's rogues gallery he's the ying to Batman's yang. They have that relationship that wouldn't be there if this was about, say, Penguin trying to discredit Batman. Likewise with Mr. Freeze. Like Mr. Freeze might cause trouble and Batman might be his foil but they don't define each other like Batman and Joker do.

Two-Face is *probably* the next closest just because of his relationship with Bruce but I still think it would be less effective for a number of reasons. For starters we've seen Two-Face 'cured' and then relapse back into insanity a number of times so the premise isn't that unique. There's never really been a story like this for Joker ('Going Sane' is probably the closest but that was a Joker who was completely amnesiac of who he was).