The Dark Knight: A Comic Curiosity

When it was announced July 31, 2006 that Heath Ledger was going to play one of the most coveted villian roles ever most people could not believe what they heard. Ledger, who has shown spurts in his career as an established actor is going to play Batman's greatest nemisis, the Joker, in Warner Brothers second installment of the re-franchise of Batman titled The Dark Knight.

First things first. What a great title. It is perfect, alot different than Batman followed by a condesending word or an attempt to sound cool like Batman Continues (You know since the first was Batman Begins). Batman Returns or Batman Forever have been taken so those are out of the question.

The second Batman film will feature the Joker as the primary villian as was hinted too at the end of the first movie. So The Joker will enter the scene in the new Batman Franchise, a retelling of Batman that made Warner Brothers look like geniuses especially after re-doing a series of films that started off with greatness and slowly declined into a movie where Arnold Schwartzenegger was the best actor in the film. In this new film The Joker will be played by the aforementioned Heath Ledger. Yes, this is a correct statement.  So what does this mean is there going to be a Brokeback Batman, certainly not. Ledger has never shown much in any movie that he can be the Joker but then again The Joker in this film may be one that has never been seen before either.

Jack Nicholson who portrayed The Joker in the 1989 film BATMAN gave moviegoers a character that was eccentric, clever and phsycopathic. However he was portrayed as an eccentric prankster and thief. Be prepared for the original intention of the Joker to be seen in this upcoming film. This is why Ledger could make the Joker one of the scariest villians since Hannibal Lecter. According to an interview by the Toronto Sun, Ledger had this to say about his new character,"It is definitely going to stump people. I think it will be more along the lines of how the Joker was meant to be in the comics, darker more sinister."

A sinister looking Joker.

Credit: Alex Ross

Copyright: DC Comics