English 101 compilation

Paper 4: Argumentative: The Clown Prince of Gotham and The King of Villainy

A/N: FIRST OFF: This paper was mainly written with my not as varied knowledge of Batman (I have Death of The Family and Court of Owls V1 and kept up with the animated series but nothing too drastic) so my apologies if I get some facts wrong. All that matters is that the teacher believes it and I get an 'A' right?!

Any who! I like to give a person shout out to SuperHeroFeeds on Twitter! They're an actual person who runs the account so if you like superheroes in general, check it out! This account got me major attention to my paper and I was really surprised! I can not thank you all enough for your help and interest in my paper! My apologies  but I kept to the original title due to the over-whelming titles ^^;... And if you would like to check out any of the source material, please tell me (I left in-work citation but left out the actual work cited page).

The Joker: The Clown Prince of Gotham and The King of Villainy

In all comics, games, and movies of the DC comic universe, one villain has always tended to stick out due to the writers' specific love for him: The Joker. Debuting in 1940, Batman comic #1, this villain has grown to be most fans' favorite physical and psychological villain—including the writers (NYCC 2012: Joker 101). The Joker is advertised as an unpredictable clown that will attack for his own twisted comedy (Joker | DC Comics). With his appearance matching his internal corrupted mind, this clown is meant to strike terror in all ages only to grow more terrorizing with adulthood (NYCC 2012: Joker 101).

In the wide spectrum of universes that Joker thrives in, one fact remains true: he can easily manipulate any beings fear. An obvious example to point at is his association with his sidekick: Harleen Quinzel, or—her more popular name when Joker 'found' her—Harley Quinn (Harley Quinn | DC Comics). In her original debut in Batman: The Animated Series, in the episode titled 'Mad Love', it is revealed that Dr. Harleen Quinzel was a psychiatrist. She was aiming to write a book for money about one of the Arkam Asylum inmates where the Gotham villains are held. As she went to talk to Joker, he latched towards her and played towards her weaknesses by telling her a tragic back story, that is never confirmed by DC Comics, of how he was once abused (Nostalgia Critic: Top 11 Batman Animated Series Episodes). Harleen then fell for his trap of manipulation as she noted to her studies that the Joker, in her own words:

It soon became clear to me that the Joker—so often described as a raving, homicide, mad-man—was actually a tortured soul crying out for love and acceptance. A lost injured child trying to make the world laugh at his antiques. And there, as always, was the self-riotous Batman—determined to make life miserable for My Angel (Batman the Animated Series: Mad Love).

Harleen confessed to him in a reverse counseling session of her undying love towards him and how she must have been crazy. His reply is 'Not at all. As a dedicated career oriented young woman, you felt the need to abstain from all amusement and fun. It's only natural you'll be attracted to a man that can make you laugh again.' Afterwards Harleen broke her new beloved out of the asylum and carried the alias Harley Quin (Batman the Animated Series: Mad Love).

The point to be made is that he understands people to a psychological stand point. The Joker is able to not only turn his own psychiatrist into his own pawn, but multiple other gangs in Gotham as well. In The New 52! comic Death of the Family, written by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, when The Joker disappeared, multiple adolescence and adults cause mayhem in the name of The Clown Prince even though none were affect by the 'laughing gas' that The Joker's minions are affected by. But more and more civilians are shown to succumb to the madness of The Joker of their own free will.

Not only does this horrendous clown know how to psychologically toy with the civilians of Gotham, but he also plays with the mind of the Dark Knight himself. In the DC Comics official website, in the Joker's biography, it stated that he has the power of 'complete unpredictability'. Compared to Batman, who always has a plan in every scenario, Joker throws a heavy wrench in Batman's plans. The most infamous way's this clown crawled under his skin were the brutal murder of Jason Todd, the second Robin, and the crippling of Barbara Gordon, Batgirl. Batman treated Jason Todd as his own son and fell apart once it was revealed that the second Robin was murdered by the infamous Joker and his crowbar (Starlin, Jim). Batman saw it as his responsibility to protect the commissioner's daughter and felt he had failed not only the commissioner but himself once more (Snyder, Capullo).

Another villain though that would use physiological fear and terror to harm his victims would be Scarecrow. This menace to Gotham uses his own made hallucinogenic fear toxin to attack, striking to the core of even Batman's fear. This however becomes redundant as Batman conjures multiple cures for his fear toxin, thus posing him as a lesser threat. Scarecrow also avoids physically fighting his enemy due to his physically incapability (Scarecrow | DC Comics). With the Joker being completely unpredictable and willingness to put his life on the line to deliver the final killing joke, this clown is far more terrifying than the Scarecrow.

Joker realizes that to truly kill someone, one must kill the ones around them—thus disturbing their psychological self. A study was done in this century by four psychologist to examine the brain when a person recounts a painful memory that they would like to forget versus people that experienced physical pain. The study showed that emotional pained victims experienced more pain than those of who were in physical pain. Dr. Kip Williams, one of the authors of the psychologists paper, stated:

While both types of pain can hurt very much at the time they occur, social pain has the unique ability to come back over and over again, whereas physical pain lingers only as an awareness that it was indeed at one time painful (Emotional pain hurts more than physical pain).

Joker constantly brings up on the matter of how Batman could have saved Jason and Barbara both if the Dark Knight would have simply killed the Joker, contradicting the Knight's morals—causing Batman to indirectly be the one who harmed his beloved family.

This Clown Prince has plagued Gotham from issue one until his final appearance and assumed death in Death of the Family. He has outwitted the savior of the city multiple times in multiple renditions of himself. Jokers' final moment was with The Dark Knight himself as The Clown Prince pushed Batman over the edge when this devious villain once again attacked The Bat-family. Joker spoke of how alike they were, and, in the end, Batman broke his own morality and, indirectly, put an end to the Joker once and for all—consequently also allowing Joker to win as well for causing Batman to go further than he had ever gone before in their seemingly endless warfare (Snyder. Capullo.). So even in the Joker's grave, he still wins in his own twisted, disturbed manner.