“He’s just a psychopath and sadist,” laments one fan

It would seem Batman fans aren’t too happy with the “new” more modern take on the Joker, and want him to regress back into the version of the character we had in previous decades.

Thank you in advance to Tyler Fischer over on ComicBook for the original story!

In a thread over on the r/batman subreddit titled, “Does anyone else miss campy Joker?” fans lamented the loss of the older, sillier version of the Joker in earlier DC comics.

“New 52 ruined Joker,” replied user FadeToBlackSun.

“Even the darkest Joker portrayals before then still made jokes and were funny. Ever since the New 52, he’s not funny. He’s just a psychopath and sadist. Boring.”

“The writers took all the WRONG things away from Heath Ledger’s Joker,” commented user radiowave-deer29.

“They overly focus on the metaphors, everything he does has a reason, completely ignoring the comedic aspect of Heath’s Joker, and that Joker is most importantly of all ‘the clown prince of crime’. Emphasis on CLOWN.”

Now, I’m picking up what folks are putting down here – and I semi-agree.

I think the best version of Joker has always been, and will always be, the version in the 80s and early 90s that influenced Mark Hamill’s take on the character in Batman: The Animated Series.

However, I think one thing that a lot of the commenters are missing out on is the changes made to Batman over the years – changes that have, in turn, influenced the more modern take on Joker.

It’s a bit of a chicken and the egg type deal, but the version of Batman we have in the comics now is a lot gruffer and a lot more serious than he was in the 80s (which is really saying something, considering he’s always been at least a little grumpy).

For Joker to regress into his campier ways, Batman is also going to have to lighten up a little in turn. For the record, that’s not something I’m against (quite the opposite in fact), but you can’t change one without changing the other.