The Joker Creator Jerry Robinson Passes Away

The creator of the greatest villain ever created passed away today. Sadly, until the passing of Jerry Robinson I never bothered to find out who created The Joker. I assumed it was Bob Kane. There’s actually some dispute over if it was one or both of them. For arguments sake and the fact that Kane seems like an asshole I’ll be giving all credit to Mr. Robinson. To be able to create a enemy that has no special ability besides being able to be so insane that the most deadly criminals in the DC Universe fear him. Batman should’ve killed him years ago but thinks he can be rehabilitated. Oh, that Batman. So hopeful in the face of obvious nonsense. When lists are made of the top villains of all time, The Joker always makes the top three.

The Joker doesn’t wear armor. No super powers. He doesn’t even have loyal sidekicks besides Harley Quinn but she came about way later in the animated series. He’s been around for 71 years. Think about that. A character that has been around longer than seven decades and still there are disputes to his actual true origins. There have been many versions of it but to me the best has been from The Killing Joke. He was trying to raise money to support his pregnant wife when he was knocked into a vat bleaching his skin and turning his hair green. Then he found out his wife and child were killed in an accident. That, my friends, is the recipe for Losingyoushitness.

In the Batman live action series he was played by Cesar Romero. I loved this version of him because even though he was super gaudy looking he was still crazy as hell and somewhat threatening. Though campy as hell he could take a punch like nobodies business. This is the show and version of the character that got me into Batman and sent me on the path of nerditry that I live with to this very day. Who would think something as simple as face paint could make someone so damned creepy? I know I was supposed to want Batman and Robin to catch him every time he was on but damn it I loved this strange ass guy.

In live action films The Joker has been portrayed by Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton’s Batman. I hated this film so much. Imagine poor little 9 year old Dante watching as a cool and flashy Joker pranced around the screen throwing parades and pulling three foot barrel having pistols from his pants. Screw this film. He didn’t get his cinematic due until Batman: Deadend which is a short film that kicked ass. Boner from Growing Pains played an amazing Joker. And then Heath Ledger showed up in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and blew everyone out of the water with his creepy, evil, sadistic, anything goes Joker with his sliced cheek smile. There was talk for a while of someone else playing him. Don't. That would be one of the worst ideas ever.

And I would be silly to not mention the absolute best portrayal of The Joker from Batman: The Animated Series. Voiced by the legendary Mark Hamill, he brought so much depth to a character that had for a while been seen as, well, a joke. His laugh alone would make heroes drop a funky load in their draws. Hamill has voiced The Joker in the Batman video games as well and recently retired the voice. Which I hope is a terrible, terrible lie. In the cartoons he has done everything from torture Tim Drake Robin into insanity, beaten and blown up Jason Todd, and pushed Batman to his own limit where he tries to beat him to death. Jerry Robinson, you will always be remembered for creating one of the best characters of any genre across every media ever.