In honor of The Joker’s 75th anniversary, the director of the upcoming Suicide Squad film tweeted out the first full-on shot of Jared Leto as the film’s Joker. It was certainly… different… and Twitter went ablaze with folks sharing their opinions on the radical new design. Check out the best comments…
As the host of Cape Crisis, I’ve always been forthcoming with opinions on the upcoming slate of DC films – mainly that Man of Steel and what little we’ve seen of its follow-ups were needlessly, annoyingly gritty. When Oscar winner/sex symbol of the ’90s Jared Leto was cast as The Joker in the Suicide Squad film, I was curious to see just how he’d play the character differently than Mr. J had been in previous movies. The director Dave Ayer tweeted this out on Friday night:
The Suicide Squad wishes you a Happy Anniversary Mr. J! #Joker75 #SuicideSquad @WarnerBrosEnt @DCComics pic.twitter.com/LZXz0x947Q
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) April 25, 2015
I have so very many thoughts about the prison-tatted, meth-mouthed, Juggalo-ish Joker. Let me be clear, I’m not bothered the look diverges so much from the comics, because it doesn’t. Joker’s been around so long that he’s had dozens of different looks in the comics. To me, this borrows heavily from Morrison’s post-gunshot Joker, Frank Miller’s DKR figure, and Azzarello & Bermejo’s incarnation, all of which are some of Mr. J’s best comics. Joker isn’t always wearing nice purple suits and shooting acid from a boutonniere – sometimes he can look like Marilyn Manson, and (theoretically) that can be ok too. It’ll be interesting to see how Leto portrays the character in more than a single still image.
However, my bigger issue with this image is how this sets off alarm bells for the rest of the troubled Suicide Squad production, as well as the overall direction of DC’s films. When choosing the tone, it looks like Warner is tripling down on the kind of angst-ridden grit and super-serious anger that I’ve not been enjoying since, oh, I suppose the Identity Crisis miniseries. There’s just so much needless barbarity, and it all comes off as an adolescent attempt at maturity, when it’s really as “mature” as the M-rated Duke Nukem Forever. If you come in with the bias that the spate of Justice League films is overflowing with morose, depressing jerks, images like this one can immediately set you off.
Funnily enough, after Warner decided to share Leto’s Joker on Twitter, the social media hub soon exploded with people sharing their thoughts on this radical look of the clown prince of crime. Some of these people are comedians, others are members of the press, and you may even find a previous Laser Time guest in there. Here are my favorite comments on Joker’s new design…
This is my gut reaction to the new Joker pic.twitter.com/KpFMt3CYPh — Mike LeMieux (@Than_Kyou) April 25, 2015
The first thing we thought when we saw the new joker. pic.twitter.com/PGsVd5iFvY
— The Yetee (@theyetee) April 25, 2015
idk why everyone’s complaining about the Joker’s new design, I think it looks cool pic.twitter.com/7rB3YwCO3N — Misogamer Morgan (@rokkankitten) April 25, 2015
TIME TO BRING BACK THE JOKER WHO WEARS A FANCY-ASS PURPLE SUIT AND BLASTS PRINCE ALL DAY
— April Richardson (@Apey) April 25, 2015
We’re all on a rock hurtling through space. Sometimes men become women. Sometimes we don’t like how Joker looks. We’re all doing our best. — Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) April 25, 2015
Photo: Leto’s Joker is Crazytown #butterfly http://t.co/VcVdDm7Wcx
— Jon Daly (@jondaly) April 25, 2015
The Jared Leto Joker would be a great Joker Gang member who thinks he’s really cool and gets taken out first. — Baewatch Nights (@EricaFails) April 25, 2015
Glad to be living in a world where people are more accepting of Bruce Jenner than Jared Leto’s Joker.
— Paul Scheer (@paulscheer) April 25, 2015
Congrats to the committee that designed the new Joker. — Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) April 25, 2015
The Joker wrapping his arm in plastic and asking Harley if they can switch bed sides tonight because his “HAHAHA” tattoo is still fresh.
— Anthony Carboni (@acarboni) April 25, 2015
I don’t know what everyone is upset about. That new Joker looks awesome. pic.twitter.com/XisqKWeLU2 — Brian Altano (@agentbizzle) April 25, 2015
Internet responds appropriately to the first image of Joker: pic.twitter.com/nAgtp4hYTj
— Kevin Polowy (@djkevlar) April 25, 2015
First the picture of the new Joker and now the new Bruce Wayne? Amazing: pic.twitter.com/xi997gBwsY — Jason Anarchy (@DrinkingQuest) April 25, 2015
I was suddenly struck by a kart of inspiration. #Joker #Waluigi #Suicidesquad #MarioKart8 #WAAAAAAAAA pic.twitter.com/vNoQKYQ7qw
— – ̗̀new ̖́- Spacedad (@SuperSpacedad) April 25, 2015
No matter how you feel about the new Joker, you’ve gotta admit at least a few of those are pretty clever. As for me, I’m trying to come at this with as much of an open mind as possible, and Suicide Squad is one of my favorite DC concepts. Yet, stuff like that and this YouTube video about how drearily saturated Man of Steel became aren’t instilling a ton of hope.
Feel free to talk all about it in the comments. Also, to prove I’m not some Marevl-loving hater on all things Detective Comics, check out these links to some of my favorite Joker stories. And, as long as we’re talking comic book films, why not check out Laser Time’s brand new commentaries for The Avengers and Iron Man 3! They’re now available on the Laser Time Bandcamp page.
CAPE CRISIS RECOMMENDS:
at least his hair is short
I dunno. He totally looks like a late 90’s lead singer or a Crazy Taxi character. But on the other hand, he looks pretty good. At least there’s no Prince in the background. That waluigi picture is perfect.
That video is fake though. The “original footage” is altered to be darker than it really is and the restored colors look all kinds of off as well. Unfortunately, it’s preaching to the choir and already doing the rounds on the internet (insert a sad batman face from animated series here).
And c’mon, it’s the goddamn Joker AND the Suicide Squad. How is it too overboard for them to be edgy? This is getting to the point where it really seems like it’s considered “wrong” to do comic book movies that are darker than the usual MCU movie.
It just seems like a massive (but funny) overreaction. I love you Henry but you can’t have my axe. It’ll be our eternal struggle, like Batman and Joker, or something 😛
(Damn, can’t edit the comment)
I realize that you’re not a fan of the edgy tone of WB but I prefer to think of it as a style that they choose for *at least this corner of their universe. Marvel to me seems to lack a style and proper actions setpieces with the exception of Cap 1, Cap 2 and Guardians.
I’ll tell you exactly why I liked MoS, despite the issues with the script. At this point I should just write an article, but I don’t have much time nowadays 😛
First, it’s the style thing that I’ve said already. Second, the action (the Smallville battle was simply on another level. This is still a superhero movie, and because of that, I can’t go to the cinema to watch lame Thor-level choreography).
And third, it’s the whole extra serious and dramatic feel to a movie. What other superhero movie could I see the hero growing up and trying to figure out his place in the world? Or the reaction that the world had to him? I’m pretty sure Thor completely misses that very important point. It’s all stuff that we’ve seen before (and in the comics, no less) but that’s why the dramatic re-telling of the comic works as a good reason to get my ass in the theater.
Anyway, I’m sure I’m boring you guys with a wall of text but I just wanted you to know why I enjoy movies like these.
The teeth and fact that he’s just pale and not bleach white bug me, though they were an acceptable alteration to the idea of Joker. But those goddamn tattoos… the “hahaha” that’s straight out of Killing Joke, the classic grin, and most importantly the DAMAGED on his forehead (/the J on his cheek) are unacceptable to me. He comes off as though DC looked at stuff like the popularity of scene kids subculture and the Suicide Girls and decided Joker should be contemporary styles now. I’m ALL FOR new interpretations of characters, and Leto is a great actor, but this seems utterly ridiculous and is really destroying any faith I had left in the DCCU. I’m still comprehending how this is actually the official Joker of the universe for years to come….
I know I already posted in the forums, but I like everything but those tattoos. I just can’t get past them. I get the references in both the pose and the tattoos, but it just seems to fall in line with the tone for these DC movies, which I am not feeling.
That being said, I will still be there day one like I was for Man of Steel to give it a chance.
I don’t think that DC needs to have the Whedonesque dialogue or tone that the Marvel movies have, but all the characters do not have to be such serious “mature” characters. That tone was fine for Watchmen, but not for the DCU in general.
I am still going to give this Joker a chance, but it bothers me that Joker would “wear” his crazy on his body. The “damaged” tattoo on his forehead really pushes it over the edge. Joker better still be an agent of chaos rather than a common thug.
I don’t think the Joker is the type of guy to sit still long enough to get all those tattoos. I like the face and capped teeth, but the tats gotta go.
Not into leto’s take.
Joker in my eyes is vile and filth.. a walking corpse
[Img]http://i.imgur.com/emFYpWw.jpg[/img]
Looks a little too visually busy. Maybe throw a shirt on with the hahaha and the smile peeking out from the sleeves, make the jester skull a full back tattoo seen in one sexy shower seen, and maybe axe the face tattoos while keeping the jacked up teeth.
Probably the most logical route to avoid unnecessary or unreasonable comparisons to Ledger.
As The Artist Formely Known as KeeperXIII wrote above, that Man of Steel in color video is wrong. I own Man of Steel on blu-ray and the film is not that dark, as I did the comparison yesterday. The person who made the video is a lying idiot. Plus, the color corrected version looks like shit.
Regarding Leto’s Joker, remember Heath Ledger?
Also, I really enjoyed Fury, David Ayer last movie, so I’m looking forward to what he does with Suicide Squad.
So again:
*Edit
It supposed to have a “Sigh” before “As The Artist Formely Known as…”
and it supposed to say “So Again: Sigh”.
he’d look fine without the tattoos. especially the forehead. are you kidding with that shit. you’re fumbling the ball again DC.
I actually don’t dislike this. Sure, it’s a pretty different take, but it looks interesting enough to me. And for those saying the tattoos are too much… Joker’s an insane, deranged person, stamping tacky tattoos all over his body doesn’t feel that out of character to me.
Besides, it’s as if the Internet is completely missing the irony of radically pre-judging a movie Joker based on just casting and a picture or two… Or has anyone forgotten how stupid they looked for hating on Ledger’s take before TDK came out?
Anyway, that aside, the jokes and images Hank shared were indeed pretty funny ^^ I specially enjoyed the home alone parody.
If anything, this has given us a gold mine of hilarious tweets. I’m not exactly the biggest fan of a ripped, tatted up joker wearing a grill but I’ll reserve judgement until I see the final product. The only thing that really bothers me is that damn forehead tattoo. I’m sure it won’t bug me too much when the movie comes out but as it stand right now, that tattoo is really bad.
Hmm, it’s not for me, but I’m okay with that. I do agree with ‘The Artist Formely Known as KeeperXIII’, the Smallville fight in MoS was better than almost any action scene from Marvel aside from the Cap elevator scene, it’s depiction of super speed and it’s surprising clarity mark it a notch above Marvels output.Not good enough to save the film (for me) but it was a standout moment.
It looks fucking horrible, or at least the tattoos make it do.
One fucking movie guys. That’s how long the DC Movie Universe has been around, and there’s been a big gap. I’m not seeing much more than the same “It’s Robert Smith from The Cure!” comments that leapt from the internet after Heath Ledger’s first Joker pic. Stop criticizing movies that aren’t out for another year or more.
Also, why is it so OUTRAGEOUS that Joker has stupid tattoos and it’s fine that The Mandarin is a drunk actor or Ultron has lips and mouths off like Whedonbot 2.0?
“Also, to prove I’m not some Marvel-loving hater on all things Detective Comics, why not check out Laser Time’s brand new commentaries for The Avengers and Iron Man 3!”
Edited that for you. Also corrected the spelling error.
It’s a terrible first photo. However, I’m not sure that it will lead to a terrible movie or a terrible interpretation of the Joker character.
It reminds me of the cruel, vicious cops in director David Ayer’s Schwarzenegger movie “Sabotage,” from about 2 years ago. Anyway, go look it up. Here’s why: it’s his demo-tape for Suicide Squad. All the characters are drug-addled, psychotic ex-paramilitary, covered with tats and filthy hair, and each with their own trait or specialty. I don’t know much about the storied, beloved mythology of the Suicide Squad, but that sounds an awful lot like a gonzo comic book-movie. Sabotage has tons of backstabbing and bad taste, but the main takeaway from it, they the characters are all SCARY individuals, taut and ready to turn on the people they call their best friends in a heartbeat.
People always pat Marvel on the back for propping up their films as genre-homages, like their superhero-political thriller (Winter Soldier), or their superhero-heist movie (Ant-Man), or their superhero-buddy cop movie (Iron Man 3). Give DC credit for touching a genre few have in the comic book film landscape, and for not trying to replicate a version of the Joker we’ve seen before.
Just lose the forehead tat and put him in a purple suit. Then go look up David Ayer’s filmography, because he is an INSPIRED choice for the director.
Well said. I agree with everything. A terrible first photo, and the one tat I dislike is the forehead one. Everything else will come down to performance.
I’m prepared to bet the next one will be far more traditional and everyone will go “oh, that’s okay then”.
Warner Bros aren’t idiots, people. They knew that this would freak the internet out. That’s why they did it – to shock, to outrage, to create discussion… all to distract from a certain Marvel movie out right now.
I’ve seen Age of Ultron, really enjoyed it, and I’ve typed far more about this Joker photo than I have that movie.
That “Damaged” tat is just waaaaayyyy to cute for me. WE GET IT. The Joker is a dark and disturbed character we don’t need a ridiculous and constant reminder. Not to mention that aggressive tattoos as a visual short hand for miscreant, anti-social, or crazy is just outdated. Doctors, lawyers, and teachers have tattoos albeit not usually visible. Tattoos are not that edge-y anymore and I think it’s lazy character design. Just like the character Jack from the Mass Effect games I think they’re trying to have the character design do most of the heavy lifting of character development and it just doesn’t work for me.
The problem with these types of tattoos is thats its absolute posturing. Unless its in memoriam of a loved one, people get tattoos to look cool. If the tattoos served to make the Joker look crazier, then they had better be tattoos of batman or tally marks of people he killed, or actual silly things the Joker would find funny (like a classic “mom” heart). The tattoos he actually has? Well, those are all things any Joker should convey through actions and character, and shouldn’t need printed on his body.
As a heads-up, that Man of Steel video artificially muddied and darkened the “original” footage to make it look more like they want it to have looked. Also lol @ the bright green African savannah in that petty, poorly made piece of what apparently passes for film criticism on the Internet.