Why is Joker from Batman considered the greatest villain of all time ?
Joker has won Comic Villian of the Year 9 times but why ?
He has no super powers.
Second is Magneto with 5 titles. But why ?
Magneto should be first ? IMO
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December 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Besides what’s been said already there is the fact that Joker is the anti-Batman in almost every way. Batman tries to bring Order, Joker lives to bring Chaos. Batman tries to protect Gotham, where Joker is often trying to destroy it. There are so many ways that Joker is the exact opposite of Batman that it would be Impossible to list all of them.
From the Greatest Joker Tales ever:
So Why is the Joker so successful? Why has he endured when so many other great villains are also-rans?
Well, Folks, for one thing this guy’s real scary. Crime is scary too. Chester Gould understood this and made certain that the vast majority of his Dick Tracy villains looked as evil as they were. Most Comic villains look powerful, or unusual, or threatening but few– outside of the joker– are anywhere near as scary.
The Joker Started out doing real scary things; he killed people. Moreover, when he killed them, they died with a great big smile on their faces– a smile that resembled the unchanging smile of the joker himself.
For another thing the joker is so weird his presence virtually assures an an unusual story. He looks so unusual he acts in such an aggressively peculiar manner, and he is so darn happy about his work that gives the stories in which he appears an edge that stories populated by more normal people cannot possibly have.
Finally, all the great arch-villains have a particular in for the good guy who defeats them constantly; but where as the joker clearly hates the Batman, that is not the sole reason for his existence. Criminal Acts defy logic, even if criminals do not. But the Joker enjoys evil because evil is as deranged as he is.
Since his introduction the Joker became the greatest and most enduring of comics villains surpassing The Man of Steel’s Lex Luthor in Identifiability and Sales appeal. Between 1940 and 1956 joker made an appearance in one of the various Batman titles every month.
In those days Batman held court in Detective comics, Batman, World’s finest (solo stories from 1940 through 1954, team ups with superman after that point) And Star spangled Comics, which from 1948 through 1952, featured a monthly series of Robin stories, Virtually all of which featured Batman. The Joker was a regular in all of these titles except the latter.
So What happened in 1956? Well, we’re not certain, but we do know this: The comics code authority came into power at that time, there was a near monthly stream of Joker stories prior to the code, and that stream came to an abrupt end at the inception of the code.
Perhaps the code, or the folks who were running DC at the time, found Joker to be visually too offensive at a time when comics were seen as juvenile delinquency and comics creators were made to feel like pornographers.
Luckily, Calmer heads prevailed– it’s hard to keep a bad guy down. Unlike the vast majority of comics characters whose careers were cut short by the anti-comics mood of the time the Joker made his appearance the following year.
While he never resumed his almost monthly appearances (with the exception of a nine-issue JOKER comic book series in 1975 and 1976), it understood how valuable he was, and as a bad guy he was susceptible to over exposure.
Reducing his visibility helped make the Joker the awesome villain he is today. the near-monthly pace was stretching his credibility to the limit: He always had to lose, in order to present a fresh challenge to the Batman, the joker to resort to increasingly silly gimmicks.
___End Excerpt___ By Mike Gold
Magneto is a great villain but truth be told he’s too much of a good guy and Fatherly/grandfatherly type.
Magneto’s Power make him a threat. Without his powers, he is a militant civil rights activist and at times Terrorist. He would be killed by those he opposes. Like Malcolm X, whom Magneto was modeled after in attitude. Magneto survives because of his power. Professor X consequently was modeled after Martin Luther King Jr.
Joker is a threat because he is Evil. Twisted, Malignant and totally deranged. Without powers he is the most clever diabolical criminal in Gotham City. He’s been killed multiple times and somehow keeps coming back.
Joker is everything that Batman needs in a worthy Adversary. Magneto is Charles Xavier’s friend and though their views on the mutant issue differ, his attitude towards Xavier shows that. He wants Xavier and the X-men alive or to join him so that he can prove that their way is wrong. Joker wants to kill Batman, but knows that if he does their glorious Game of cops and robbers will come to an end.
Its not about the powers… its about the atmosphere that they create. Joker creates an atmosphere of fear and chaos much easier than Magneto could. He just doesn’t care if he kills people.
Magneto creates an atmosphere of fear and chaos… but look what he’s doing besides. He’s trying to take over the world so that Mutants could rule or at least live without being threa
December 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Tht is a very interesting question. I found his powers at wikipedia.
It states:
"The Joker commits crimes with comedic weapons such as a deck of razor-sharp playing cards, an acid-spewing flower, cyanide pies, exploding cigars filled with nitroglycerin, harpoon guns that utilize razor-sharp BANG!-flags, and a lethally electric joy buzzer. His most prominent weapon is his Joker venom, a deadly poison that infects his victims with a ghoulish rictus grin as they die while laughing uncontrollably. The venom comes in many forms, from gas to darts to liquid poison, and has been his primary calling card from his first appearance. The Joker is immune to his venom; in Batman #663, Morrison writes that "being an avid consumer of his products, Joker’s immunity to poisons has been built up over years of dedicated abuse".
The Joker is portrayed as highly intelligent and skilled in the fields of chemistry and engineering, as well an expert with explosives. In a miniseries featuring Tim Drake, the third Robin, the Joker is shown kidnapping a computer genius, and admitting that he doesn’t know much about computers, although later writers have portrayed him as very computer literate."
Added Later:
Also got this info:
"The maniacal Joker is Batman’s most dangerous foe. Unpredictable, murderous and surprisingly cunning, the Joker is a threat to all human life. Heath Ledger commented on his role, describing his character, the Joker as a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy.”
While Joker is a skilled inventor and chemist, the reason he is on this list is due to his purely evil actions spurred by his insanity. Nothing is beyond him and no life holds any value in his warped reality. With a maniacal intensity his focus is usually on destroying Batman while having a laugh doing it. Killing innocents isn’t only his plan, it is his desire."
December 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
I can see where your coming from, but it really isn’t about whether or not they have powers, it’s more on how much more evil they are. In that sense, The Joker is a much more bad-ass Villain.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Think of it in terms of entertainment value. I love to moan about the Heath Ledger joker — and think it has to do with my generation. I was about thirty when the Cure hit and was already listening to Adam Ant and Souixsie and the Banshees. So this Joker as New Romantic just seemed patronizing to people who are not even that young anymore. At the same time I am old enough to (barely) remember the end of the Dick Sprang era of Batman, which is essentially what the Golden Age Batman began — the original.
The Joker was a circus clown. That was the point. Instead of making people laugh, he killed them, but of course he originally used a venom which left their corpses grinning. In other words he was one sick variation on the circus motif (Dick Grayson’s parents were circus performers) which ran through the whole original series, and when Denny O’Neill and Neil Adams were asked to revamp the series they brought back that dichotomy between the circus clown and the spree killer.
And so the new movie version is reconfigured, for someone of my generation, to take out the best part and add some new worst parts. I’m sure people in their forties who would have been a primary audience for the New Romantics are less attached to the old Joker.
But really, he is very subversive and entertaining. Magneto is powerful. And in the X-Men universe he plays an important role. But he isn’t conducive to introspection the way the Joker is. In some of the best stories — from the forties or the sixties, seventies or since, the Joker can make you squirm as you ask yourself, why do I think that is so cool? The fifties were a wasteland. But the Joker deserves his applause. He is DEFINITELY the best entertainer among comic book Villains.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
You could say . . .
Joker is pure evil :
- he does not need reasons to bad things and he does not think any other thing
- he does not have a mind like us nor batman he a brilliant on other way
- super power for bad things is less dangerous to someone that enjoy torture
- he could forget pain
- let say it like this . . .
"batman is hero even if he does not have super power, joker does not have super power too and he more evil than anyone"
December 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
The Joker is the greatest villain because he’s pure. He exist solely to destroy the hero. He has no motives he just is.
I don’t think magneto could even be compared to Joker, I have never considered him a villain his reasons for doing the things he does actually have a point there not just random crimes. I consider him more of an anti-hero . Like wise just because he comes up against the "good guys" does that make him evil. I don’t think so.
also as a side note because the Joker is such a fun character to write he generally attracts the best writers and because of that get the most memorable stories
December 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Its not about powers, its about who is the greatest character of them all, the one that drives the best plots and make us feel the better histories.
In that point Joker is FAR away from anything else.
Unpredictable, diabolic, whimpsical , JOker has them all. Magneto is second only because of the huge amount of Marvel Zombies Voting, but, face it, compared to the Joker, he is a Boring Character.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
He is the best, no matter what. He is a psychopath and he is great!
December 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
its not always about having super powers, its how you use what you have…whether its special powers or just you r own knowledge.
In a way Joker is like Batman only hes psycotic and evil. Hes smart and has his own way of being prepared to fight his enemies including the dark knight. I bet he could come up with a plan to kill Superman by combining kryptonite and his own twisted ideas.
I do agree with the other posts here abut the Joker.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Magneto isn’t entirely a villain, he’s more of a neutralist who will ally with his enemies. He’s like Ra’s Al Ghul, only nicer, I guess.
The Joker is top dog because he can kill people with super powers; e’s the most flexible every-man in the world.
He actually does have some supernatural abilities:
*Immunity to poison (he has poisonous blood. It’s suggested that it’s an ingredient in Joker Venom).
*Immunity to feargas. (& fear in general).
*Immunity to hypnotism.
*Immunity to pain (I say "immunity" because he’s a sadomasochist who really enjoys feeling pain).
Many say he sucks in combat because he uses props, guns, & is very skinny, but he seems to use a lot of Muay Thai (kickboxing) moves.
He is not afraid to hit a woman or a child or a disabled person.
No one can be used as a hostage against him. You could shoot Harley between the eyes & he’d only say that he’d been waiting for the perfect moment to do that for years.
He can use anything as a weapon in a pinch.
Batman obligingly has his back. Due to Batsy’s no-kill oath, if the Joker’s life is in danger, Batman has to save him. The Joker thinks this is hillarious.
The Joker has a very high IQ. Lately in comics, Batman, Red Hood (Jason Todd), & Dick (I think) all believe he’s faking his insanity. He’s also smarter than the Riddler.
He’s intuitive. He knows when Batman’s lurking about in the shadows. Kind of like a Spidey-Sense.
He has leadership skills on par with Lex Luthor.
Nothing phases him. He takes everything in stride & always bounces back, unlike Batman who piles up his woes & lingers on them.
He reinvents himself drastically evey decade or so. Some say it’s his insanity, others say it’s his acting skills.
He can tell big lies & keep big secrets. We found out that he knows about Bruce Wayne & doesn’t care, but it’s been suggested since the 80s.
Both good & evil fear him, neither can trust him. There are probably only 3 villans who the Joker hasn’t beeten yet: Bane, Ra’s, & Black Mask; the man responsible for his latest transformation.
& lastly, he’s just different from eveyone else, he stands out.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:26 am
I find that people say that the joker is the greatest villain because he is the essence of evil. He has no remorse for human life and cares for not even his own. He has caused tremendous pain for many heroes across the comic book universe. He also caused batman large amounts of extreme emotional pain. He does most of the things he does for fun or to prove a point that with just one bad day that anyone could become him. He doesnt actually have any "super" powers but he is extremely intellegent, has a high resistence to pain, he tends not to die (even if somebody kills him in one issue he comes bad in another), skilled at hand to hand combat(he can take down robin and batgirl), and he has a vast amount of knowledge chemistry. He is also a master manipulator. Magneto only pretty much has the ability to contort metal. So what? Magneto shouldnt even be counted as a villain. He should be a anti-hero because he is some-what good. Magneto is not as sick and sadistic as the Joker.