Casting Call 07.29.08: Issue 64 - Batman's Rogues Gallery

Posted by Jason Chamberlain on 07.29.2008

The Dark Knight continues to dominate the box office, in no small part due to the electric performance of Heath Ledger as The Joker. But he's just one member of Batman's rogues gallery. Three other villains have featured in the new Batman series, and this week Jason Chamberlain takes a look at them!



Can good exist without evil?

It's one of those questions that old men sit on mountains to try and figure out. Can there ever be a world without evil? Can light exist without dark?

It may be an impossible question to answer. But one thing I'm pretty sure of is this; every super hero needs his super villains.

Try to imagine what life would be like for a super hero if he had no evil doers to fight. What would be the point? Take Batman, for example. Can you envision a movie where, for two hours, Bats walks around with a smile on his face, getting pats on the back from grateful citizens, not so much as litter messing up the streets?

It would be pretty damn boring.

As much as we want to see the hero succeed, it's the journeys he takes – his troubles along the way - that entertain us.

So like every other superhero, Batman owes a lot of his popularity to the quality of his enemies. And both ‘Batman Begins' and ‘The Dark Knight' have benefitted from strong, well constructed villains. This column will feature spoilers for both films.

Four ‘main' villains have been showcased in the first four films, all of them classic Batman villains with plenty of history in the comics. Scarecrow, Ras Al Ghul, The Joker and Two-Face.

Of the three, Scarecrow is the simplest to understand. His true identity is psychiatrist Jonathan Crane, the director of Arkham Asylum, home for Gotham's criminally insane. In truth, Crane is a sadistic criminal running experiments on his inmates, and he creates a fear toxin that makes his victims worst fears seemingly come to life. In the first film, he does so to aid an alliance with Ras Al Ghul, but by 'Dark Knight' he has transformed into a drug lord selling his fear toxin to those looking for an extreme kick. His impact on Gotham is negligible at this point, and he's an easy catch for Batman.

Most importantly, Scarecrow doesn't raise serious issues for Batman. He doesn't force Batman to confront deep dark secrets or to rethink the reasoning behind his crusade for justice. He's a criminal, Batman catches him, and that's that.

The remaining three villains, however, are infinitely more personal, and they each bring Batman to the brink of giving up, or at the very least breaking his one crime fighting rule.

Batman's primary reason for being, of course, is the sudden and brutal loss of his parents at a young age. He is an adult in a Tibetan jail when he meets "Ducard" (really Ras Al Ghul) who recruits him to the League of Shadows, a group of warriors who believe in using whatever means necessary to achieve peace and harmony.

Of course, the League proves to be a little more villainous than they originally let on. Though they may believe their intentions are serving the greater good, they take innocent lives in the pursuit of their goals, which is something Bruce Wayne cannot bring himself to do. His split with the League, and with Ras, is difficult because on some levels, Ras had become something of a surrogate father to him. Not only had he given him instruction in the ways of battle, he had taught him to confront the darkness in his heart and to utilize it in order to protect others. The two obviously shared a friendship and so, when Ras arrives in Gotham and the extent of his plan becomes clear, Batman is forced to battle a friend and a mentor all in one.

Villains are always at their most interesting when they don't consider themselves to be villains! In the case of Ras, he believes he is doing good work. He believes that destroying by Gotham, even its innocent citizens, the rest of the world will move back towards harmony. Batman, on the other hand, believes in saving Gotham and its people. So who's right?

The problem with Ras approach (aside from, you know, the loss of innocent life) is that he has given himself the power to decide who lives and who dies. It's a power too great for any man, yet he thinks he can wield it responsibly. However, destroying Gotham is something Batman has a big problem with, and so the two naturally end up on opposite sides.

But in the course of fighting Ras, Batman is forced to take another look at his crime fighting philosophy and ask himself if he can make a real difference without stooping to the lows of the League of Shadows.

Good intentions turned bad is a theme that is once again explored in Dark Knight, this time through the character of Harvey Dent, Gotham's ‘white knight' and district attorney who is prepared to go to great (and entirely legal) lengths to clean up his city. And his approach is working, so much so that he becomes the target of twisted sociopath The Joker. Dent is eventually abducted, as is his fiancé Rachel, and left to die amongst explosives. Rachel is killed, and though Batman reaches Dent in time to save him, he is still near enough to the explosion to suffer horrific burns to the left side of his body. Dent is dead (at least, half of him is) and Two Face is born.

The rage and agony coursing through Dent after he is injured is incredible, and a once just man is immediately transformed into a raging force of vengeance, punishing everyone he believes to be responsible for Rachel's death and for his pain. He leaves his crimes to chance, flipping a coin to decide whether each of his victims will live or die. He is even prepared to murder Commissioner Gordon's young son as retribution for Gordon's perceived betrayal.

Dent's twisted quest for revenge is markedly different from Batman's pursuit of justice. Batman also has suffered the loss of the most important people in his life, but instead of punishing people for his pain, he dedicates himself to ensuring that nobody else will ever have to feel the way he does. Dent, on the other hand, loses reason and becomes obsessed with ensuring he can take as many people with him as he can.

Dent's loss was also Batman's loss, as Rachel was a childhood friend and an unrequited love. He is as devastated by her death as anyone, but he still doesn't seek the ultimate revenge that Dent does. And one must wonder what Rachel would have thought of what becomes of the man she loved once she's gone. Certainly she wouldn't approve of his vengeful actions, as she once slapped Bruce Wayne twice just for wanting to kill the man who had killed his parents.

And then, there's the man responsible for Rachel's death, whose reign of chaos over Gotham causes havoc, and makes Batman question his very beliefs.

The Joker.

The Joker is devoid of goodness. There's no light to his dark. He has no back story, no origin, no justification for his state. He is simply evil. He may not even consider himself to be, but he is. He is a self proclaimed agent of chaos, who acts without any thought, without any plan. He even describes himself as a dog chasing cars that wouldn't know what to do with one if he caught it. He doesn't kill, maim and destroy for any reason other than his desire to create chaos in Gotham. To take the white knights and drag them down to his depraved level.

As Alfred states, The Joker is not looking for anything logical. He can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. He just wants to watch the world burn.

What is Batman to do with an enemy that simply will not stop until he is dead? His one rule is that he will not become an executioner, but he seriously considers breaking that rule to bring an end to the Joker's terrorist acts. It can be argued extensively whether or not killing him would be justified, but Batman has a strict moral code and he knows that breaking it even once will be his first step down an increasingly dark path. Even the Joker himself marvels at how truly incorruptible Batman is.

The Joker himself is incapable of such limitations. Throughout the film he unveils increasingly more perverse and disturbing traits and actions, and he is fighting what he calls a battle for Gotham's soul. That's why he tries so hard to show the ugliness in Gotham's chosen heroes, and he is most successful with Dent, whose degeneration into Two Face is shockingly fast and brutal.

Does the Joker 'win' because of the depths to which Dent falls? Or does he lose because no matter what he does, he can't make Batman sink to his level?

In the end, he doesn't even really care. Even as Batman leaves him hanging (literally) above the streets of Gotham, he is cackling with glee. As long as Batman is fighting for control, The Joker will find a way to fight for chaos.

After all, he's giving Gotham a better class of criminal.