The filmmakers behind Joker have been clear that they never intended to adapt a specific
comic with the movie.
Now that we can all see the film for ourselves, it's obvious they meant it.
Here are some of the biggest ways the Joker of Joker is different from the comics.
Spoilers ahead!
Throughout Joker, Arthur Fleck undoubtedly lives in a world of fantasy.
As he's watching a late night talk show with his mother, Arthur imagines himself in the
audience, eventually being called up to the stage by host Murray Franklin.
He has an imaginary relationship with his neighbor Sophie, thinking she's in love with
him when she barely remembers his name.
These fantasies call every event in the film into question, making it easy to argue that
the movie's climactic scenes are also a kind of fantasy.
It's possible to interpret most of the film as simply Fleck's imagination, and that he's
always been a patient at the mental institution we find him in at the end.
While the Joker of the comics is certainly no less prone to delusion, we're not seeing
DC Comics solely from his point of view.
Joker is not just a violent fantasy he's real, and his actions have consequences.
While the Joker movie teases the possibility of the plot being a grand delusion of Arthur's,
the Joker of the comics is a problem for everybody.
One of the more predictable events at the end of Joker is the slaying of Bruce Wayne's
parents.
As Gotham erupts in violence, the Waynes emerge from a theater showing 1981's Zorro: The Gay
Blade, and Thomas Wayne steers them down an alleyway in hopes of avoiding the riots.
Unfortunately, one of the clown-mask-wearing rioters spots the family and follows them.
He calls out to Thomas Wayne and tells him he's going to give him what he deserves.
He kills the couple, yanking off Martha Wayne's pearl necklace in the process, and leaves
the young Bruce Wayne helpless with his parents' corpses.
It's possible you've seen all of this before.
"No.
Stop.
No!
Don't go in there…"
Even if we assume that we are meant to believe the events of this scene actually do take
place and aren't just a part of Fleck's imagination, it diverges significantly from the comic book
slayings of the Waynes.
When Joe Chill kills Thomas and Martha Wayne in the comics, there's no overt political
or social uprising at work.
He doesn't wear a clown mask, and their deaths have nothing to do with the Joker, who won't
show up until 1940's Batman #1 after the Waynes have been dead for years and Bruce Wayne has
already been crimefighting for a bit.
The depiction of their killing that we see in Joker is perhaps most similar to how it
unfolds in 1989's Batman; in that earlier film, it's Jack Napier the movie's Joker who
proves to be the Waynes' murderer.
We have no idea what the given name is of the Joker of the comics.
While it's revealed to be Arthur Fleck in Joker and Jack Napier in 1989's Batman, in
the comics Joker has no legal I.D.
We don't know if anyone knows his given name we don't even know if Joker himself remembers,
assuming he even has one.
Some comics have suggested there is an undefined supernatural element to the Joker, and that
he's been alive in Gotham for centuries.
The closest thing Joker has to an origin story is in the 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing
Joke, where we see flashbacks of Joker as a failing stand-up comic who's lured into
a single night of crime to help support his young wife and their unborn child, and it's
that same night that finds him plummeting into a vat of chemicals that changes his life
forever.
Yet even in The Killing Joke, we never learn the character's given name not even his first
name.
As much as he hates his name, Arthur Fleck should arguably feel lucky he even gets to
have one.
As much as Todd Phillips insists Joker isn't an adaptation from any comic, the story takes
at least partial inspiration from The Killing Joke.
In the graphic novel, we catch glimpses of a possible origin story in flashbacks as Joker
works on his latest scheme.
But even The Killing Joke is very different from what we see in Joker and we all know
Joker prefers his backstory to be multiple choice.
"Y'know, it's funny.
This reminds me of a joke."
In The Killing Joke, the young Joker is a wannabe stand-up comic who, like Arthur Fleck,
can't get audiences to laugh.
Unlike Fleck, the young Joker of The Killing Joke doesn't make up any fantasies that replace
his audiences' silence with laughter.
He is painfully aware that he's a failure, and with his wife expecting a baby he agrees
to join a group of crooks in robbing a chemical factory.
It's the crime that leads to the comic's fall into a chemical vat, and his subsequent transformation
into the Joker.
On the surface, at least, the fact that both early versions of the Joker are stand-up comics
who aren't any good at comedy is where their similarities end.
Arthur Fleck doesn't have an unborn child on the way.
The only crimes he commits are ones he wants to commit he doesn't let any mobsters strong-arm
him into it.
And he also has nothing to do with the Red Hood, the alias The Killing Joke's young comic
uses before his fateful transformation.
The scenes in Joker of Arthur Fleck putting on his makeup are some of the most quietly
chilling in the film, whether he's forcing a smile onto his face so hard he tears up
from it or spreading the make-up onto his tongue.
But the Joker of the comics doesn't wear makeup unless he's trying to look normal.
There is no definitive word on how it happens, but the artificial and clown-like attributes
of the Joker the bone-white skin, the green hair, etc. are all typically permanent.
Well, in Batman number 1, Joker does wear make-up, but later origins reconned that out.
In Batman: The Killing Joke, we get glimpses of an origin story that shows Joker falling
into a vat of chemicals.
In fact, earlier in the graphic novel, the fact that Joker doesn't wear makeup is what
lets Batman know the villain has escaped Arkham Asylum.
He visits the facility to talk to Joker but figures out Joker's escaped when he grabs
the man he believes to be the criminal by the wrist and white makeup comes off on his
glove.
Joker's origin story in The Killing Joke isn't considered to be set in stone, but regardless,
his skin, face, and hair will take more than a shower to make it look like Arthur Fleck's.
We don't see much of Arkham State Hospital in Joker.
Arthur visits it to get the file chronicling his mother's stay there.
From what little we see of the facility, it's easy to spot fairly huge differences between
it and its comic book counterpart.
The Arkham Asylum of the comics is a crazy mix between Gothic architecture and space-age
security designed to hold killer clowns and half-crocodile cannibals.
It's usually depicted as being outside Gotham City proper, behind intimidating wrought iron
gates.
The guards are usually carrying enough high-tech stuff to hold Darth Vader off for a few minutes,
yet somehow Riddler and Joker and everyone else constantly escape regardless.
The Arkham State Hospital of Joker is anchored more securely in the real world.
Arthur gets there by bus and it appears to be somewhere in Gotham City as opposed to
the outskirts.
The interior doesn't look any more high-tech than what you would expect in a 1980s hospital,
and when he goes to get the records for his mom, Arthur appears to be in the same halls
as some of the patients, none of whom are behind electrified bars guarded by guys with
more weapons than Judge Dredd.
When Penny Fleck tells Arthur he's the son of the famous Thomas Wayne, he goes to Wayne
Manor to confront his "father."
Instead he entertains the young Bruce Wayne with magic tricks and comes close to choking
Alfred Pennyworth for claiming his mother is delusional.
Thomas Wayne tells Fleck the same thing when Arthur corners him in a theater restroom,
and Arthur's convinced his mother sold him a fantasy when he steals Penny's records from
Arkham State Hospital.
The file includes Arthur's adoption paperwork and newspaper clippings about his abuse at
Penny's boyfriend's hands.
The question is never completely settled.
Arthur later finds a photo of his mother as a young woman with "I love your smile" written
on the back and signed with the initials "T.W."
With Thomas Wayne's wealth and influence, the notion that he could falsify records to
erase the stain of his mistress' child isn't out of the question.
In the comics, the notion that Joker and Batman are blood related in any way isn't a thing,
though the question of Bruce Wayne having a brother he doesn't know about has arisen
in recent years.
As part of DC Comics' New 52 reboot, the "Court of Owls" storyline in Batman includes Lincoln
March a mayoral candidate who claims to have been born as Thomas Wayne, Jr. but Batman
refuses to believe him.
Toward the end of Joker, Arthur's former co-workers Randall and Gary show up at his apartment,
offering spirits and companionship after his mother's death.
When it becomes clear Randall is only there to fish for info on the subway killings, Arthur
brutally kills the old clown with a pair of scissors.
Gary cowers in a corner, sure that he's next, but Arthur lets him go, telling him he's the
only one at Ha Ha's that was ever nice to him.
The comic book Joker has grown exceedingly cruel and ruthless over the years, and leaving
survivors behind isn't one of his hobbies.
The fact that Gary has purer intentions when visiting Arthur or treated him "nice" wouldn't
change his fate.
If anything, the fact that Gary had every reason to expect mercy would serve as more
incentive for the comic book Joker to kill him, because it would make the whole thing
funnier in his twisted mind.
Perhaps one of the more obvious ways Joker's Arthur Fleck differs from his comic book counterpart
is his lack of killer gadgets.
No acid-shooting lapel flowers and no electrocuting hand buzzers.
The Joker of the comics is so heavily armed with the stuff, he's essentially a walking
booby trap.
But Arthur Fleck uses no weapons more creative than a gun, a pair of scissors, and a pillow.
Well go on, open it."
Of course, this makes sense.
Arthur Fleck isn't in a world with Bat-themed vigilantes or Legions of Doom at least, not
yet.
Joker is much more grounded in the real world than most Batman films, and filling it with
deadly gift-wrapped bombs or pistols that shoot "BANG" flags wouldn't fit.
The closest things to gadgets we see Arthur use are his perfectly non-lethal clown props,
like the wand he uses to entertain the young Bruce Wayne.
Look closely after he gets beaten by teenagers in the beginning of Joker and you can see
the water draining from his lapel flower onto the concrete, giving the impression it's just
as precious to the clown as blood.
In the comics, it's always either Batman or one of his costumed allies who brings the
Joker to justice.
The less "super" law enforcement of Gotham really can't challenge him.
"What is that?
What is that, a bazooka?"
Even when Batman catches the clown, he's destined to escape, but at the very least it takes
someone with a mask to give Gotham a break from Joker for a couple of days.
Such is not the case in Joker.
In fact, the Arthur Fleck of Joker not only doesn't seem all that tough to apprehend,
he doesn't seem particularly concerned with being caught.
After he kills Murray Franklin, he apparently just hangs around the studio until the police
come for him, because the next time we see him he's being driven away in the back of
a police cruiser.
So while the Gotham City of Joker certainly could use some help with its garbage strike
and its impoverished citizens, they seem to be able to catch Joker without any costumed
crimefighters' help.
In this version of the story, Gotham needs civic reforms way more than they need a dude
dressed like a bat who dropkicks muggers.
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