10 Problems With The Joker Nobody Wants To Admit
1. Batman And The Joker Aren't The Same
There are certain theories people like to recite like they know everything about the Caped Crusader. Batman isn't the mask, Bruce Wayne is! Hanging out with kids totally isn't weird, he's just pining for his own lost youth! Of course nobody knows his secret identity, he floods the internet with disinformation!
The reason he and The Joker are perpetually engaged in a seemingly endless battle is because they are one and the same, equal and opposite numbers who cannot exist without each other, both borderline insane and equally committed to their causes. Except that's totally wrong. They aren't the same at all.
Any similarities are a stretch, and again play into the idea that the pair are intrinsically entwined on some sort of cosmic level, like it's fate or something. Which, regardless of how you think of the world, doesn't really gel properly with the Batman who thinks ill of criminals for being a superstitious, cowardly lot.
Batman and The Joker aren't the same. Not by a long shot.
If they were, it would suggest the former could so easily tip over into being the latter, and vice versa, which are things that will never happen. Maybe not a problem with The Joker himself. Maybe none of these are. Maybe the real problem is the way that we read, watch, and thing about the character. Or maybe he is just a mess of contradictions and half-baked theories.
Why so serious, eh?
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