10 Reasons Batman: Assault On Arkham Destroys Suicide Squad

4. The Joker's Role Actually Has A Point

Batman Assault On Arkham Suicide Squad
Warner Home Video

There's a prevailing feeling coming away from Suicide Squad that Jared Leto's Joker was basically an afterthought, thrown into the script wherever he could fit simply because he's an extremely marketable villain.

His role in the movie is fairly small and doesn't amount to much more than trying to break Harley Quinn out of her suicide mission, and then apparently dying in a helicopter crash (yeah, right), until the finale where he returns to break Harley out of Belle Reve.

Assault On Arkham instead makes The Joker an integral facet of the plot, what with his plan to release a dirty bomb basically superseding the original Riddler plot and leading to an insane final showdown.

There's a lot of time devoted to The Joker trying to pull a reluctant Harley back into his thrall, and when The Joker's helicopter crashes at the end, it's actually believable that he might be dead, because this isn't a billion-dollar movie franchise where killing him off would be financial suicide. In the end it turns out he survived, of course, but the animated film actually had us going for a while...

It's no disrespect to Jared Leto, who could potentially deliver a thoroughly compelling Joker in a better movie, but Troy Baker's take on the character here felt far more well-rounded and complete.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.