14 Times Comic Book Movies Completely F*cked Iconic Villains

12. The Joker (Suicide Squad)

In The Comics

The Joker is Batman's dark mirror, in a way (just as most of his most enduring villains are) - or at least he's the force of nature that balances his existence. He's the darkness that swarms around the edges of Batman's light, and as such he's a remarkably clever construct.

He's been around forever, over countless seminal story arcs, and he's beaten the Bat several times - though it's usually how he toys with his victims on his way to the Bat that makes him the most compelling. He's the real deal, simply put and he's so enduring he's survived some pretty savage writing mistakes in the past.

On Film

After Nicholson and Ledger's versions of the Joker explored traditional pantomime villain and agent of chaos, David Ayer's Suicide Squad went darker and more outrageous, offering a juggalo gangster Mr J based more on modern interpretations of the character. He would be hyper-violent, unreasonable and deeply, deeply disturbed.

Arguably the biggest crime of Suicide Squad is that it fails to fully pull the trigger on Jared Leto's Joker. Instead of being fully off the wall, the heavy edits of his scenes robbed him of his venom and left a cartoon, with a horrible lack of restraint and the curious idea that he'd be a romantic puppy dog chasing Harley Quinn.

Had they committed fully, it might have been an interesting take on the character, but instead he ended up being a completely unnecessary narrative distraction, relegated out of the main event. You don't do that to the Clown Prince of Crime.