12. Returning To The Roots
In constructing the character of the Joker in The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan, David Goyer and Jonathan Nolan ended up going straight back to the ORIGINAL source albeit unwittingly. The Dark Knights Joker bears some remarkable similarities to the Joker as he was originally introduced in Batman #1: a master planner who announces his crimes via mass media and always manages to stay one step ahead of the police, a cold blooded killer whose clown makeup masks a grim disposition, a man who seems to have no history, no backstory, no pasthell, Batman #1 even includes a sequence where Joker
disguises himself as a policeman to get at one of his targets. All of this, apparently, is coincidence; according to Christopher Nolan, he had probably read the original Joker story back during the writing of Batman Begins, but hadnt looked at it since, and
was a little astonished to re-read the story (at Jonathan Nolans behest) and realize just how close it was to the Joker he, his brother and David Goyer had created. Certainly the similarities made the writers feel they were on the right track with their version of the character.