Why Return Of The Joker Is Secretly The Best Batman Movie

1. It Illustrates The Legacies Of Joker And Batman Perfectly

At the end of the film, Bruce imparts one piece of advice to Terry, saying:

"I've been thinking about something you once told me, and you were wrong. It's not Batman that makes you worthwhile, it's the other way around. Never tell yourself anything different."

It's one of the best lines Conroy has ever delivered, and the best thing about it is not just that it brings Terry's journey full-circle, adopting the mantle and accepting his role, but also in that it speaks to the legacy of the character. Batman can be an oppressive presence, and one that can dwarf the wearer in a great many ways. One of the biggest fallacies surrounding the character is that the mask represents Bruce's true nature, but Terry doesn't have any of that baggage.

In actual fact, it takes Terry to make Bruce realise that Batman isn't everything. This development illustrates McGinnis' importance, but there's another character that provokes the pair to look inward and assess the legacy of the mantle - the Joker.

By all accounts, Joker is considered nothing but a horror story in Neo Gotham. When the nightmare returns, he's only capable of doing so having mentally tortured Tim Drake, a former ward of Batman. Drake thus embodies the synonymy of Batman and the Joker, and is tormented by both of them, even 40 years on from the offending incident when he was abducted.

As was previously mentioned, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker could be described as the 'last' Joker story. It finds strength in finality, but also in reappraising what both Batman and the Clown Prince represent, as well as in the devastating effects a legacy can have. It tells the perfect Batman story, and manages to do so in an unfamiliar world. Adaptations don't get much better than that.