Top Villain: The Joker

16 May 2008

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With a number one hero comes a number one villain and the top spot is awarded to The Joker, Batman's nemesis, who has terrorised the streets of Gotham City since 1940.

The Joker began life as a DC Comic supervillain, making his first appearance in Batman #1 in 1940.

With bleached white skin and green hair he was a violent sociopath who committed a series of crimes, including murder, for his own entertainment.

In 1989 the Joker made his possibly most memorable appearance in Tim Burton's movie Batman.

Played by Jack Nicholson the character of the Joker was given a very different origin with a real name: Jack Napier and he was the right hand man of Gotham City crime lord Carl Grisson. He was also having an affair with Grissom's girlfriend.

Grissom arranges to have Napier killed by corrupt Lt. Max Eckhardt. When Batman intervenes Napier is shot in the cheek and falls into a vat of chemicals.

Despite surviving the accident he is left with stained white skin, green hair and red lips. A botched surgery leaves him with a permanent grin and he calls himself The Joker.

Nicholson's performance has gone down as one of the most iconic villains of the big screen as the film went on to be an international smash hit.

The Dark Knight, which is released later this summer, sees the return of the Joker, for the first time in nearly twenty years, portrayed by Heath Ledger.

While Nicholson's Joker was done with a smile and a joke this time around the character returns to his evil comic book roots as a psychopathic, mass-murdering schizophrenic.

In place of chemical bleaching his skin is coloured by white and red make-up which, over the course of the film, starts to look like a skin infection.

Like in the comic Ledger's Joker is terrorising the city of Gotham for his own pleasure and entertainment.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

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