Thought experiment: How would you pitch a version of Batman in Todd Philips Joker universe

[Invader Joker]

Capes and utility belts exist in reality, and Phillips' cesspool Gotham isn't any different from comic Gotham except less Gothic.

Philip's cesspool Gotham is essentially the same one from the Year One comic.

 

[Schlosser85]

I just feel that making him an ******* is the lazy route because it's what's everyone expecting.

I do think he'd be very brutal at times, but he'd still try to be good. I think he'd use Batman to inspire the Gotham citizens to be better, and he'd use Bruce Wayne to inspire the upper class to not be selfish idiots.

I feel like the super brutal punisher route out of touch billionaire everyone keeps describing is what Arthur would want Bruce to become, not what Bruce would necessarily be.

Ultimately, yeah, at his core he'd still be comic Batman but with a few minor differences here and there due to context, more zen like, maybe some slightly different ways of approaching things.

He'd ultimately be a very complex character.

I'd like a Killing Joke-esque scene where he throws the whole "everyone is awful" self-justifying thing back in Arthur/Joker's face and says "maybe it's just you".

And if Arthur/Joker knows or finds out that Bruce is Batman and persists in, on some level, considering Bruce his "brother", that could make him even more want to get Bruce/Batman to see things his way ("why can't you get the joke? Why aren't you laughing??").

 

[Invader Joker]

I'd like a Killing Joke-esque scene where he throws the whole "everyone is awful" self-justifying thing back in Arthur/Joker's face and says "maybe it's just you".

And if Arthur/Joker knows or finds out that Bruce is Batman and persists in, on some level, considering Bruce his "brother", that could make him even more want to get Bruce/Batman to see things his way ("why can't you get the joke? Why aren't you laughing??").

I'm gonna go one step further and say that Bruce could even still have a scene like this with Arthur:

Why? Well, I feel that while yes, Bruce would still punch Joker in the face like he tends to do, at some point he'd probably realize that to keep beating him without showing any mercy of compassion would just be feeding into the same cycle of violence that created Joker and made his parents get shot in an alley, so he'd try to put his feelings of vengeance out of the way for a moment, and tell Arthur this.

Not only that, but a Batman/Bruce Wayne that genuinely tries to be good I think ultimately would end up hurting Arthur a lot more than just brutal punisher Batman.


Part of why Arthur became the Joker is because at that point he had already lost all hope in humanity. He thought there was no good in the world, so at that point he might as well just go all in and be the exact type of evil that kept beating and abusing him throughout the whole movie.

If Batman/Bruce Wayne steps in, being a genuinely good person, that'd completely crush Arthur to an extent, I feel, because then he'd have to realize: He became Joker for nothing. His entire worldview was completely wrong. He destroyed any chance he could've had of a normal life, and all for looking at things in a very simplistic way.

And in a way, that'd be a more satisfying "payback" for Bruce than if he just snapped his neck and screwed over the middle and lower class.

 

[Schlosser85]

I love that idea.