MWA 1 - Scars and Masks: Who better to break the Bat? All types of stories have seen their fair share of gritty reboots, and the classic Batman comics are no exception. While Batman's story was dark in some aspects of its original narrative as a Detective Comics series, for the most part it has remained quite cartoonish and at times comedic through most of its retellings and various iterations. In the early 2000s, however, director Christopher Nolan embarked on an entirely new type of Batman film adaptation: the Dark Knight trilogy. The last two films The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises featured completely unique takes on two of the series' villains: Joker and Bane. The Joker was reworked to be a mysterious and chaotic madman with a very disturbing twist added to his character, and Bane was reworked to be a similar class of terrorist mastermind, rather than his original comedic appearance as a raging Spanish bighead beyond the human proportions. thanks to the chemical steroid “Venom”. Over the course of the two films, Bane and the Joker share similarities as antagonists. They obviously steer the film in a destructive and problematic direction, as all villains do. The Joker, however, stands out as a separate class of villain, proving more effective in terrorizing Gotham City and even Batman. Due to his lack of a distinct backstory, absence of ulterior motives, and maniacally simple methodology for attacking Batman and Gotham City, the Joker is a far more effective and ultimately evil villain than Bane. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Gotham City is known for many things: it's one of the few movie cities based on Chicago rather than the 800th carbon copy of New York, its extraordinarily cost-efficient urban transportation system, and, of course, rampant crime . Seriously, the city would probably cease to function if there weren't at least six robberies on every block. However, even though the menacing caped crusader is always at work, the city is happy that there is more crime than can be stopped by a billionaire martial artist dressed as a flying rodent. The point where people need to worry only seems to be when there's a slightly more ridiculous criminal who stands just above the rest of the other criminals. Themed clothing and a foreign way of speaking are preferable, but not entirely necessary. The Joker and Bane both shared a common goal of destroying Gotham when all frills were removed from their story arcs, but where Bane sought to destroy Gotham so he could fulfill the League of Shadows' wish to take down Gotham to purify civilization , the Joker simply sought chaos. Bane used chaos as a weapon, with which he unleashed a riot of policemen against prisoners, with which he managed to successfully steal Bruce Wayne's entire arsenal from under his feet. The Joker, however, wanted the world to reflect how sadistic he was. He wanted Batman to break his one rule, push him to murder. Bane wanted to level Gotham with a nuclear weapon, but the Joker wanted Gotham to eat itself alive. Where Bane had a plan that used terror and suffering to accomplish his goal of revenge on Gotham, the Joker had literally no ulterior motive outside of an obvious desire to see the world go as crazy as him. The Joker burns a man alive on top of a pile of all the money he stole, making it clear that he never hassought riches. Rather, the Joker had stolen that money to fuel the fires of economic collapse, to starve the rabid dogs of organized crime into hysteria. Second to his lack of outside influences, the Joker also benefited greatly as a villain by not being tied to a backstory. Now, to be fair, Bane didn't necessarily reveal his past, it was revealed by Ra's al Ghul's daughter. However, the Joker chooses to not only remain so aloof that no one knows his true backstory, but actively lies about it. There are two stories the Joker tells to explain his scars, both with a different purpose. In one story, he explains to a leader of a crime network that his father cut his mouth at the corners and that this particular man reminded him of his father. This tale is very, very suspenseful and highly suggestive of what the Joker intends to do to his victim, which plays into his love of fear and chaos which we'll talk about later. Later, however, while attending a dinner at Bruce Wayne's mansion, the Joker explains to Rachel Dawson a different story behind his scars. For this story, he has a much larger audience of victims who he assumes will live to tell the tale, so he has to change his focus for the story. He tells Rachel that his scars are the result of self-mutilation, done to make his wife feel less alone when she was torn to pieces. This story portrays the Joker as a man who is obviously very unstable mentally, something that the rest of the audience will pick up on and develop his public reputation with. This assumption benefits the Joker, as he tries to appear like a madman without a plan, when in reality he appears to be a sadist with a thousand plans, but no discernible goal. There's also a third telling of the story that the Joker attempted to use on Batman himself towards the end of the film, but was cut short before we saw it unfold. The Joker uses his lack of an illustrious past to his advantage, both for tactical advantage and to instill more fear in his victims before killing them. Bane, on the other hand, has a backstory that ties him to the League of Shadows, where his ties to Ra's al Ghul explain his motivations, his plans, and, to a small extent, his relationship with the other characters in the plot of the film. None of this information released could benefit Bane, at least not close to how it does the Joker. Finally, there is one last act on which Joker and Bane split: Breaking the Bat. Both villains have a severe effect on Batman, but differ in form. Bane physically breaks the Bat, literally snapping his back like a twig on his knee. From there, he places Bruce Wayne in a prison at the bottom of a hole on the other side of the world, forced to watch a live television broadcast of Gotham City being razed by Bane's plan. The Joker, on the other hand, decides to mentally break the Bat by killing his love interest in a ferocious oil fire and handing Harvey Dent over to a criminal, who is ultimately killed by Commissioner Gordon in a matter of life and death. With Bane's methods, Bruce must recover physically and become stronger, as his only way out is to overcome his broken spine and leave his inhibitions behind, which, in the end, only serves to make him stronger and courageous. fighter when he returns to Gotham. The Joker's methods, on the other hand, leave Bruce Wayne so distraught that he can't even maintain his role as Batman. When the commissioner is forced to shoot Dent to save his son, Batman tells him to make it look like he killed Dent in cold blood. This, of course, was to make sure that Gotham could.