MovieChat Forums > Joker (2019) Discussion > Will the Joker end up Meta???

Will the Joker end up Meta???


Sorry to be so mindlessly cynical and slavishly devoted to cannon, but if this doesn't end with his skin becoming permanently bleached white and his hair naturally green...then this IS NOT the Joker. Its just a thug boss in grease paint.

When you remove the meta from super villains, you just get a bad guy who may, or may not, be a little more flashy than the next.

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Honestly, this movie seems to be more like Taxi Driver combined with Vulgar (for the two or three people who might know about that movie). It's not really a Joker movie, which I am okay with. I think a movie focusing on super villains without the super hero is a bad idea that usually doesn't work. This movie is a crime drama about a crazy dude dressed as a clown that just so happens to be named Joker.

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This movie looks like it's going to do what they almost did on Gotham, where this isn't the real Joker, this is the inspiration for the eventual Joker. They're playing coy but I got a feeling this movie will indeed be canon. I wouldn't be surprised if the death of the Waynes is even an event that takes place in the chaos this Joker creates.

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except if that were they case why bring in Bruce Wayne and his parents? I'll bet money they have the Joker killing Bruce's parents in the movie which would eliminate it being the inspiration for a future real Joker.

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Sorry to be so mindlessly cynical and slavishly devoted to cannon, but if this doesn't end with his skin becoming permanently bleached white and his hair naturally green...then this IS NOT the Joker. Its just a thug boss in grease paint.


I'm confused, but wasn't the Heath Ledger Joker also a guy wearing face paint and had regular hair?

I do like the theory above that perhaps this Joker becomes a "symbol" and inspiration for the future real Joker. That would be an interesting take

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I think I said exactly what I think.

In Batman...the world created by Bob Kane and spanning more than 70 years of stories:

There is a half-man/half-crocodile (not a wrestler with a bad skin condition)
A thousand year old assassin named Ra Al Ghul who regenerates himself in a Lazarus Pit
A creature made of living clay
A frozen man in a robotic suit
Is friends with an alien who is faster than a speeding bullet.
And so many other "Meta" creatures in addition to a Riddler and a Penguin...all of which were considered "too meta" for a "grounded" story.

And...if the clown doesn't have bleached skin and naturally green hair...he is NOT the The Joker.

He is just a thug in grease paint asking you if he has told you about his scars.

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Bingo, Doc! I couldn't agree more.

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I thought that "meta" in the DC universe refers to having superpowers. The Joker never had superpowers, just bleached skin like Michael Jackson.

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Typically speaking you are correct...but, and I know I'm splitting hairs here, the Joker doesn't have "bleached" skin and died hair. If that were the case, it would grow out. Bleached skin must be repeatedly bleached or the natural color will return in time. The hair is, obviously, the same. Michael Jackson did NOT have bleached skin...he had a medical condition, confirmed in his autopsy, called "Vitiligo" which causes a reduction of melanocytes in the skin causing paleness, usually in blotches.

I tend to think that is precisely why Nolan choose his "Joker" to use clown paint...because, in order for the Joker's skin to be naturally white (like an albino) or his hair to actually grow green (which is completely unnatural to the human species) the chemical bath he was exposed to would have to have fundamentally changed his body's chemistry or altered him genetically, which is hardly "grounded".

So, while I'm not saying "Meta" in terms of some great gifts or powers...there is something "beyond the normal" in his transformation which would be impossible in Nolan's universe but is perfectly acceptable in a world where half the super powered individuals in the world got their Meta by exposure to something in the environment (radiation, chemicals, magic forces, etc.).





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Very well stated!!

Thumbs up!

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