The problem here is that Murphy doesn’t shift Joker’s behavior enough to move past simply no longer being a homicidal villain. It’s worth asking what constitutes real villainy, and seeing how a city responds when the constant threat of laughing gas isn’t there anymore. The premise of Sean Gordon Murphy’s Batman: White Knight is trying to answer the question of what Gotham looks like when the Joker isn’t a bad guy anymore. Comics themselves are full of stories that think the Joker is the star of something deep and introspective and important, so central to Batman and his mythos that he is granted the same level of attention and weight as the hero in his universe. This goes beyond Jared Leto and his rat gifts beyond dancing on stairs and blaming the world for making him a bad man. The Joker is Batman’s greatest enemy in part because a particular type of person (almost always white men) is convinced that the Joker is more important and fascinating than Batman. It would be too easy, perhaps even trite, to say that the Joker is Batman’s most dangerous villain because of his ubiquity or his unpredictability frankly he’s around so much that it’s gotten boring and if you’re talking about never knowing what will happen next Harvey Dent can be just as erratic. The problem starts when people begin thinking about rehabilitating specific villains, and especially Batman’s most infamous enemy. It invites readers to consider what Batman is at his best, and question why some writers seem to focus on the worst parts of his mythos. It prompts interesting conversations about the role poverty, education, and healthcare play in creating foundations for strong communities free of violence and makes Gotham map easily onto real world cities that are facing real world shortages and trauma. Far more famous than Blackgate Penitentiary, Arkham has been home to a great number of Batman’s foes, and the question that hangs there waiting for readers never entirely seems to go away: how many of Arkham’s residents would be villains if they received proper treatment or medication? There’s this persistent idea that if Gotham had functional mental health services, Batman would very quickly be out of a job. Though Arkham is far from the most reputable and effective mental health facility, it’s still described as an asylum, not a prison. Part of the appeal of so many of Batman’s villains has been their ability to be rehabilitated, whether explicitly stated or simply implied. Everyone has big opinions about which Robin is best and which bad guy is the most terrifying, but for me that latter question has always been an easy one to answer. There’s too many beloved sidekicks, even the ones everyone voted to kill off, and too many iconic villains in his Rogues Gallery to ever just talk about Batman. There is of course the question of what version of Batman is the subject at hand: are you talking about Miller or Morrison or Snyder if Snyder, which one? But people rarely talk about Batman in a vacuum. Talking about Batman is never just talking about Batman, especially not these days. But who or what is his greatest foe? Shelfdust asked some of our favourite comics critics to pick Batman’s Greatest Enemy… but who do YOU agree with? By Caitlin Rosberg Batman has been in fights all his life: physically, mentally, spiritually.
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