Consequences

So. That Joker image, huh? Whooo boy. It literally left me speechless. After the two previous images of Jared Leto hinting at his Joker's look, this was NOT what I saw coming. I certainly wasn't expecting the meta nature of his tattoos – things that would normally be left for word balloons in the comics. Not to mention the most disconcerting part: the "damaged" tattoo on his head. Seems someone who is honestly deranged wouldn't be calling that out, right?

Its not out of the ordinary for his character to latch on to a clown motif and completely run with it, doing his body up to reflect that. What is out of the ordinary is it seems the traditional Joker character wouldn't really care about such a vain display. His psychopathic mind would be focused on other things... like just being crazy.

Now, Geoff Johns takes the brunt of the blame in the comic above, but I'm not really sure who should be saddled with it. Is it Suicide Squad writer/director David Ayer? Is it one of the producers? Or is it Johns, whose Chief Creative Officer title was introduced as an overseer of properly bringing DC's characters to multimedia? That sounds like its Johns who should have been pumping the brakes to land on a Joker a little more like the character we're used to seeing.

That said, if you remove all those silly tattoos and the crowned teeth, that's pretty damn close to the Joker Greg Capullo has been currently drawing in Batman. There's definitely a menace there, and Leto feels like the kind of actor that can make him truly terrifying. But is anyone going to be able to see past that "damaged" tattoo to notice?

-Gint