WGTC Weekly Throwdown: Battle Batman! Joker Vs. Bane

Gem: Joker

The Joker spins his own publicly-lauded psychosis to reflect the tyranny lurking beneath the surface of everyone. He constructs arresting diatribes about society’s acceptance of criminals being executed and the thin line between hero and villain. He cripples Batman and Dent’s psychologies and reveals in them both the choice to embody either.

His plan hatches from his sociological observations. He’s out to destroy Gotham to prove a fucking point! His dislike of idealistic figures like Harvey Dent serve as a catalyst: his havoc is as he calls it, “a social experiment.”

In contrast there’s Bane’s scheme. His plan has all the finesse and cunning of a Tyrannosaur crashing Justin Bieber’s wedding dress fitting. Grandiose, brash and causing the shrieking poof and his acolytes to join in their terror and grow stronger, Bane’s plan unites all of Gotham against one easily identifiable villain. Whereas The Joker chipped away at Batman’s conscience and at Dent’s sense of reasoning to destabilise the foundations of Gotham; Bane, along with the dead pet tarantula attached to his face had one simple, central idea: BIG BOMB. *yawn*

The Joker orchestrates an attack to rival Bane’s BIG BOMB by subverting public figures of trust and moral fibre. A crumbling ethical code is far, far harder to re-establish than physical damage caused by an explosion.  How can you re-invigorate loyalty toward your city’s leader if you witness them behaving as irresponsibly as its criminals?

When Dent discovers his fiancée has been murdered he becomes what the Joker predicted and seeks torturous revenge. We, the audience realise The Joker was right. Dent, the white knight, was only one step away from madness. Such a possibility leaves Gotham hanging by a thread.

The Joker taunts Batman, Dent, members of law enforcement and local council by running rings around them. He storms in, a hair’s breadth away only to escape moments later. He keeps control at all times. How does Bane, that lumbering dullard, deal with Gotham’s dark knight?  He banishes Batman to an impossible-to-escape prison. In another country.

His final prong of attack aboard the two ferries is personable with direct consequences for innocent members of the public and inmates from Arkham Asylum. The Joker puts the choice to live in their hands. His ferry stunt illuminates one eminent truth: a dark heart beats in not only the dark knight himself, but inside every person of Gotham.  The Joker’s plans for Gotham were never about mass devastation but for mass degradation of the city’s soul.

Such a terrifying revelation would scar Gotham for far longer than Bane’s plan.

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