'Joker' Is Wild ... ly Dull

In the comics and cartoons — and on film, as played by Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger and (checks notes) Jared Leto — the Joker, Batman's archenemy, is an agent of chaos.

To be clear: It's a calculating, meticulously planned chaos. That speech Ledger's Joker gives in the hospital, in The Dark Knight? Where he says he's not a planner, he's just a "dog chasing cars?" Yeah, that's a lie. Because underneath that terrifying, physiology-defying grin and that laugh like a hyena on nitrous, there's a coldly cunning criminal mastermind — he's just hidden it behind his purple riverboat-gambler couture and his penchant for goofy, playing-card-themed capers, hoping you don't notice.

Funny thing about the Joker. (Historically, he's referred to as both The Jokerwere first introduced in the comics, they were introduced by way of their origin stories. The reader encountered them embarked upon some act of moral turpitude and immediately learned their entire deal — their real name, their background and why they settled upon whichever absurd larcenous gimmick (birds, riddles, cats, etc.) that they did.