The Origins Of Insanity

"All it takes is one bad day."

Fans and well wishers of the DC Extended Universe cheered the arrival of the teaser trailer of Joaquin Pheonix's portrayal of the arch-enemy of the Bat.

The Clown Prince of Crime, the White Duke of Death, Mr. J, the Joker has almost as many names as there are villains in Batman's rogue gallery. However, he is the one which is undoubtedly at the epitome of the dark theme, and few could've come up with an idea to make his life more painful. But there is a glaring difference in this iteration of the villain's origin story and the ones shown in the comics, and it does exactly that. Also mirrored in Jack Nicholson's version of the Joker in the 1989 movie 'Batman', the Joker gains his demented personality and superhuman insanity by falling into a vat of toxic chemicals.

In Joaquin's version, however, Joker is driven crazy not by chemicals, oh no, he is driven crazy by society.

This is a very morbid twist to an already morbid character, but the fact of the matter is that it might be the most realistic origin story the Joker has ever gotten, and he has gotten three of them.

The scenes depicted in the trailer do not stray far from the incidents happening in the world around us, rather they can be considered a perfect representation of them.

Quite a bit about the movie is revealed in the trailer. The glimpse we see of Joker's transition appears quite realistic, if such a word can even be used to describe him. From a family man with dreams in his heart and his heart on his sleeve, with a loving wife and hopes of making the world a happier place; he turns into the savage he is known to be. We see society beat him down past the point of no return, past the point which blurs the line between rationale thought and lunacy. From the typical everyman we see on the streets, and most of us ourselves are, he becomes a nightmare which even other villain's are said to be afraid of.

So will it really that surprising if there existed someone so belittered by this culture, its people, this society, that he chose to abandon all he held dear, just for a glimpse of madness?

Is the Joker merely a comic character like he always was, or does he now have the potential to become reality, for such is the times we live in?

Because after all, the Nemesis of the Knight did always say, that All it takes, is one bad day.