21st Century's New Satan Part 3

The Literary Roots of Evil

               As presented in the first part of this essay the Joker has gone through many transformations and changes during his career, but he has done so in a way that he has reflected the issues of the respective zeitgeist. Like other literary figures of evil before him the Joker has showcased a protean ability that is rarely possessed by other comic book characters maintaining him as one of the most recognizable figures of evil in popular culture. It can argued that one of the characteristics of evil and its representatives is their ability to change and inhabit new spheres of society as empires rise and fall. These changes can be liken to alterations which can be found in different representations of Satan in literary history such as in John Milton and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's works. On the one hand Milton portrays a Satan who has just fallen and who still does not quite understand or embrace his purpose in this new world which he has been physically thrown into. Satan proposes to his fellow demons a new purpose for them  in the hierarchy

 of this world, “interrupt [God's] joy/ In our confusion, and our joy upraise/ In his disturbance.” (II.371-73) Much in the same way as Milton's Satan, the Joker's first appearance in the forties is marked by the sole purpose of causing mayhem and destruction. However, Goethe's Mephistopheles appears to his audience as a more mature and evolved rendition of Satan who embraces his job as tormentor of the human race. Mephistopheles declares to us, “Gone is the spook that filled the North with awe,/ Out-moded are the horns, and tail and claw.../And so, like many fashionable lads, I falsify my calves by using pads.” (1.6, 2497-2502) In these lines Mephistopheles is pointing to the way in which he has had to lose the horns and tail that had once been his signature and emblem to replace it with new more fashionable and relevant symbols of the time. This version of Satan is no longer trying to struggle against the omnipotence of God and instead seems to have fully embrace his calling as a chaotic entity and is rather more concerned with persisting in the human world as our own personal monster and torturer. Similarly, the Joker, in his later stages, has gained a wider consciousness of what his role in literature and society really is. As Smith points out in his essay, “if Satan – who came from nowhere and whose origin and motivation defy explanation – has gone from this world...someone must take on the Devil's responsibilities,” (199) and this figure is the Joker.

                Just like Satan sported horns and a tail as symbols which made him a recognizable symbol of evil, so has the Joker always been identified by his green hair, white skin and red lips. As stated before the original creators never meant to explain why he looks the way he does, but nevertheless an origin for his facial complexion was provided later on. In Detective Comics #168 it would be discovered that he had been a small time crook who had fallen accidentally into a chemical vat. The explanation is not very logical however, and does not make very much sense, but it provides some depth into the Joker while still maintaining some of the mystery. A comparison can be drawn again between the Joker and Milton's Satan as they were both found themselves in a rebellious and marginal state before their fall but not necessarily one of evil. Satan can be accused of being “bad” because he rebelled against the hierarchy that God established in heaven but he was not yet evil, it was not until he completed his temptation of Adam and Eve that Satan finally crossed the threshold into malignity. The Joker in the same way found himself rebelling against social norms by stealing as a crook, he was “bad” and not yet a killer, but it was not until he emerged from the vat of chemicals that the Joker crossed the line into evil and became a mass murder. 
Smith also regards the Joker's fall as being of importance and remarks that often throughout the comics the Joker will repeat this pattern of falling over and over again. Smith argues that his rise and fall represent the immortal evil that the Joker is suppose to embody and draws out a comparison with both Milton's Satan and with Dante Aliguieri's Inferno. Smith states, “we find that the seventh circle of hell is reserved for murders, and it its a lake where 'those who do injury to others violently, boil'” (191) However, he disregards the way in which with this same rising and falling the Joker embodies over and over Satan's journey from Hell and into Eden, into evil. This represents the persistence of the evil the Joker represents because he will re-emerge continuously throughout his history to unleash evil. He cannot be destroyed and he will return in a new shape, with a new plan to wreak havoc.

                The Joker's origin is something that has aided his status as a satanic/mythical figure. Like with many myths that have been passed down through history many of the details of his origin have become muddied and changed through time. There is no prologue, no introduction to show us that the Joker is in cahoots with Batman, or God, to teach us these lessons about goodness and morality like in Faust or in Job. It is more his persistence in later texts to prove that the world is full of insanity and chaos that gives us a hint that the Joker has transcended into a meta-fictional world where he understands and embraces his status as the symbol of evil of our age. The transitions that the Joker has undergone throughout the years have been necessary to bring forth the image of the Joker that we have today. He is both a postmodern figure adequate to represent evil in this post-9/11 world we inhabit. It is for this reason that this modern Joker, which Frank Miller and Alan Moore started to develop in the mid eighties, cannot be possibly accused of being insane and arising from an inherent chaotic nature.