No Batman line can truly be complete without the character that has come to represent Batman’s opposite number. The Joker has had a plenty of defining representation on the big and small screen, from Jack Nicholson’s homicidal artist in Burton’s Batman, to Mark Hamill’s darkly comedic vocal stylings in Batman: the Animated Series, to Heath Ledger’s off-kilter face of anarchy in Nolan’s The Dark Knight. The list wouldn’t be complete without Cesar Romero’s signature performance as the cackling madman in the Adam West era.
The beauty of a character like Joker is there’s no one right way to portray him because the character itself is an amorphous concept. In the comics he’s been everything from a malevolent trickster to a homicidal clown to the face of insanity itself. So they’re all right in a sense, and that’s where the fun comes in.
Joker receives yet another brand-new sculpt in this line, further riling those who have heard the constant pity party of how low on money Mattel is. The figure itself is slightly taller than Batman, though Cesar Romero and Adam West are both supposed to be 6‘2″. I think I’m going to sue Mattel for this. However, Joker is wearing shoes with some pretty nice heels in them, so I’ll delay the lawsuit. For now. You’ve been warned, though.
This body has a bit more heft to it than the usual suited body, and it would actually make a good sideways shift towards a Nicholson Joker, if people were so inclined. Mattel, it seems, is not, so you’re on your own in that respect.
The color is nice and bright. While Joker’s usually a purple-loving man, the ’66 Joker seemed to lean more towards fuchsia, and this matches up to screenshots very nicely.
Apparently the Joker liked to point a lot. Because he has a pointer finger. It’s great for pulling off those “You’ll never catch me!” or “Get him!” or “You’re a man dressed in spandex and you call me crazy?” poses. His other hand is a fist for shaking, threatening, possibly hitting, and for grinding in frustration because his crazy plot has been foiled again. This means physically he’s very expressive, which a good Joker needs to be.
His headsculpt is dead-on. I’ve read complaints that he seems to lack a neck, but, really, he just looks as though his shoulders are bunched up from laughter. He’s got a great pompadour of hair up there. TV joker was all about the big bouffant of green hair resting on top of his head like a tropical bird, and the head sculpt pulls that off beautifully. The expression suits the slightly neckless bunched-up shoulder look.
If there’s one thing I don’t get, it’s the lack of mustache. I know I read people fawning over the fact that his prototype had the mustache, but it’s not on the final product. For those uninformed, Cesar Romero didn’t shave his mustache to play the Joker because he was Cesar Romero, so instead they gooped on white facepaint to cover it as much as possible. But for the figure, instead of the indication of a mustache painted over with white, they opted to give him a bit of gray paint on his top lip to simulate where a mustache should have been.
Kind of odd. Not sure what happened there. You owe me a mustache, Mattel! A mustache!! If they weren’t going to bother with it, then I’d rather they left off the gray paint.
Oh well, it’s a quibble, and one that probably might put some people up in arms. Or something. While I do think it’s an odd thing to have left out, the rest of the figure does the job and does it well enough, gray faux-stache besides. As the villains come together, the group starts looking very nice. Only Catwoman remains in absentia to have a nice core group of villains.
