"The Killing Joke was the (comic) that was handed to me.
I think it’s going to be the beginning of The Joker." - Heath Ledger
Dark Knight was the obvious breakout here, but despite its massive success we didn't really see a third wave of Batmania, as we did in 1966 and 1989. A lot of that has to do with the film being extremely kid-unfriendly. And it's a film I'm still deeply ambivalent about.
Maybe it's the fact that Bruce Wayne morphs into Patrick Bateman everytime I try to visualize the Christopher Nolan Batman films. Maybe it's the secret society/Assassin themes of the preceding film, which we looked at in "Dark Knight Templar." And, of course, there was the Heath Ledger OD, which ripped through the Synchroverse like a H-bomb.
Apparently, Ledger was directly involved in developing the Joker's look for the film. The original designs for the character (which you can see here) were nothing like what we saw on the screen. And given the fact that Ledger was handed Alan Moore's Batman: The Killing Joke as a starting point, we're just a Google search or two from Killing Joke singer Jaz Coleman, who is the Heath Ledger Joker's most compelling precedent.
Particularly in the "Hosannas from the Basements of Hell" video, with the smeared clown makeup and long, greasy hair (that a lot of Batman fans didn't care much for).
It's important to note here that both Alan Moore and Coleman are deeply involved in occult magic, particularly that of the Crowleyean variety.
I'm not sure what Moore's involvement with occultism was back when he wrote Killing Joke, but there are interesting alchemical themes in his retelling of the Joker's backstory, which we looked at here.
And Ledger's death had eerie parallels with the death of KJ bassist Paul Raven, who had split from the band under a bit of a cloud, then died of a heart attack three months before Ledger OD'd.
In "Further Down the Abyss," we looked at a spiderweb of synchronistic connections between Killing Joke and Raven and Ledger, all of which seemed to add to the strange spell that attached itself to The Dark Knight. Even if no one was consciously aware of it.
A month after Ledger's death, Killing Joke announced that their original lineup was reforming for a tour and a new record. And two days before Ledger's death, Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker released an album's worth of demos on his MySpace, which seemed to cast a dense, mysterious, nearly Plutonian musical spell over the coming year (incidentally, Killing Joke bassist Youth teamed up this year with Beatle Paul McCartney for an album called Electric Arguments).
But in the end, perhaps what bothers me the most about The Dark Knight has nothing to do with the occult. Nolan's Batman is not my Batman, though I realize it's the Batman that comic fans seem to respond best to (Kunstler's take on the film was particularly insightful here). Batman has always been one of my favorite characters, even back in the 70s and early 80s when he was extremely uncool.
But I gravitate towards a more human vision of Batman, such as Denny O'Neil's 70s dark night detective, or Gerry Conway's Hill Street Blues-like crime-serial Batman in the early 80s.
For my money, the animated versions produced by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and Glen Murakami are still the best mass-media versions of the character.
I may blow all my cred here, but Batman Beyond is my favorite of the various animated Bat-incarnations, since Timm added so much Kirby and William Gibson to the mix.
Batman became a big deal again with Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, and part of me still misses the days when I seemed to have the character all to myself.
On the other hand, the lonely fanboy in me is thrilled by the massive success of the Nolan Batman films, and the inherent vindication that success provides. But still, I much prefer the anti-authoritarian politics of Iron Man and Incredible Hulk - or Batman Beyond for that matter- to the troubling Orwellian subtext of The Dark Knight.
A reader sent me a whole slew of Heath Ledger synchs in the wake of his death, but at that point I was burnt out on all of that juju.
I put out a call to bloggers to pick up the cudgel and those who heeded the call came through with flying colors. Killing Joke or Alan Moore's occultism has always been a bit of cabaret, but Ledger's death seemed to summon up energies I didn't want to play with. I will keep my eye on the story though and keep you posted if any further compelling details emerge.
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The Secret Sun Institute of Advanced Synchromysticism is waiting for you to take the next step in your synchro-journey. Come level up.
And don't forget the all-night 90s lotus party over at SHRR. We're presently up to 1998.
