InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I pity da fool."

espanolbot (espanolbot) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-11-08 22:16:00

Entry tags:

creator: chuck dixon, title: batman

A page from Devil's Advocate

The Joker's on death row for a series of murders he didn't commit.

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	sherkahn 2009-11-08 10:37 pm UTC (link)
	Hmmm... I wonder would've gotten into heaven on a technicallity of having confessed and being forgiven for his sins (I know, I know, you have to want to be forgiven). The entire Devil's Advocate arc was very interesting, trying some of the obvious death row cliche's and applying the Joker to them. Just wish the art was better. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-11-08 10:59 pm UTC (link)
	Hmmm... I wonder would've gotten into heaven on a technicallity of having confessed and being forgiven for his sins (I know, I know, you have to want to be forgiven). Yeah, I believe genuine remorse is sort of assumed to be required for it to count (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	thokstar 2009-11-08 11:18 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah: Simone included a similar scene with Junior in the first arc of Secret Six (Junior wanted an alternative to the "Get out of Hell free" card), and the priest's response was essentially that. Junior killed the priest, obviously. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	404glitch 2009-11-09 12:45 am UTC (link)
	There's that, but deathbed confessions are kind of what Purgatory is is for; you confessed, but there's still the matter of the cleansing punishment until you get to head "upstairs". (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	deleonjh 2009-11-09 04:46 am UTC (link)
	Actually Purgatory no longer exists in Catholic theology, though I don't know if it does in the other flavours of Christianity. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	khamelea 2009-11-09 09:46 pm UTC (link)
	You might be thinking of Limbo? (Reply to this) (Parent)

	ex_stig213 2009-11-09 12:53 am UTC (link)
	Reminds me of the olden days where a condemned man could stay in prison and avoid execution his entire adult life if he refused a confession, as demonstrated in Shakespeare's Measure For Measure. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	kagome654 2009-11-08 10:41 pm UTC (link)
	Would have been funnier if the priest had choked the life out of good o' Mister J with his rosaries. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	damar148 2009-11-08 11:14 pm UTC (link)
	Just because J lacks any real superpowers, doesn't mean he wouldn't be able to ram those rosaries down the priest's throat before the guards could save him. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	kagome654 2009-11-08 11:32 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, but that wouldn't be nearly as satisfying. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jlbarnett 2009-11-09 12:10 am UTC (link)
	there was an episode of Titus when Titus and Erin were getting married. THe priest found out that Titus's mother had been hit by her boyfriend and went off on him. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	salamangkiero 2009-11-09 05:17 am UTC (link)
	I seriously think that they should have a special order of priests for these kinds of situations. Anything to do with superhumans or supervillains who have unusual world views require specially-trained priests. What would be scary is if Joker remember each one of the murders. that would take...a marathon confession. probably take weeks. (Reply to this) (Thread)

psychop_rex
2009-11-09 07:17 am UTC (link)

Yeah, but remember who we're talking about here. This is the Joker - he's the guy who other villains tell stories about when they want to scare each other. He's a bogeyman even to other bogeymen.
Anyway, even if there IS a special order of priests for that purpose, it's likely that they would largely be sent to places like the Slab or Iron Heights - places that are specifically designed to house superhumans. The Joker, dangerous and crazy though he is, is basically a normal human being - he doesn't have superpowers or anything else to set him apart from the rest of humanity except for oddly-colored skin and hair. (In fact, that's one of the things that makes him so scary - that a normal person CAN accomplish all the horrible things he's done.) If memory serves, he's in Blackgate here, the same prison they send the Penguin to. They probably have a regular chaplain in-house - there would be no need to keep the special sort around, since they get so few of the Joker's calibre.
This sort of scene has been done before, actually - way back in the Golden Age, the Joker, tired of having to live on the run, turned himself in to the cops and was executed for his crimes. (He'd worked up a special serum that his underlings could resuscitate him with, allowing him to live as a free man having paid the price for his crimes, the sly devil.) Anyway, prior to his sentencing, there's a scene where the Joker is cheefully reciting a long, long list of his past crimes to a policeman, who is looking awfully sweaty and jittery and thinking to himself 'Won't he EVER stop confessing...?' And apparently this has been going on for a WEEK!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	ladymirth 2009-11-09 09:30 am UTC (link)
	Priests? They need superhero therapists. (Reply to this) (Parent)

ladymirth
2009-11-09 09:36 am UTC (link)

Hate Devil's Advocate. Hate hate hate hate.

It was after Batman got Joker off that I stopped caring about him, his notion of "justice" and whatever self-righteous morally sanctimonious drivel he is supposed to uphold.

That's not to say this story wouldn't have worked - if it had been any other criminal besides Joker. Or Zsas. There is sincere belief in redemption and then there is sheer utter blind stupidity.

What about the hundred of Joker's victims, past, present and to come, damn it? Where's the justice and protection for them?

*goes off to read some Under The Hood*

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	ladymirth 2009-11-09 09:38 am UTC (link)
	It was after Batman got Joker off...the hook. I meant gotten off the hook. Can you believe the double-entendre was completely unintentional?! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	espanolbot 2009-11-09 09:41 am UTC (link)
	I think that the arguement was that if the Joker was convicted and executed for crimes then he didn't actually do, then the victims of those crimes wouldn't receive justice as the actual murderer would still be out there, unpunished. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	kagome654 2009-11-09 10:40 am UTC (link)
	Well, Batman could have always caught him or her later 'Oops, new suspect/evidence. Shame about that other guy.' (Reply to this) (Parent)

	ladymirth 2009-11-09 10:42 am UTC (link)
	They could've waited to clear the Joker's name after he'd already been executed. They had a chance to finally get rid of Joker. And actively refused it. There is no scenario in which this doesn't come off as rage-inducingly stupid to me. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	mysteryfan 2009-11-09 04:25 pm UTC (link)
	Why would they get rid of the Joker, though? He's Batman's biggest villain. Sells a lot of stories. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

ladymirth
2009-11-10 03:43 am UTC (link)

It's not the commercially sound thing to do, but if they're going to keep him around, having Batman rescue him from the legal system is seven kinds of crazy. It fucks up the character something ridiculous.

Joker crippled a woman he sees as a surrogate daughter, murdered his best friend's wife and killed his son and partnerin addition to all the hundreds of people he's sent to horrible deaths just because he was bored on a Tuesday. Stopping himself short of killing him, I can understand. That's borderline superhuman. Stepping and saving him from the clutches of the law that was finally going to give him what he deserves? That's inhuman. That's ignoring the spirit of justice over the letter of the law. That's putting the unsupported belief in a psychotic criminal's redemption above the safety of innocents. In short, it completely justifies every bit of Jason's anger at Batman for letting Joker live, in my opinion.

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	janegray 2009-11-09 09:18 pm UTC (link)
	There is sincere belief in redemption and then there is sheer utter blind stupidity. Motto. I hate how the Punisher casually kills even low-level criminals who never did anything worse than stealing, but come on, the Joker? (Reply to this) (Parent)