Dark Knight has been so overrated. Joker too. No doubt Heath Ledger acted brilliant but director did't work on the character nicely in my opinion. I have been a fan of Batman since 2003 and I loved the Joker in comics and animated series. I watched Dark Knight in 2009. It had an inaccurate story of killing Harvey Dent as the hero and The Joker was quite different as well. Joker looked like every other psycho villain. It wasn't so special in my opinion. He wasn't 'that' unpredictable and sarcastic. Which one do you prefer? I say that Ledger's Joker is nowhere near the ORIGINAL one that always entertained.

The Dark Knight is overrated? Totally never heard that before.

What is this "original" Joker you're referring to? The Joker is 75 years old, so there have been many iterations of the character. There is no definitive Joker.

Heath's Joker is up there as one of the best Jokers alongside the Dini/Hamill Joker, Morrison's Joker, and Moore's Joker.

@playswithsquirrels: Heath was great but Hamil's is way better. Heath lacked what Hamil's Joker had.

Let me guess; You only ever watched B:TAS, right?

@_mongul: I've watched The New Batman Adventures, The Batman and Justice League as well. I have watched many animated movies as well(Mask Of The Phantasm, Under The Red Hood, Dark Knight Returns, Year One, Assault On Arkham). I've watched every Batman movie since Burton's. I found Batman Begins to be the best of all and then prefer Dark Knight over others but still think it's quite overrated and Nolan innovated extra in Dent's story. I've been reading Batman Eternal as well these days. Never found luck earlier in life to get comics. Pakistan lacks a lot of useful stuff. We still rarely find comics here.

@thecapeddetective: The Dark Knight is not overrated and The Joker had one of his best incarnations in that movie, far better than anything Animated, including Hamil.

@thecapeddetective: Ledger didn't lack anything Hamill had because Ledger's was ultimately a different Joker. He was everything The Dark Knight required him to be and more. Not only did he act the part, he also directed the two JokerCam scenes.

With that being said, the Dini/Hamill Joker is my favorite incarnation of the character.

@playswithsquirrels: He(Ledger) was brilliant in some scenes. His Joker felt good when he came face-to-face with Batman and that final action scene was great too. He was quite different and dull in the start. Same. Hamill Joker seems best. Arkham City had one of the best performance of Hamill.

Nolan gave Ledger almost complete control of the character, even going so far as to let him direct a few scenes on his own. It was very much Ledger's own interpretation.

And that's one of the things that makes Joker such a great character - he's open to interpretation. Much more than most comic book characters. There's nothing that says a writer or an actor has to stick to a certain formula, or that the character has to act in a certain way. There's a lot of creative freedom allowed with the Joker, so everyone is allowed their own crazy interpretation, and it's always a little - or a lot - different from the previous one, and I love that.

Welcome to Comic Vine, by the way.

Of course Hamill was better, that's because he was an amalgamation of all the Jokers. Ledger was an original interpretation of the Joker that was only going by barely any source material and was inspired by other characters from different movies, he was still good though. Hamill is the best one to date considering that it was a combo of the Golden Age Joker (Sane Joker), the Silver Age (Harmless Prankster), the Bronze Age (Psychotic killer which adopted a lot of stuff from the Silver Age), and the Modern Age Joker (Personal killer). Though, Joker in BTAS, was mostly the Bronze Age one. Ledger is still great, I liked him, he may not be the comic-book Joker, but he was supposed to be a realistic take on the Joker, it may have sacrificed his origin and mostly everything about the comic one, but it retained his psychosis and chaotic nature.

@_mongul: I'm sorry, but no, from a comic standpoint, he wasn't, but an originality one, yes.

People confuse the Original Joker with Mark Hamill Joker, they believe that its the only valid interpretation, because they grew up with this version.

So its the only valid one for many people, the same could be said about Batman or any character.

There is not definitive Batman either.

People should learn this.

The same about Batman.

@deathpoolthet1000: Uh, no, people say that because he gave a great performance and represented character faithfully. So, don't go saying it's all about growing up, because if that was the case, I'd like Nicholson the most.

@playswithsquirrels: Hey, you forgot the Denny O'Neil Joker.

@b4tm4nish3r3: Faithful to what?

Again the character has ages of history and tons of interpretations, you cant be faithful to all the interpretations of the character.

@b4tm4nish3r3: I haven't read much bronze and silver age Batman. I still have a lot of catching up to do.

@deathpoolthet1000: Read my comment above addressing it.

@playswithsquirrels: Want me to suggest some good stories? Joker had quite a few great stories in the Bronze and Silver ages such as Joker's Five-Way Revenge, The Laughing Fish, Sign of the Joker!, Joker's Millions, and Joker's Utility Belt.

True, there has been many drastic changes to Batman's character through the ages - Golden Age, Silver Age etc - but his character has stayed pretty constant through each age, whereas Joker's character has been allowed a lot more creative freedom, especially in the Modern Age.

I don't like the way the Joker is being written currently. He seems too sadistic without being very funny.

Joker actually hasn't been changed too much over the ages, he was a killer/crook in the Golden Age, a crook in the Silver Age, and a psychotic killer in the Bronze Age, but he adopted most of his traits from the Silver Age. Now though, he's changed.

@b4tm4nish3r3: Thanks. I'm extremely familiar with those stories whether recognizing the iconic covers or seeing the BTAS adaptations.

@symbioticspider-man: Stealing all of Batman's "villain item" collection and parading it around Gotham is extremely silly.

But, I do love Snyder's sadistic take on the Joker in Endgame. He's scary and not holding back.

@playswithsquirrels: The BTAS adaptions were great, I liked The Laughing Fish the best. They basically combined Five-Way Revenge, The Laughing Fish, and The Sign of the Joker! perfectly.