Every hero has his or her main villain. James Bond has Blofeld, Superman has Lex Luthor, and Batman, of course, has The Joker. Over the course of the last century, the Clown Prince of Crime has become one of the most recognizable faces in all of fiction, and the acts he has committed have echoed throughout a variety of media. In fact, he’s such an iconic and evil character that Jared Leto thinks that only one other legendary villain could ever hope to surpass him.
In a recent interview with Total Film (via Digital Spy), Jared Leto explained that only one particularly notable biblical bad guy could match the iconography of The Joker. He said:
The only villain who may be more infamous is the devil. The Joker is an icon, a legend, the baddest of the bad and seems to be having the most fun. Hard not to be a fan of that.
So it seems that, in the eyes of Jared Leto, The Devil himself is the only villain who can rival The Joker. In terms of iconography and sheer evil, no other fictional character has the ability to rival the Clown Prince of Crime outside of the personification of evil itself. We find ourselves compelled to agree with Mr. Leto on this one. The Joker has existed for over 75 years, and he has in many ways become the archetype of evil itself. He’s sadistic, he’s brilliant, and he seems to cause chaos for no other reason than the fact that he wants to.
From comic books to movies to video games, he has become one of the most recognizable villains of all time – one who needs no introduction. He’s killed thousands, murdered his arch nemesis’ closest allies, paralyzed and tortured innocents, and done it all with a gleeful smile on his face. There's no terrible act that we can think of that he wouldn't be opposed to if it ensured he could get some sort of sick pleasure out of it.
The character has taken on numerous forms over the years. Just check out this compilation video to see how the character has evolved over the course of his film and television history alone:
Pretty bad, right? Even worse, those depictions don't even touch on the terrible things that he has done in the comics. Jared Leto seems to have an acute understanding of the sheer menace required for this character, so we hope he injects that raw sense of terror into his portrayal. We will keep our fingers firmly crossed that he continues to add to the villain’s long tradition of dastardly deeds and evil acts when Suicide Squad hits theaters on August 5.
