I think at one point in our lives, we shift from siding with Batman and siding with the Joker. Why? Because at some point, the Joker starts to make more sense. On one hand you have the Batman, an insanely rich person forcing his judgement and opinion on the city. Sure, he beats up criminals, but an ultra-rich vigilante? Where do you draw the line? Can you sympathise with him? So he has a history of violence, and begets more violence. That is a vicious cycle that won’t be broken. The Joker, sure, he is quite insane, does he have huge amounts of money? No. Does he have magical or super powers of some kind? Nope, not even an accessory belt or a bulletproof cape. He is automatically more identifiable as a human than the Batman. He does what he wants, isn’t that what we all want? To be able to do what we want, guilt free? I am not condoning the murder and the other stuff, but, acting on impulse without regret, couldn’t we all have a little more spontaneity in our lives?

Then we have his gems of wisdom. ‘If you’re good at something, never do it for free.’ This could come from a motivational speaker, rather than a comic book villain.

Sure, the Joker only sees money as a means to an end, and has no qualms about burning millions to prove a point. Perhaps that is the message, if you are happy with the simple things, do you really need a heap of money?