A Tribute to Mark Hamill's Joker

It was announced earlier this summer that while Mark Hamill will be reprising his role as the Joker for the upcoming Arkham City video game, a sequel to the popular Arkham Asylum where he also voiced the character, it will be the last time he takes on the role.

I myself am torn. On the one hand, I understand the desire as an actor to break yourself away from one role and move on to other things, however, his Joker voice is so good.

Rise of the Joker

Hamill has brought the Joker to life several times over the course of the last decade. He first got started in Batman: The Animated Series that aired on Fox Kids back in the 90's.

After voicing the character for fifteen episodes in the animated series, he continued to voice the role when the show was revamped and called The New Batman Adventures. He appeared in five episodes of the revamped edition of the show.

The Joker would go on to battle the Man of Steel himself when Batman and Superman first teamed up in the three part World's Finest Movie.You would think that the Joker would be outclassed once the Justice League was formed, but he managed to appear in five episodes of that series as well. First when he joined the Injustice Gang, and again when he tried to drive the country insane in Wild Cards. An alternate, lobotomized version of the character appears in the second half of A Better World.Hamill's Joker also managed to make it to the big screen as he voiced the character in the cult favorite, Mask of the Phantasm. He also gave Terry McGinnis a run for his money in the Batman Beyond direct to video movie, Return of the Joker.

As all of these took place within the wider DC Animated Universe framework, it's not surprising that he would voice the character every time.

Beyond Batman and the DC Animated Universe

However, Hamill's work as the Joker would expand beyond that as he, along with fan favorite Kevin Conroy as Batman, lent his voice to the character for a special feature on the '89 Batman DVD where a storyboard of a lost scene was showcased.

The Joker would also appear in a flashback in one episode of Birds of Prey, showing how he shot and paralyzed Barbara Gordon. While the Joker was kept in shadows, and a different actor was used, Hamill was the one to record the dialogue.

The beloved actor would take the role on again in the aforementioned Arkham Asylum video game. In fact, Hamill's reprisal (as well as Conroy's and Dini's scriptwriting) were major factors in the marketing of this game. When fans heard that the trio were reuniting, they squeed.

Hamill is set to voice the character two more times. Once in the upcoming DC Universe Online MMO, and in the aforementioned sequel, Arkham City.

Hamill's Joker is an icon of comic book fans of my generation. Some argue that his portrayal is the definitive version of the character and even go so far as to hear Hamill's voice in their head when they are reading Batman comics.

One of the things that made Hamill's Joker so iconic was that glorious laugh. The actor went to great lengths to give each laugh it's own unique sound to avoid sounding repetitive, and they all worked perfectly. Hamill's work as the clown prince of crime is loved by many and for good reason. He combined the prankster and the legitimately threatening psychopath traits of the character into an amalgam that managed to surpass those original interpretations of the character.

It's a bittersweet day as we reach the end of an era. Hamill's work will live on forever as people can look back over the illustrious voice work.

The Spirit Lives on

While Hamill may be done with the Joker, you can still hear the voice in other places. He used a slightly varied Joker voice for his role as the Hobgoblin on the 90's Spider-Man: The Animated Series. If you watch Avatar: The Last Airbender, you'll notice that the voice Hamill uses for Fire Lord Ozai is basically his Joker voice. Sadly, Ozai doesn't have Joker's laugh, but that would seem out of place. Hamill also uses his Joker voice a little in his cameo in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Like all good things, it had to come to an end eventually. I certainly wouldn't have minded if Hamill took on the role another two or three times, but one can't be greedy.