Joker

[Daqueef]

I finally got around to watching this recently and I'm wondering about the portrayal of Thomas Wayne. By comparison in other movies in the Bat-iverse his portrayal in this movie was that of a womanizing, greedy-filled business tycoon as opposed to the more generous, noble do-gooder in Christopher Nolan's universe. Which is more true to canon? Or was the womanizing and greed aspect part of Arthur Fleck's deranged POV like how the woman he thought he was dating/in love with was just a woman in his building that he'd been stalking/obsessing about in his own mind?

I'm just trying to figure out how and where this movie fits into the overall Batman narrative. I've seen other people say that Arthur Fleck isn't the Joker the Batman faces, but is an inspiration for the the Joker you see later as Batman's rival.

 

[Aletheia]

The original Batman comics did not even look much into Wayne Sr. aside from the fact he was a wealthy tycoon, and was killed by a madman after a theater viewing - launching Batman's never ending vengeance on Evil.
The early comics were very one dimensional, pitting Good vs. Evil. Batman and everyone around him was usually Good. The villains were usually Bad. Joker had little incentive outside of being an Evil madman, who could rule a criminal empire.

This movie flipped the script, portraying Joker as a struggling individual with mental issues and a society that basically spit on his plight and selfishly withheld support that would cost any money. Wayne represented the Evil leader, whom had very little sympathy or patience for those like Joker -- instead, supporting those bullies that worked for him and made him a lot of money. In addition, he was a womanizing cheater. So here, Wayne was the Evil one. Batman was just caught up in it, and only accepted the 'GOOD' that his dad did, on the surface.

A lot of people would argue that the newer spin was closer in dimension to reality, hence the success at the box office.

 

[calamity]

The original Batman comics did not even look much into Wayne Sr. aside from the fact he was a wealthy tycoon, and was killed by a madman after a theater viewing - launching Batman's never ending vengeance on Evil.
The early comics were very one dimensional, pitting Good vs. Evil. Batman and everyone around him was usually Good. The villains were usually Bad. Joker had little incentive outside of being an Evil madman, who could rule a criminal empire.

This movie flipped the script, portraying Joker as a struggling individual with mental issues and a society that basically spit on his plight and selfishly withheld support that would cost any money. Wayne represented the Evil leader, whom had very little sympathy or patience for those like Joker -- instead, supporting those bullies that worked for him and made him a lot of money. In addition, he was a womanizing cheater. So here, Wayne was the Evil one. Batman was just caught up in it, and only accepted the 'GOOD' that his dad did, on the surface.

A lot of people would argue that the newer spin was closer in dimension to reality, hence the success at the box office.

I like it. Bad guy is the misunderstood underdog worthy of redemption. The hero is just a "looser and sucker" doing the bidding of his greedy betters. Fits.

 

[Ouroboros]

Yeah, I'd concur that most if not all comics portraits of Thomas Wayne made him into a saint. He even donned a "precursor Batman" costume once and did a little informal crimefighting.

However, while he's not a real nice guy in JOKER, I didn't think there was any evidence that he was a womanizer. He's only accused of having had illicit sex with Fleck's mother, and then Fleck himself finds evidence that his mom was looney tunes and probably never had sex with the tycoon.