Every comic book movie features a villain or two to challenge the hero, and this summer everyone's looking forward to Heath Ledger's Joker in
The Dark Knight. We know he's creepy, we know he's crazy, but what makes the Joker such a good villain? Let's take a look at a few other villains and see how they stand up next to the Joker. (Note that I'm going by the villains' portrayal in movies and on TV rather than in comic books. If they're drastically different in the comics, please feel free to leave a comment about it.)
First up, Lex Luthor--Superman's archenemy. Luthor doesn't have any superpowers, but he has a lot of money and he's really smart. That's a bad combination for a guy who has it in for the Man of Steel. (Notice it's the same combination that Bruce Wayne has, except he becomes Batman.) Luthor's motivation for doing bad things varies depending on what you're watching, but Lex is always after more power and more money. He attacks Superman because Superman is the one person that consistently gets in his way, one of the few people who are always suspicious of Lex and therefore keep a closer eye. Lex might be jealous of Superman's power, and there's also a less prevalent reason--maybe Lex sees it as his duty to keep Superman in check, to keep Superman from having too much power and influence on Earth. Whatever his reason, Lex is a definite threat, and he's got guts to go up against Superman, and to do it multiple times.
Step over to the Marvel sides of comics, and we have a different kind of villain in Magneto. He leads the Brotherhood and counters Professor Xavier's X-Men. Professor X and the X-Men (the good guys) want equality for mutants. Magneto wants to go further and live in a world where mutants are superior to humans. So a struggle begins between two world views. Magneto is less of an in-your-face villain (like Green Goblin, for example), and prefers rather to work in the background. In the first X-Men movie, he sets up his apparatus to change humans into mutants in the Statue of Liberty, and he plans it unnoticed. He believes he's making progress, but really he's forcing his ideas on everyone else. Like Lex, he has a reason for everything he does, and he does have a definite goal in mind.
Sylar on NBC's
Heroes is yet another type of villain. His only motivation is more power, and he gains it by killing other people to get their superhuman abilities. He has no purpose except to collect as many abilities as he can. This might make him a simple villain, but still a dangerous one because he can't be satisfied. He will always want more power.
So what's the Joker's motivation? I would argue that he doesn't have one, and that makes him the perfect villain. He sets bombs, he steals things, and he hurts people for no reason. You could say he's cultivating power and influence by building on people's fear of him, but then what would he use that influence for? The Joker doesn't have a reason for what he does, and so he will never have a reason to stop.
I've yet to see how Ledger's Joker compares to past incarnations, but going by the movie trailers, maybe the Joker's motivation is to counter Batman. Maybe he wants to take Batman off the streets so criminals can have free reign. He says, "This town deserves a better class of criminal." I say that's exactly what the Joker gave Gotham.
