The Joker of Cincinnati
"I do not spend a lot of time reviewing the material I post here." -J. H aap 2009
Watching the last Batman movie, The Dark Knight, I kept thinking how much the pathological Joker reminded me of local blogger -er- media activist and soon to be failed mayoral candidate Jason H aap. For some time, Blogging Isn't Cool has referred to his blog as The Arkham Beacon in a nod to the Arkham Asylum, home of any number of cartoon sociopaths. The Beacon tends to publish hysterical urban myth, muckraking, obfuscation, character assassination and Sillyman press releases.
Heath Ledger's Academy Award winning performance of the mad criminal with Christopher Nolan's screenplay could have easily been inspired from merely reading The Beacon for a few weeks. H aap's single minded desires to tear down institutions and men could be mighty fearsome if not for their general ineffectiveness. His mad obsessions to destroy Jeff Berding, Phil Heimlich and Chris Bortz, his slavish devotion to Chris Smitherman all seem like the deranged pursuits of the melodramatic comic book clown prince. Within hours of the media frenzy surrounding a Real Life Super Hero, The Shadow Hare in Cincinnati, the Dean of Cincinnati, in true Joker fashion, issued the masked crime-fighter a challenge to a duel ! Oh, woe be to him who challenges the world view of the Erisite.
In keeping with The Joker of Gotham, The Joker of Cincinnati sees his villainy as heroism, his madness as reason and his defeats as victories. I can only imagine The Beacon's triumvirate meetings at their top secret lair resemble the meetings of The Joker, The Riddler and The Penguin (Romero, Gorshin & Meredith).
While one can easily find himself emotionally and intellectually charged by a comic book, one must always remind ones self that it is only a comic book. The real world is full of real people with real needs that require an array of often complex solutions. A Joker with a self centered world view and a penchant for tossing out golden apples is not likely going to offer any real help. But it can make for a wild read !

For an analysis of The Joker's madness try Periginatioanimae

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