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From: ciaraldi@rochester.UUCP (Mike Ciaraldi)
Newsgroups: net.comics
Subject: Re: matchups
Message-ID: <11006@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-Aug-85 17:15:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocheste.11006
Posted: Mon Aug 12 17:15:16 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 03:31:52 EDT
References: <293@harvard.ARPA>
Distribution: net
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
Lines: 51

> Batman-Joker
> >	The definitive foe for the Batman is the
> >	Joker; after all, the Earth-2 Batman was killed by the Joker, and
> >	Miller is going to do a story with the Earth-1 Batman coming out
> >	of retirement to fight the Joker, which might end in *his* death
> >	as well.
I agree that The Joker is the ultimate Batman foe, but the
writer is incorrect in saying that the Earth-2
Batman was killed by The Joker.
He was actually killed by some minor villain 
who (I think) had never appeared before and
has not appeared since
(he died in the same issue).

I spoke with Joe Staton  several years ago
(he drew the issue where Batman died)
and he said he had felt at the time that killing
Batman this way was a mistake.
He said that if anyone killed The Batman, it should have been The Joker.


Anyway, why do I think Batman / joker is a good match?

Because of the similarities between the cvharacters 
and their one important difference.
Both are very intelligent and very shrewd,
especially in the area of tactics.
Both are experts in human psychology,
often accomplisihng their goals by 
figuring out how people will react, preying on their
fears or greed, etc.

The big difference is that the Batman is a being of
intense logic.  He is "the world's greatest detective"
because of the deductive powers of his mind.
In contrast, The Joker is a being of non-logic.
He is certifiably insane, and makes the most of it.
Thus he fits his opponent's weakness very well.
His insanity makes him hard to predict, robbing Batman
of his greatest weapon.  On the other hand, The Joker
has his own weird type of logic which Batman can sometimes figure out.
He often falls into some pattern which at first glance 
had seemed random, but which Batman is finally able to perceive.

This is how he manages to win, of course.

In summary, the Batman/Joker matchup comes from their
similarities and differences, which complement each other.

Mike Ciaraldi
seismo!rochester!ciaraldi