Movie Review: JOKER
''The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture.'' I'm sure this quote by Alfred Hitchcock must have floated in the heads of the producing team behind Todd Phillips' JOKER, as they were bringing Batman's infamous nemesis to the screen in his first solo feature. And he certainly has a rich history as a character to warrant such a project. The Joker was created in 1940, as the main villain in BATMAN #1. Ghost artist Jerry Robinson (at the time, it was common for an artist like Bob Kane, the ''creator'' of Batman, to hire other artists and writers to do the work while he would grab all the credits) developed an idea for an opponent to the Dark Knight, and presented ghost writer and Batman co-creator Bill Finger with a sketch. The original sketch Jerry Robinson made of the Joker, inspired by the playing cards that would always lie around the studio. Jerry Robinson recalls: "In that first meeting when I...