Heath Ledger's Joker Lives On?

iMac Hunt

Hi,
Was thinking what are the chances of Heath Ledger's incarnation of The Joker living on in the comics? I think it's highly unlikely that Nolan will use The Joker if they decide to do a sequel to The Dark Knight, unless they recast (IMO Daniel Day Lewis would be awesome) so I was thinking wouldn't it be great if they could use this version of The Joker in future issues of Batman, it could tie up any loose ends if they completely decide to ignore The Joker's fate at the end of The Dark Knight. I know that elements of various Batman graphic novels were used in The Dark Knight script but I think a new comic adaptation of the film and maybe a mini series would be interesting. Does anyone else think this would be a good idea or whether if it would take away from the film?

iMac Hunt

Just discovered today that it's already been done in a graphic novel by Brian Azzarello simply called "Joker". I've only gotten around to reading the first few pages and the Joker character is very similar to The Dark Knight's incarnation, there are also appearances from Harley Quinn, Penquin, Two-Face, Killer Croc and The Riddler. A definite must read for any Batman fan I think.

GenghisCon

Picked up the joker HC on recommendation from a friend. Was quite impressed by the dark tone and the general quality of the writing. I did like the fact that while the Ledger joker was definitely the inspiration, the depiction of the character did not across as a cheap imitation or a slavish reproduction.

Fysh

I'd meant to post up about the Joker graphic novel as well, particularly having read this interview where Lee Bermejo explains that there wasn't all that much direct influence from Ledger's Joker in visual terms. It's interesting that the same general tone was arrived at by two essentially independent creative teams.