The Joker

The Joker is Batman’s iconic arch-nemesis and arguably the most popular comic book character of all-time. However, given that he is played by different actors since 1989’s Tim Burton Batman movie, you can’t help but feel he’s being overused.

Every Batman franchise to date has seen The Joker introduced at the earliest available opportunity, with Jack Nicholson portraying the character in the aforementioned Batman movie, the late Heath Ledger portraying the character in 2008’s The Dark Knight and Jared Leto taking on the role in 2016’s Suicide Squad.

Batman has one of the most impressive rogue galleries in comic books and there are a load great villains from it that have yet to be used – the Mad Hatter, the Ventriloquist, Clayface, Anarky, Hugo Strange and Man-Bat to name but a few – and that’s frustrating.

It’s understandable that The Joker is used whenever Batman hits the big screen, but to introduce him immediately every time – at the expense of countless other great characters – is getting a bit much.