Media Madness: Top 10 Comic Book Character Performances
In Media Madness, Matt. Murray reviews, revisits and rambles about comics, cartoons and their interactions in and with related media.
A few weeks ago, here on the Ol’ SAC Blog, I let loose a venom-soaked rant against five of my least favorite comic character performances in live action media. To atone for that I promised a Top 10 list of my favorite performances to show that I can be at least a wee bit positive about the media that I so love and spend so much money and time watching and consuming. So, it may be a few weeks late, but here’s that venom-soaked rant that I promised.
But before we roll on, I feel that maybe there’s a little clarification that needs to be taken into account. There is one, actually two, key performances of one seminal character missing from this list and that’s because I think there needs to be some time put between those parts and writing about them to understand their true weight, or perhaps they need to be examined in their own post – now there’s an idea, and it’s mine so no sniping – and I’m talking about Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson and their respective Jokers.
Ledger’s pre-eminence as the premiere essayist of a four-colors-for-a-dime character is up for debate. Yes, he was brilliant; and yes that is at least one of the reasons he currently stands as the only actor to be honored with an Oscar for his performance (read all about the whys and wherefores here); but I believe Jack Nicholson’s Joker could still go toe-to-toe for him for the title of the true Clown Prince of Crime. Only time will truly tell… but, I had to take Ledger, and in fairness Nicholson, out of the race to honestly handicap the rest of the field.
So without further ado, here are my two bits: