Research:The evolution of Joker and Batman through all comic eras

In one of the previous blog posts, I spoke about the evolution of comics through out the last few decades, starting from the Golden era to the Modern era. Now I want to discuss the evolution of comics greatest rivalry, two characters who have been around for 80 years and are popular in pop culture.

These characters are Batman and The Joker, these characters have changed so much in the 80 years of comics they've appeared in. Firstly, we'll discuss Batman and Joker in the Golden age of comics.

We can see here their designs are more simplistic and colourful, this is common for Golden age comic characters as this era was more camp and lighthearted, especially compared to later eras. Not only that these designs are iconic and classics in the 80 years they've been around. The Jokers design is a basis for many Jokers moving forward and these designs turn up again in stuff like Batman the
Brave and the Bold cartoon.

Now we move onto the Silver age, you can see in these images not much has particularly changed much, especially when it comes to Batman himself. His design has stayed mostly the same but his stories became more darker at this time and would continue to in later eras. The Joker however, has seen some changes, his suit has gotten more colour to it and displays a lot more of the classic Joker motifs and his face has changed too to look more crazy. This kind of design has been seen in later media such as the well loved, Batman The Animated Series by Bruce Timm. 

 

Moving onto the Bronze age, we can see that Joker hasn't changed much from his Silver age appearance, a lot of the colours and design has remained unchanged and as stated before this design is one of his most iconic among the 80 years he has been around. When it comes to his arch-nemesis Batman however, he has actually changed a bit from his Silver era appearance. We can see that the blue has become more muted, gained spikes on his gauntlet, his ears have been made longer. This is to help him look a lot more imposing and sinister, which is apt for the Dark Knight and this reflects the change in tone for his stories as well. 

When moving onto the copper age of comics, the stories Batman and Joker appear in are not only some of the most darkest and deepest stories they've appeared in like The killing Joke and Frank Millers The Dark Knight but they're also the most celebrated and iconic in the characters histories. The designs haven't really changed much from the Bronze age, just some minor colour changes and some muted colours in some stories.

Finally we move onto the Modern age, this is where we see some of the most drastic changes to the characters costumes and we see Batman's costume is comprised of mostly black and grey colours, to make him more darker and blend in with the night, not only that it makes him more imposing. For the Joker he retains a lot of motifs and elements from the Silver, Bronze and Copper age designs but in more of a modern aesthetic. The stories also retain a dark tone but with moments of levity and continuing arcs from great writers like Tom King.