The use of Joker prototype has been a safe way for us to second-guess if Jerome is, indeed, the Clown Prince of Crime. But the latest extended trailer for Gotham is making it unbelievably hard to ignore the (clown-faced) elephant in the room.
Seen below, the trailer pretty much gives us what could be a younger version of Heath Ledger’s portrayal of Batman’s deranged nemesis. True, his origin story is far from The Killing Joke’s storyline, but man the hype for this Joker prototype is never-ending.
“Jerome Valeska is unhinged, sadistic, maniacal, psychotic, vengeful, vicious, savage, bonkers, unrelenting, bat crap crazy, homicidal, dead, but this joker will get the last laugh. It’s the classic tale of frozen maniac resurrected by killer cult who thought they failed and robbed his face.”
His resurrection story is like Mr. Freeze meets Frankenstein. Though Igor here is more desperate than we thought, so he screws up and well, takes Jerome’s face as a promise of revival.
Turns out, that little shock was enough to bring back the real Jerome back to life. And now that’s he’s reborn, he tries to reunite with his face by reattaching it with, of course, staples. Really clever and not at all creepy.
Everything basically reminds us of Heath’s insane portrayal. The madness. The need to see the world burn—or at least in this case, one man burn. And just see chaos ruling the city thanks to his influenced mob. That one dress-up does remind me of A Clockwork Orange’s Alex, or maybe it’s supposed to.
The chaos of the cult will transform Gotham into the chaotic battleground. And even the great Jim Gordon isn’t on top of things.
Perhaps the most interesting bit is the face-off between Bruce Wayne and Jerome, or maybe the future Batman and future Joker would be a more fitting phrase. I’m not sure what happens in between, but Bruce becomes a sort of target of Jerome’s antics, which incites the future Dark Knight.
But unlike the many instances wherein we’ve seen Batman let Joker go for some reason, the way Bruce was pounding Jerome’s already deformed face may just follow The Killing Joke’s end.
Gotham’s Gentle Art of Making Enemies episode will air on Jan. 30 on FOX.
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