Suicide Squad News: Jared Leto Considered for Joker?

[The Laughing Fish]

Leto has allegedly expressed his dissatisfaction about the final cut for Suicide Squad without actually seeing it yet, while getting caught on camera saying "f*** 'em" to WB.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/suicide_squad/jared-leto-has-some-choice-words-for-warner-bros-after-suicide-a144603

Despite using that headline, CMB has clarified his comment had nothing to do with the cut of the film, with the tumblr poster who filmed Leto's interview saying the following to them:

The 9 second "[frick] em" snapchat video had been posted identifying that that was Jared's response to his contract asking he not rock climb while filming. That was all it was in regards to. If a media outlet wants to take it out of context to get people to click on an article that has no direct basis beyond someone's impressions – that's on them.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/suicide_squad/no-jared-leto-did-not-say-fk-em-to-wb-regarding-suicide-squad-or-a144620

Thanks for the clarification.

Bloody clickbait writers and their antics. A pox on them. 

[The Laughing Fish]

In an interview with Empire, Ayer has confirmed the Joker got his grill and tattoos after Batman knocked his teeth out following the death of Robin:

"This is sort of my personal thing and maybe less about a larger connection. But Joker killed Robin and Batman basically smashes his teeth out and locks him up in Arkham Asylum. It's in the asylum where Joker would have done the 'damaged' tattoo as a message to Batman saying, 'You've damaged me. I was so beautiful before and now you've destroyed my face.' That's where the grill comes from."

http://www.empireonline.com/movies/suicide-squad/suicide-squad-spoilers/

It's revealed in the movie that Harley was an accomplice to Robin's murder:

So if Harley helped Joker kill Robin, and Joker had his teeth knocked out and acquired his tattoos after Robin's death, then why does he have his grill and "Damaged" tattoo in the scenes before Quinzel becomes Harley?

A couple of days ago on Twitter, David Ayer agreed with a fan that this is a plot hole, but he claims it wasn't in his original cut. He says it was a rewrite by Geoff Johns.



Source: https://twitter.com/DavidAyerMovies/status/1268580537943199744

Yet another example that Geoff Johns left behind a very bad legacy as the former head of DC Films. Depending on who you ask, Johns is either incompetent at writing for TV and film, or he was sabotaging the franchise on purpose. A couple of things are certain: the popular consensus is Johns is a snake, and his rewrite broke continuity.

That really doesn't add up, and why does it have to be the act of the Joker killing Robin that prompts Batman to knock his teeth out? Given Affleck's Batman, I could see him doing that just for being overly antagonized.

Going by the exposition and what was implied in BvS, Batman never truly got brutal until he witnessed the Battle of Metropolis. From that point on, he was becoming a shadow of his former self. Yes, he may have lashed out at the Joker for Robin's murder many years ago, but it seemed he could still control himself and not let his anguish take it any further. Same thing goes when he captured Harley Quinn in SS, he saw the opportunity to take her into custody as an eye for an eye. A deleted scene featured Batman saying "Joker took something from me, now I take something from him". From what we saw in the beginning of BvS, the Metropolis incident was probably the first time - since childhood - that Batman truly felt helpless and had no control of the situation at all. And that's what really scared him.

[thecolorsblend]

If I had to guess, the whole bit with Harley participating in Robin's death was probably Johns trying to enhance her arc in the movie. It firmly puts her on the bad side when, apart from that one issue, the audience might be tempted to just regard Harley as the Joker's girlfriend and little more.

As with so many Johns retcons though, it's unnecessary, illogical and raises more questions than it answers.

For example, originally, the Superboy clone was an amalgamation of Superman and Cadmus Director Paul Westfield. This was a logical concept in-universe. Superman was dead at the time and Westfield's ego was more than big enough to want to see himself as Superman. It made a lot of sense.

But that wasn't good enough for Geoff Johns because he later retconned in the revelation that Superboy is actually a clone of Superman and Lex Luthor. It was completely illogical, it raised a ton of questions, it contradicted previous continuity and overall it was just a big mess. And it was only done for the cheap drama of Superboy experiencing conflict between his Superman nature and his Lex Luthor nature. It was completely idiotic and the only reason it stuck was because Johns has serious mojo at DC and probably nobody wants to risk eliminating his concepts.

Another thing is the prominence of Courtney Whitmore. In a fair and sane world, Jack Knight would probably occupy Whitmore's place in DC as a multimedia franchise. But Courtney Whitmore is Geoff Johns's character, she's based on his deceased sister and everybody probably thinks it would be kind of a prickish move to replace Courtney Whitmore with Jack Knight even though Jack is by far the more interesting character. So Courtney Whitmore is super-prominent because F you, that's why and it's just a mess.

Now don't get me wrong, I like a lot of Johns's comics. His run on Green Lantern is incredible. But not everything he touches turns to gold. Subtract Green Lantern

[The Joker]

Going by the exposition and what was implied in BvS, Batman never truly got brutal until he witnessed the Battle of Metropolis. From that point on, he was becoming a shadow of his former self. Yes, he may have lashed out at the Joker for Robin's murder many years ago, but it seemed he could still control himself and not let his anguish take it any further. Same thing goes when he captured Harley Quinn in SS, he saw the opportunity to take her into custody as an eye for an eye. A deleted scene featured Batman saying "Joker took something from me, now I take something from him". From what we saw in the beginning of BvS, the Metropolis incident was probably the first time - since childhood - that Batman truly felt helpless and had no control of the situation at all. And that's what really scared him.

Going purely off of BvS, I agree that Batman feeling truly helpless, since the event that took his parents, transpired during the "Battle of Metropolis" incident. However, it's also pretty easy to envision the past adventures of Batfleck, and his Robin being fairly violent, and no nonsense with how they both dealt with the criminal element of Gotham. This is further highlighted with the halberd-like weapon that's on display with the defaced Robin costume we see on display. Now was Batfleck and Robin being completely unchecked during this time period? There's some wiggle room there, and I tend to lean that the idea of that is unlikely. Rather, Batfleck and Robin were probably going to beat you down within a inch of your life, with the possibility of whoever opposing them getting maimed in the process, but not actually going to the Kane/Finger 1939 extent of handling business.

Johns, Johns, Johns ..... I've said this before, but the more news that comes out, the more mixed feelings about the guy. Johns had some good runs of books like the Flash, Green Lantern, and JSA. I liked Infinite Crisis (yeah, I'll take IC over Final Crisis), Sinestro Corps War, and Blackest Night. His Rebirth one shot was a good effort in getting DC finally out of that New52 mess. Course, Johns' work at DC Comics wasn't always great (I find his Superman work forgettable), but yeah, the guy clearly was a human monkey wrench when it comes to the DCEU trying to establish itself. Which is nothing but infuriating.