Matt Reeves’ The Batman frames Riddler (Paul Dano) like Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) in Todd Phillips’ Joker, but without the ensuing backlash. The Batman villain’s origin story was critically acclaimed, but many had issues with the overall message. In seeking to humanize and understand the Joker, some critics believed that Phillips’ film condoned, rather than condemned his actions. Abandoned by his biological father, let down by social services, and overlooked in a city with an increasing wealth divide, Joker suggests that Arthur Fleck and – by association – other angry, lonely men have no other choice but to turn to violence.
In The Batman, Edward Nashton/Riddler wages a violent campaign of retribution against the corrupt figures at the heart of Gotham’s elite. In doing so he, like Arthur Fleck, inspires others to take a similarly violent stand against the city’s powerful figures. Responses to Robert Pattinson's new Batman film have been divisive, but even so, it hasn’t experienced the same backlash as Joker.
The Phillips film clearly owed a debt to Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. Director Martin Scorsese, who was also a producer on Joker, criticized the ways in which society instigates and venerates violence with his 1976 film. The negative reaction to Joker was as much about Phillips’ fumbled execution of similar thematic concerns as it was about the clash of New Hollywood ideals with a burgeoning 21st-century fascination with the idea of “ethical filmmaking.” Rather than upholding its villain as a tragic protagonist, as Joker does, The Batman avoids this backlash by unquestioningly condemning the Riddler’s actions. Edward Nashton/Riddler is a broken mirror for Bruce Wayne/Batman to reflect on his own fixation with vengeance.
Matt Reeves' Batman movie also owes a debt to the cultural memory of the 1970s. As a murderer who leaves ciphers at each crime scene, The Batman’s Riddler is clearly inspired by one of the era’s most infamous serial killers. The Zodiac Killer regularly corresponded with the press; Riddler instead adopts social media to spread his message. As the truth of the Riddler’s campaign is revealed via live streams and video packages, he begins to resemble a contemporary boogeyman like QAnon. There are worrying parallels between Nashton's history of the Waynes and Arkhams and Q’s elaborate tale of the Clintons and a Satanist cult in real life. The danger with this is that Nashton’s story turns out to be true and he’s, quite rightly, locked up for his violent, vengeful crimes. If critics of Joker were concerned that some audiences may take the wrong messages from that film, it’s odd that a similar concern hasn’t emerged from The Batman. Those fringe individuals who believed QAnon’s conspiracy theories may well see vindication in a mainstream Hollywood film that punishes a man for acting against corrupt institutions.
Fundamentally, The Batman hasn’t experienced the same level of backlash as Joker because the film regularly emphasizes that the Riddler’s actions are abhorrent and wrong. While the Joker and the Riddler both inspire the disenfranchised of Gotham, the Riddler’s social media feed only inspires a handful of people to take arms against Gotham’s corruption. It’s a fringe group, and Batman is there to tell the audience, and Nashton himself, that violent and bloody revenge is not the answer to the rampant wealth inequality in Gotham. Robert De Niro’s talk show host tries to tell Joker the same thing and is shot in the face. As the Joker delights in the violent uprising he's incited and causes chaos in the mental health facility in which he’s been incarcerated, the Riddler’s campaign of violence inspired Batman to be a hero, rather than a violent vigilante. Ultimately, it’s a more positive and less ambiguous ending than Todd Phillips’ film. -Screen Rant
