Why So Serious? No, Really, Why?

With the latest leak in footage of DC's "Suicide Squad", there has been consistent uproar from fans regarding The Joker's appearance in the film. The Joker's debut image, with his entire body is decked out in tattoos, started the fire of disapproval among DC fans. I can understand, it's an iteration of The Joker that no one has ever imagined, and (more appropriately) cannot wrap their minds around.

A recent picture from this week revealed The Joker donning a very suave suit, with his tattoos peeking out from under the sleeve cuffs and between the jacket lapels. Once more, uproar ensued. "This isn't The Joker!" "I hate his new look!" "The tattoos are terrible! Especially 'damaged' on his forehead!" No, these aren't actual quotes, but this is the gist of how fans are reacting to these few images.

"Don't you dare damage my 'damaged' tattoo!"

While it stands true that the new look of The Joker stands apart from his other film predecessors and comic image, let's not forget one thing: this is a film adaptation. The image of an established character may change over time or with the choosing of the director's aesthetics, but it's still the same character. Maybe the tattoos are meant to show how unstable The Joker is as a person? Maybe there's no real reason behind the tattoos at all; maybe it was just something the costuming department thought would set this Joker apart from the others? Who the hell cares?

We've seen the worst that fans have to say about modern changes to their favorite superheroes and film characters, from Superman to Batman to Spider-Man to the X-Men: their origins don't match up to other films or the comics, their story lines change, their costumes are bizarre, too armored, or lacking the right color pattern. Adaptations are meant to reinterpret the text or source whichever way it seems fitting to the time the film takes place in. In a way, film adaptations of books and novels are like visual SparkNotes; they can only contain so much of the original material to fit in a limited time frame. One is obviously not going to get the exact same understanding of the material if one was to take on the abridged or altered version, but the original concept and characterization is still there. With "Suicide Squad", The Joker and Harley Quinn, despite their appearances, will still be the nutty, maniacal couple DC fans know and love. If they were to be anything else, then there's reason to get in a fuss with the film crew.

Retrospectively, the fact that not even pop culture fans can get over the controversial hurdle of change reveals a lot about our culture as a whole. One alteration, reinterpretation, or suggestion with something we as a nation are familiar with greatly offends the masses. Black president? The devil is in the Oval Office. Gay rights? Straight people's rights are infringed upon. Women who are plus-sized? They shouldn't be models because they aren't emaciated. Our nation's inability to accept any kind of positive change keeps throwing us back into the gutter time and again. People take any sort of change so personally, as if their very own existence is threatened by something that isn't status-quo.

I got news for those kinds of people: the world doesn't stay the same. You can see it with the recent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, rising ocean levels. The world itself doesn't sit still. Hell, our human history has drastically changed. Did we get to where we are by hiding in caves out of fear? Did we not excel, invent, and question ourselves to make our lives better?

One little costume change, and the nerd world erupts in outcry. How about we stay positive for once and see how the film actually is when it comes out a year from now? How about we see the positives in any change that is thrown our way in general? The world is already full of negative distractions; let's make it turn better with more positive reinforcement and belief.

Unpleasantness in Pleasantville

Anyone have those moments where, while listening to music, your iPod seems to have some kind of mind-reading ability and plays what you need to hear? Like the songs that keep playing one after another have some relevancy to what you're thinking or feeling? It's crazy, right? Or honestly, perhaps, just a very rare moment of coincidence.

I had been having a rough week, a very rough week. I struggle almost every day, to be honest, with where I'm at and the speed of progress. I should have achieved the perfect standard of my life at this point. Too often have I reflected (and had been reminded) that at this point in my life I should be married, have a good job, a lasting career, a place of my own, and be so happy with everything that rainbows are shooting out of my ears. Instead, I'm back to living at home with my parents and younger sister, I work a crap part-time job, I'm working for free to establish a comic company, and the thought of having a family of my own is nonexistent. In comparison to my four other siblings in their twenties, I'm on the lowest rung of the ladder when it comes to achievements. I have always wanted the ideal life, the "American Dream" of lives, but I have no idea why I haven't gotten it yet.

A place where there are freak rain storms, tree fires, and people making out in the street!

So the one day that I decide to actually sit down and watch TV, what's on? One of my favorite movies, Pleasantville. I remember watching it in my high school sociology class and being instructed to seek out the social injustice themes throughout the film. It is riddled with those kinds of themes, from racism and segregation to women's rights. However, what stood out to me the most was that the characters were struggling with something more than turning technicolor: they were realizing a different part of their selves. Their changes brought out the most unpredictable in them, and it showed through the vibrancy of color. They were so used to having lived strictly scripted lives that any change shook the very core of their existence. I never understood the ending or what it meant (three of the adult characters asking each other what happens next) until I had watched the film this time around. It felt like a big sigh of relief, how they were so unsure about the future yet they were comfortable with the unpredictability of it all. They had survived the worst of the ordeal of change, and now their futures were their own to write.

Pinnacle moment where change is just simply misunderstood.

I didn't really empathize with the film's characters up until this watch-through. They seemed to be all the more real to me because of how there was the pressure of living life in a formulaic manner; that was my life in Florida, where my days melted into one another because it was just work, eat, sleep, and nothing more. Just as they had realized their identities apart from the structure, so have I. The struggle of uprooting from what is familiar and instituted is always a daunting, difficult journey. Pleasantville reassured me that whatever changes come around in my life, there is always an unscripted future to look forward to. I've gone through the arduous task of discovering what kind of person I am so far, and there's now only moving forward to achieve my ideal future.

I'm one to believe in coincidences, and having my TV play Relevancy Roulette with me the other day made me believe in them even more. The universe is strange and vast, yet it somehow sends out little but impacting signals to guide us to our destiny.