There's no reason to ruin long established characters just to appease the identity politics crowd. There's no pleasing those people anyway. If you want new identities, make new characters. Leave what works alone.
Jo, the Joker arc you mentioned already happened. Joker thought he killed Batman once, and, while Batman was out of commission, Joker became a hero and stopped all crime in Gotham, becoming a paragon of justice until Batman got better.
If the change is done well it is fine. But if done poorly, in my opinion it comes across as the person/people doing the changing saying "this particular person is unable to stand on their own, and must have a White Male Hetero history in order to succeed".
Just making new characters doesn't work. Those characters almost never go anywhere, and we've had decades of them only trying to make good White Male Hetero characters, so the few Not-That characters that get through aren't going to make a drop in the bucket.
Thus the old comic debates of old return. On one hand it can be difficult or boring to re-write the same tale over and over... On the other hand stuffing stuff that should be placed elsewhere can really tick off a lot of fans. Batman beyond? Set in the future. Batman the serial killer? Nerd Rage!
Well, about Joker being the hero like Batman, i've seen that: In the TV series "Batman, the brave and the bold", the Red Hood (Joker before being Joker) being the Batman of an alternate universe, calls the Batman we know to aid him against the villains of his own world. And the people wanted more...
I would read the crap out of black lady witch-doctor Batman. Make the Joker a warlord she tracked to Gotham, and he's the one who killed her parents. Maybe even raised them as voodoo zombies for bonus conflict points. Done and done!
@Shareazu: Actually, I remember Batman Beyond and how I thought that worked too. It was a new Batman who even had an armored suit, but Bruce Wayne was still there being a mentor to the new guy and taking an active role. So it wasn't like we were losing Bruce Wayne, and that helped.
Guys, guys: What about Bat-Batman ? It's basically a bat in a Batman costume. It paralyzes enemies with it's cuteness in that little bat costume until help arrives or real super heroes show up. It also likes fruits. Could need some dead parents background but what do I know ?
@Shareazu: It works better with some characters than others. Green Lantern can be anybody, so long as they have a power ring and the Green Lantern Corps accepts them. Iron Man can be anybody who can fit into the armor. Perhaps comics should create more heroes like that.
Gordon works best as an old, grizzled cop, not a superhero. Even if they made him younger in the reboot, I can't help but think of him as too old to be running around beating up bad guys. Plus, mecha-Batman didn't work in the '90s and doesn't work now.
Several years ago when they had Dick Grayson become Batman, I was fine with it because he had spent so many years fighting crime as Robin and Nightwing. He was qualified, and he had plenty of superhero cred. But that isn't the case with Jim Gordon. I mean, really? Gordon?
...Maybe we should, you know, end Batman? Like, you know, no more official comic books of Batman? The character is over 75 years old, for Pete's sake...
"I'm Batman!"
"But you're a woman."
"...I'm Batman."
"You didn't even want to wear the Bat-symbol though."
"MY PARENTS ARE DEAD!!!!"
"That's because you ATE THEM in a voodoo ritual after DC retconned you."
"...shut up. I'm Batman." *puts hex on critic*
What pisses me off about this is 1) I can't stand the modern liberal white hetero male guilt bullshit taking over everything. 2) This is just pandering to sell books, not some attempt to be "progressive." And 3) We did the same thing in the 90's, it was awful then and it's awful now, it won't last.
It's been a trend lately and I assume the goal is to create buzz and controversy to sell more comics and I know plenty of fans have been rather pissed, and for a good reason. Nothing wrong with the changes in itself, but the writing is bad and if you want minority heroes, why not make new heroes?
if i recall right "the batman" show has done joker donning a makeshift version of the cape and cowl, and attempting to mess up his rep by going after every minor felony(littering, running a red light, unpaid parking tickets) with excessive force.
@Adriano Nieradka: I believe the reason why they don't do that is because they believe new charaters will not be as well as received as an old-and-more-famous characters...
Still, i'd much rather have new characters than messing with old characters and their lore/canon
"I could turn Angie in the new Batman equiped with Bat-Sentries protecting the control points of Gotham City while being chased by SpyJoker."
Do it, Jo, do it.
