By Toby Symonds

COMIC book movie stars don’t often win Academy Awards. Not, at any rate, for their role in a comic book movie. It was only after finally hanging up his iron suit, hot off 11 years of service for Marvel, that Robert Downey Jr claimed his first Oscar.

There is one exception to the rule. One comic book character whose cinematic translations have twice helped a ‘super’ star score big in the awards season. First was Heath Ledger, 2009’s posthumous Best Supporting Actor for his work in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. A decade later, Joaquin Phoenix took the part one step further, winning Best Actor as the eponymous lead of a left-field origins story for the character from director Todd Phillips.

We refer, of course, to the Joker, Batman’s most beloved and instantly recognisable nemesis.

A hit from his first appearance, way back in the 1940 debut issue of DC’s Batman comics, the Joker’s popularity has proven astoundingly enduring across almost 85 years of villainy. He’s the cackling killer crowds go wild for.

Somewhere between the iconic look and unhinged personality lies catnip for character actors. Aside from Ledger and Phoenix, a roll call like no other boasts Jack Nicholson, Mark Hamill, Jared Leto and, most recently Barry Keoghan.

Where most have struck for zany and gleefully unpredictable when playing the Joker, Phillips directed Phoenix towards a more downbeat characterisation in 2019, tapping into a more contemporary - and controversial - dialogue with mental ill-health. Phoenix’s Joker is afflicted with neurological disorders and depression long before the killing starts.

Without a caped crusader in sight, Joker achieved the unimaginable in 2019, reeking out a billion dollar hit from the Gotham City gutters. It remains the second-highest grossing R-rated film of all time, pipped only this year by Deadpool and Wolverine.

Now comes a sequel, the archly titled Folie À Deux, a kook-fest five years in the making. If anything, Phillips’ second Joker is even bleaker than the first. That’s no mean thing for a musical (of sorts). Ah, yes, this one’s a musical. Of sorts.

Bringing star vocals to the tunes, Lady Gaga joins as Harleen Quinzel, a fellow inmate at Arkham State Hospital, whose initial interest in Mr J soon spirals to obsession. It is the combined efforts of Gaga and Phoenix that elevates Phillips’ decidedly morbid romance.