The mystery behind the madman has a sense of gravity that threatens to suck viewers into a chaotic whirlwind, which is likely to dwarf the gush of competing summer action hero flicks.

Rated by Wizard magazine in 2006 as the Greatest Villain of all time, the late Australian actor Heath Ledger had a lot to live up to when agreeing to play the nemesis of Batman. However, the departed film star can be proud that his legacy will be remembered warmly, though with an eerie chill.

“Dark Knight” follows suit with the comic book, shuffling the Ace of Knaves onto the silver screen with a classic jingle — later revealed not to be from bells but a jacket bursting with hand grenades — in his formal introduction to the gang lords of Gotham City. His chilling, grimly hilarious, laughter leaves anxieties over his ability rolling around on the floor. Yet it’s only then that the real joke begins in earnest.

Judging by the suit and his seemingly endless supply of horrifying anecdotes of domestic abuse, this Joker must have inspired a series of thesauruses and guide books for hate-mail authors. But the decades-long mystery of the self-titled Clown Prince of Crime’s origins remain safely drowned in the turbulent swirl of his mind.

When asked about his decision to leave the maniacal force unexplained, director Christopher Nolan pointed out the pointlessness of providing an back story for the character because, after all, he “just is the Joker.” This method of leaving the madness unanalyzed indeed bears some merit.

The closest we get is when Ledger stated that his Joker is a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy.”

There have been different takes on his past, though each depicts him as having fallen into a vat of chemicals, which bleached his skin white, dyed his hair green and turned his lips bright red, giving him the appearance of a sinister clown.

Ledger makes up a new story behind his hideous facial scars on each new acquaintance, just like the comics where in “The Killing Joke,” the freak himself proclaims “Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another... if I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!”

In “Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth,” written by Grant Morrison, it is said that the Joker may not be insane at all, but is instead endowed with a sort of “super-sanity” where he creates himself each day to cope with the chaotic flow of modern urban life.

new suit

Costume designer Lindy Hemming described the Joker’s look as being based around his personality, in which “he doesn’t care about himself at all.” She avoided his design being vagrant, but nonetheless it is “scruffier, grungier and therefore when you see him move, he’s slightly twitchier or edgy.”

Nolan says that the Joker’s design was based on Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten.

His facial scarring is in the style of a Glasgow smile and is accentuated through his trademark white and red make-up. During the course of the film it worsens, resembling an infection.

But unlike the Joker from the comic books, who commits crimes with countless “comedic” weapons (such as razor-sharp playing cards, acid-spewing flowers, cyanide pies, and lethally electric joy buzzers) and Joker venom — this prankster only gets a gaggle from knives, which he says slowly bring out all the victim’s emotions, showing you who they really are deep down.

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