Friday’s Movie Madness saw the defeat of a movie icon, when Rocky Balboa went down against Voldemort. In the other matchup, Boba Fett’s stardom proved too much for the wily assassin Fox. Today, we get to witness the much anticipated battle between Christian Bale’s version of the Caped Crusader and Heath Ledger’s Joker. In the other matchup, we’ll head on over to the HD DVD bracket to see how swordsman Inigo Montoya fares against Dutch.
I swear that when I was picking these character names at random, there was no rigging. It was fate that wanted Batman and Joker in the same bracket. Not only are these two lifelong foes going up against each other, but these two especially have some bad blood. They were both in the same film together. If this was Bale’s Batman and Nicholson’s Joker, then it wouldn’t have the same oomph. Maybe we’ll get to find out exactly who is the baddest of them all.
Christian Bale’s Batman – He won, by a sizable margin, in the Batman playoff we had at the beginning of the tournament. It was obvious that the majority of fans thought that Bale was the best and most capable Batman for a tournament of death. But has he finally met his match?
Tools of the Trade: Bale’s Batman is a master at martial arts, like the other Batmen, but his martial arts skills seem much more real and honed. While many of the other Batmen seemed to be too cartoony, Bale brought Batman back down to a humanistic level. After all, he is human. No special super powers here.
Heath Ledger’s Joker – There’s was no need to have a playoff between Ledger and Nicholson for the best Joker. Some may disagree, but I think Ledger’s Joker is the only one crazy and badass enough to enter into a tournament where fights to the death are required.
Tools of the Trade: Dynamite, gun powder, gasoline, and a heaping helping of crazy. Need I say more?
Batman vs. The Joker
- Batman (66%, 74 Votes)
- The Joker (34%, 38 Votes)
Total Voters: 112
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In the first round, Dutch was able to defeat Captain Barbossa, a contestant who doesn’t ever seem to die. Inigo had a much easier go in the first round as he bested HAL 9000. How that fight actually took place, I have no idea. All I know is that it would have been funny watching Inigo whack his sword against a giant glowing red eye.
Dutch – I was surprised, honestly, that Dutch made it passed Barbossa. Yeah, it was the whole gun versus swords argument, but Barbossa had what seems to be eternal life on his side. The guy just doesn’t die. For Dutch to pull off a victory like that is pretty amazing. He may go far in this tournament.
Tools of the Trade: He’s got a big ol’ gun. This is your classic gun versus sword matchup, and his gun will most likely prove too much for Inigo to handle.
Inigo Montoya – Let’s face it, he had a good run. He showed the 21st century what was up when he took out an evil, sentient computer by some miracle. It just seems that going up against Dutch may be an insurmountable obstacle.
Tools of the Trade: If he has one thing going for him, it’s patience and the ability to hold one hell of a grudge. Inigo can wait and wait, until you forget about what you did that made him so upset, and then he strikes. His heart and determination could easily play a factor here too.
Inigo Montoya vs. Dutch
- Dutch (80%, 91 Votes)
- Inigo Montoya (20%, 23 Votes)
Total Voters: 114
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Dick Ward
It’s not even the gun for me. Montoya is a great swordsman but I wonder how much of that is the motivation. If Dutch isn’t either the target of his vengeance or in the way of his vengeance, I don’t see Montoya giving it his all.
Alex
Let me reiterate that Dutch survived a tactical nuclear blast from no more than 100 yards away. The man is tough in ways that Montoya just can’t fathom.
As far as Batman and the Joker, 70+ years of history decides this one for us. It’s Batman all the way. The Joker, in spite of killing and paralyzing Batman’s closest loved ones, has never been able to take down the Dark Knight himself.
Chad Allen
Well, didn’t Joker say in Dark Knight that he didn’t want to kill Batman at all? I don’t think he’d EVER want to see Batman dead, because that’d take all the fun out of it (pun totally intended)…..
Aaron Peck
AuthorFor this tournament I think we have to do away with the notion that superheroes and super villains can’t exist without each other. It’s a very true statement, but someone has got to come out victorious in these battles.
Josh Zyber
The Dutch vs. Montoya battle is simple physics. Montoya could not possibly thrust his sword with enough force to pierce through Dutch’s muscle mass. The most he could inflict are superficial injuries. Dutch would then swat him away like an annoyance.
Nate "the boss" Boss
Joker, Dutch.
Dutch is obvious.
Joker, it’s not the comics. it’s the film. the Joker ruins Batman’s life as just part of his big plan. if it was just him vs Bats, it’s over. Bruce Wayne cannot kill the Joker. this is a battle to the death. Joker, he CAN kill Batman.
people are ignoring the entire principle of the polls. FIGHTS TO THE DEATH, not just who’s more popular. lame.
Gareth Callenby
I go for the Bale Batman because the Ledger Joker wants Batman to kill him, if only to prove his point. Batman will eventually slip up and accidentally manslaughter Joker. Or Batman could pull the Ra’s Al Ghul and let him die by some explosive, crashy means.
Joker, clever as he is, loves fighting him more than he would enjoy killing him. The fight goes to whoever fails to not kill the other over the longest period of time. I go with Batman because I think he would screw up first.
Pedram
I want to go with Batman, but I have to admit that in a fight to the death, Joker would probably win (if he actually put his mind to killing Batman rather than toying with him). Batman doesn’t kill the villains, so given that limitation I’d have to go with Joker on this one.
RBBrittain
Dutch, no contest. I said the only way Inigo could have beaten HAL was if the battle was in Inigo’s time and HAL had no power supply; that won’t stop Dutch, though it might hamper his ammo supply.
Joker vs. Batman is a close call. Yes, any version of the Joker (especially Heath’s) would have more gumption to kill any version of Batman; but I nonetheless lean towards Batman for two reasons:
(a) I believe Bale’s Batman only saved Heath’s Joker in The Dark Knight because he thought killing him would bring him down to his level; that’s not a constraint in a “tournament o’death”, especially after Heath’s final retort forced Bale to kill Two-Face.
(b) I’m not aware of any Joker who has killed any Batman in any media (the closest I found was an alternate-universe comic where Batman was a vampire and killing the Joker–with a wooden stake AFTER turning him into a vampire–did bring him down to the Joker’s level), but Batman *has* killed the Joker in some media–most notably in Tim Burton’s first film.
Thulsadoom
I didn’t vote on the Joker/Batman choice. I don’t think either are particularly effective, so it would be luck as to which tripped over their outfit the least. The Joker only succeeds because of convenient scripting in absurd circumstance, when he would’ve failed miserably in any other movie universe or reality. Batman… Well, it’s the Bale Batman, presumably the one from Dark Knight. Batman Begins version would’ve won, as would any of the others. Dark Knight’s version was just a bit of a wet fish… (Shocking, considering same actor/director/writer etc lol!)
Second match? Dutch!! I really like Inigo, but I can’t honestly say there’d be a match. Dutch is pure tough guy. If/when he goes up against Bale/Batman, it should be a walkover. 😀
The one thing missing from this whole brutal face off, is a single villainous character of ultimate evil and incomparable skill… Where the hell is Bennett??? For that matter, where’s John Matrix, but in any real villain line-up, Bennett should be front and centre… in the Pantheon of villains, he’s second only to Vader, and could still give him a run for his money, if he had a young Princess Leia hostage. 😉