Ledger was awesome, but there have been some other awesome villains too...hannibal lecter, alien(s), the dude with the gravelly voice from The Crow, Darth Vadar...this Joker definitely ranks up there.


Anxiously awaiting the next movie, and hoping that if they bring in another villain from the comic book series, they choose something like a very debonaire riddler type, with the appropriate mix of fanatical/maniacal/too close to reality sociopathic tendencies this batman series has gone with thus far, a Mad Hatter persona....could be too dark and too questionable about pedophilia for Hollywood...or a biological warfare botanist style poison ivy...
in any case I think we can all expect ALOT less spandex than previous versions. Aside from the Michael Keaton Batman with Nicholson, the rest of the Batmans always disappointed me, I watched the *BIF* ~BAM~ !BOOM! Adam West version growing up and far prefer those to what happened with the villain portrayals in the other ones (aka Swartzennegger as Dr Freeze, and the Uma Thurman Poison Ivy and Jim Carrey Riddler which were too psychedelic for me)
what I'm really liking about the Christopher Nolan series with Bale etc. is that they aren't as visually/humanly far fetched as the Clooney/Kilmer versions...they take people who have been flawed in some more believable manner and turn to villainy...also the supporting casts thus far are stupendous...Caine, Freeman, Oldman... unfortunately no more Joker of the caliber that was just shown. :(