Gotham: Why Cameron Monaghan’s Joker is one of the all-time greats

Cameron Monaghan’s multiple interpretations of The Joker on Gotham are among the greatest portrayals of the character – and here’s why.

The Joker is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic comic book characters of all-time.

With a near-century long legacy, the Clown Prince of Crime has transcended his genre to make his presence felt on an array of films and TV shows – during which he was portrayed by the likes of Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Mark Hammill (voice), Heath Ledger and Jared Leto.

In fact, the character will also headline his own prequel film later this year, Joker, in which he will be portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix.

However, there is one equally talented actor that deserves a lot more recognition for his unique interpretation of the character, and that is none other than Cameron Monaghan – who recurred throughout all five seasons of Fox’s wonderfully twisted Batman prequel Gotham.

With that in mind, let’s delve into why Monaghan’s unique offerings deserve their places among the all-time greatest Jokers and why they are, in many ways, the best of the best.

Two sides of the same coin

A show that was renowned for changing things up, Gotham never held back when reimagining some of the core elements of the Batman saga and thus, it proudly presented us with two unique interpretations of The Joker – and Monaghan gave life to both of them.

The first (and at the time, only) one was Jerome Valeska – who showed up in the first season and, in one of the show’s most shocking twists, caught us all off-guard by revealing his true colours with a blood-curdling laugh that was instantly recognizable. The other was his twin brother, Jeremiah, who became a successor of sorts to Jerome and, in the process, transformed into the greatest supervillain Gotham City had ever seen.

Of course, the idea of two Jokers might initially cause you to raise an eyebrow, but that is the very reason as to why it works. The character has always been an enigma of sorts; an unpredictable concoction of crazy that just can’t be defined by any particular tropes – which is why we’ve seen so many contrasting interpretations of him over the years.

Instead of constraining itself to just one of those, Gotham decided to explore multiple, and as a result, Jerome and Jeremiah weren’t all that alike. While it’s true that both brothers wanted to spread their twisted message of laughter, they went about it in very different ways.

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Jerome was the more extravagant of the two and owed a lot to the traditional Jokers in that he wanted to be seen as he tortured people with huge attention-grabbing gestures. He was unhinged which, of course, made him incredibly dangerous – and, as we know, that’s exactly how The Joker should be perceived.

On the other hand, Jeremiah was more of a restrained psychopath, a silent and twisted artist if you will, and ultimately wanted his work to do the talking. He was willing to die in order to leave behind a legacy of anarchy and destruction – and it was that willingness to do so that ultimately transformed him into the deformed variation of The Joker known simply as J.

These unique interpretations allowed the Gotham creative team to reinterpret a number of The Joker’s most iconic comic book, film and TV moments through Jerome before ultimately cleaning the slate to do it all again with Jeremiah.

The best part about it is that you can see all of those references as, Jerome’s twisted faceless appearance in Season 3 is clearly inspired by the faceless menace that appeared in 2012’s comic arc Batman: Death Of The Family, while Jeremiah owes a lot to Nicholson’s portrayal in Tim Burton’s 1989 film Batman. And then you have J – who was completely original and yet familiar at the same time.

Jerome and Jeremiah are undoubtedly two unique personifications of the same coin and, if anything, the Gotham creative team deserves praise for cleverly managing to weave so much of The Joker’s comic book legacy into these two larger-than-life characters.

A performance (or three) for the ages

No amount of strong writing or impressive costumes can make up for a lackluster performance, so it goes without saying that, in order to pull of this monumental task of bringing its Joker to life, Gotham needed a real star. And from the moment that the young actor unleashed that spine-chilling laugh in his first episode, it was clear that Cameron Monaghan was the star the show needed.

In spite of the ambitious originality, the baffling characterization (in the best way possible) and the off-the-wall concepts, Monaghan never wavered in his attempts to bring both characters to life.

As Jerome, he was loud, boisterous and magnificently in-your-face, refusing to hold back in order to highlight just how unnervingly insane this straight-jacket-wearing, emotionally-disheveled and Bruce Wayne-obsessed clown really was.

Meanwhile, his offering as Jeremiah was more restrained, authentically portraying the character as the flawed, concerned and slightly eccentric human being he was throughout his first few appearances (until he was doused in Jerome’s parting gift), before dialling it all the way back to lifeless in the culmination of Season 4 – as Gotham‘s Clown Prince completed his chilling transformation.

As for his final transition into J? Well, that was perhaps even more Joker-like than anything he had pulled off before. Granted, the look was certainly a unique one, but the voice was more reminiscent of the traditional Joker and, if we learned anything from J, it’s that Monaghan would be more than capable of playing any version of The Joker in any future Batman story.

A performance worthy of the biggest screen imaginable, Monaghan’s offerings throughout Gotham brought both Jerome and Jeremiah/J Valeska to life – and in doing so, brought The Joker to life. And it ultimately solidified the young performer as one of the strongest actors of this generation.

With a doubt, one of (if not the sole) greatest Jokers of all time, Monaghan’s performances were nothing short of award-worthy.

Did you enjoy Cameron Monaghan’s performances as Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska/J on Gotham? What was your favorite moment from either character? Let us know in the comments below!