Batman and Harley Quinn

[DefunctTheory]

Why do people think the Joker is an interesting villain when for the last oh, 10-15 years or so he's been little more than a laughing serial killer (or some impossibly forward thinking clown god of bullshit)?

I don't think anyone thinks the Joker is an interesting villain - He's just delightfully straight forward.

As a sexual object [Harley]'s pretty conventional, but her character can be interesting if the author cares to try. Just look at her recent popular comic runs.

Harley's got the same curse a lot of female comic book characters have - With a little effort, her stories can be fun, but it's so much easier to just take a bicycle pump to her tits and make her a standard psychopath anarchist. Which is not very fun.

If anyone is an interesting villain its Darkseid. I always prefer Evil Dark Lords over Psychopaths.

Eh... I like Darkseid, but my problem with him is he's fairly static. He's evil, he's a God (Or what passes for one in DC), and he's coming for everyone. Once you've seen Darkseid once, you've seen him every time. He works better as a character motivator than as a character himself.

Hell, probably the most interesting thing I've seen involving Darkseid in years is...

Spoiler: Gods and Monsters Spoilers

When he gets backstabbed and killed by Highfather.

EDIT: Huge brain fart.