Every big-screen Joker (including Joaquin Phoenix), ranked from worst to best

The laugh, the green and purple wardrobe, the face paint: No matter where the Joker shows up, he always makes a statement. Usually an explosive one, with a freaky smile on that face.

Almost as long as Batman has been protecting the denizens of Gotham City – 80 years and counting! – his archenemy has followed the Dark Knight wherever he's gone, from comic books and TV shows to movies and even the Academy Awards, where the late Heath Ledger was posthumously honored for his iconic version in 2008's "The Dark Knight."

The latest take is also looking rather Oscar-ready: Joaquin Phoenix reimagines the villain as the center of a dark psychological character study in director Todd Phillips' "Joker" (in theaters Friday).

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Here's how Phoenix ranks among the other Clown Princes of Crime to hit the big screen:

7. Jared Leto (‘Suicide Squad,’ 2016)

It takes serious chutzpah to be the first guy to play Joker since Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning turn – and probably even more to put a cursive “Damaged” tattoo on your forehead. Say what you will about the polarizing “Squad,” this very different take on the Joker, which makes him a lunatic nightclub owner and over-the-top gangster with a grill, was at least a big swing for something new. And we got Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn out of his whole deal, so let’s call it a win.

6. Zach Galifianakis (‘The Lego Batman Movie,’ 2017)

Everything’s a lot more family friendly when animated building-block characters are involved, and this animated Joker is no different. He’s all about taking over Gotham City, teaming up with pop-culture baddies like Voldemort and the Wicked Witch of the West to do so, but the overly sensitive antagonist ultimately yearns to be Batman’s No. 1 bad guy – easier said than done when the macho Dark Knight isn't really a “relationship” sort.

5. Cesar Romero (‘Batman: The Movie,’ 1966)

Of all the actors playing colorful goons who get punched by Adam West’s Caped Crusader, Romero always seemed to be having the most fun, adding a chuckling mastermind to an already-storied career when he was nearing 60. The TV shows were a campy blast, but the movie gave us something special, teaming Romero’s Joker with Burgess Meredith’s Penguin, Frank Gorshin’s Riddler and Lee Meriwether’s Catwoman as the coolest injustice league ever.

4. Mark Hamill (‘Batman: Mask of the Phantasm,’ 1993, and ‘Batman: The Killing Joke,’ 2016)

One of the highlights of the 1990s seminal “Batman: The Animated Series” was the “Star Wars” hero voicing the Joker so well, combining playful charisma and gleeful merriment with malice and mayhem. Hamill stole the show first with the big-screen “Phantasm,” which tied into the cartoon, and also reprised his maniacal role for “Killing Joke,” an adaptation of the violent comic-book story line that dug into the Joker’s enigmatic origins.

3. Jack Nicholson (‘Batman,’ 1989)

Michael Keaton might have been a left-field choice as Tim Burton’s main man, yet Nicholson was a no-brainer as a mob goon who falls into a chemical vat and emerges as a disfigured poster boy for criminal flamboyance. Nicholson brought the unhinged side he showed in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and especially “The Shining” to bear with a dark charisma (and serious moves when it came to Prince songs).

2. Joaquin Phoenix (‘Joker,’ 2019)

The three-time Oscar nominee puts a human face on unbridled anarchy with his portrayal of Arthur Fleck, a troubled Gotham City clown who’s bullied and mocked until he's transformed into a symbol for a crime-ridden city on the verge of a violent revolution. In a twisted flip of the classic hero’s journey, Phoenix dons the green hair and garish makeup of the classic villain in making Joker the star of his own Shakespearean tragedy.

1. Heath Ledger (‘The Dark Knight,’ 2008)

Unlike Phoenix’s portrayal, Ledger’s bad guy comes out of nowhere as a mysterious agent of chaos with no background or raison d’etre, and that’s the beauty of his antagonistic turn: “Do I really look like a guy with a plan?” his Joker sneers. Instead he exists as the perfect foil for Christian Bale’s Batman, a twitchy and clever madman who questions human goodness, deliciously delights in pitting people against one another, and has multiple stories for how got his horrific scars. It’s hard to imagine anyone else being a Joker who is this enjoyable to watch and this terrifying to think could ever be real.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Joker': All the movie villains (including Joaquin Phoenix), ranked