Last night Heath Ledger won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his role of The Joker in “The Dark Knight”. Like many comic book fans, I am very happy that a comic book film has finally been recognized and has achieved an award of this caliber. It’s of course bitter sweet with the death of Heath Ledger occurring before the film was even released. Would he have been nominated or even won if he were still alive? We’ll never know, but I would like to think so.

I wasn’t happy when he was cast in the role of the Joker. Even when I saw him in the make up, I was thinking that this was going to suck. As I watched the film for the first time, a smile slowly began to form on my face. As the Joker exited the room after his meeting with the mobsters in the beginning of the film, I was sold.

What Heath did with that role was nothing short of amazing. He has set the bar high for any actor who wants to take on the role of a Batman villain in any future Batman film. In my opinion, Heath Ledger became the Joker. When Jack Nicholson played the Joker in “Batman,” he was playing himself. Even when it was released in 1989, I wasn’t that impressed with Jack as the Joker. I think Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer were much better in their roles as The Penguin and Catwoman in “Batman Returns”. Heath was unrecognizable as the Joker role and it wasn’t just because of the make up.

I hope he gets the Oscar. According to Yahoo, the Oscar nominations will be announced January 22 - the one year anniversary of Heath’s death.

Good luck, Heath and rest in peace.