COOL OR CRINGE: MICROTECH SOCOM JOKER THEME
Microtech really like putting out Limited Editions and for me they're hit or miss. It can sometimes feel like Microtech is indeed an older generation trying to make something relevant for the younger audiences within the EDC space. I am a fan of Microtech, I collect comic books and I am on the younger side of the EDC enthusiast spectrum. In theory, this knife should be made for me. Well, it's not. Overall, I haven't been a big fan of the newest Ram-Lok Socoms. The form factor doesn't seem to meld well together, and they also seemingly changed the dimensions of the knife to lean in a smaller direction. The blade is thinner along all axis' and so is the handle. Short story long, it feels a little on the shrimpy side. With the aluminum construction, it is also really light which can be good. I do appreciate an easily carriable knife. I am a huge fan of the MSI Mini Ram-Lok for example. It is my favorite manual Microtech release for a long time. I am getting a little sidetracked, the focus here is the visual theming of this Socom. We have a Joker theme that is in a bright toxic green and a bright purple. Adorning the handle, we have the iconic "Why so serious?" line from the Dark Knight. What made the Dark Knight portrayal of the Joker by Heath Ledger so interesting was that it was a more grounded and darker performance. It was kind of going away from the cartoony and silly feel of previous Joker interpretations. The colors were a lot more muted and fit the seedy vibe of Christopher Nolan's vision of Gotham City. If this were a knife that was drawing inspiration from Heath Ledger's adaptation of the iconic Batman villain, they would have gone with darker colors, maybe some blood splatter to mirror the makeup covering Joker's facial scars and some added aging and weathering to the motif as well. Instead, Microtech went with this ultra bright green with the bright purple that is more reminiscent of Jared Leto's Joker portrayal. All other open handle space is occupied by "Ha Ha Ha"s. Widely considered the worst Joker ever put on film, Jared Leto's Joker will be remembered as being synonymous with one word: cringe. Does this Socom Joker also fall into that category? The only thing they got right was the Dark Knight quote, but the rest seems to be visually inspired by the cringiest movie villain of all time.
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