Nolan and Hardy get mad props for what they did with Bane (i was rather scared for the premise when i heard it was Bane and Catwoman, way back when), but Ledger's Joker is just a masterwork on its own.

Seriously? I understood every word he said. Bane is far from a basic villain. He is like Bruce wayne.

Joker never caused even 1% of the chaos that Bane did. He is by far a more feared character. He also is far more relateable. His backstory is brilliant, rivaling Bruce Wayne himself. He even looks way cooler than the Joker did (and sounds cooler). Joker was a pushover, as he can never compare to Batman. Joker played games, Bane is the game. Bane could actually stand up to Batman, toe to toe and win. Joker never could. I never saw Joker as a threat, as I say Bane.

Bane, by far the best villain I've seen in any superhero movie. Period.

I was hoping for some mention of the Joker in the movie. Even it Bane claimed he set the Joker loose on the city. I think it would have been awesome to hear Bane talking about it and say "Do you know how he got those scars?"

Your opinion on this matter is certainly...your opinion. I wouldn't expect it to be widely shared, though.

Pretty much agree with this 100%.

Though I did fully enjoy Joker, he was nothing NEAR the threat Bane was.  At no point was the Joker ever really any actual threat to Batman, sure he killed some innocents and all but Bane DESTROYED Batman, and Gotham.

And Bane was a far deeper and more complex character.  Joker was awesome to watch in all his psychotic glory, but Bane was far more real.

My thoughts exactly. I can see why Bane would stick by her side and be loyal to her, but all that build up of his character was for nothing. He gets shot and that's it... It was very anti-climatic as far as his character goes, but that point where it was revealed he wasn't the real master mind was a big surprise for the movie in general. I definitely didn't see that coming. Joker takes it, easily.

Sure Bane was probably more menacing and powerful and brought gotham to it's knees, but that was all Talhia's doing. The Joker has WAY more character and personality as a Villain than Bane could ever hope to have. What backstory do you mean? Him helping Talhia escape the Pit and getting his face smashed? Not really much to be honest. The Joker was scary because you didn't have a clue what to expect. He was unpredictable and always stole the show in every scene he was in (In particular the prison scene and the boat hostage scene ). In the end Bane seemed little more than "Rarr see face smash". And whats with him holding the front of his jacket every scene ? .

I believe the thrust of their opinion is that Bane posed an actual physical threat to Batman in a fistfight, unlike the Joker. Which is mostly true. Although personally I think that misses the point.

Hard to go wrong with either. I loved the unpredictability of The Joker, but also loved the badassness of Bane and how he physically manhandled Batman.

From a non comic book fan's perspective
Joker wins it by a landslide.