BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE

BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE

Written by Alan Moore with art by Brian Bolland

Batman: The Killing Joke is one of the single most influential graphic novels in history. Since its publication in 1988 it has been reprinted numerous times and has become the measuring stick by which all other Joker origin stories have been compared. It has influenced directors as diverse as Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan and their interpretations of the Batman mythos. The late Heath Ledger reportedly used the book as a reference for his Oscar winning turn as the enigmatic villain in The Dark Knight. It is one of many in a large body of work that includes Watchmen, From Hell and his run on Swamp Thing that has propelled Alan Moore into the upper echelon of graphic novel writers.

Batman: The Killing Joke is important not because it takes the level of the Joker’s insanity to a whole new level; but because it is a clear example of how one bad day (his wife and unborn child are electrocuted in a freak accident), one wrong decision (he is coerced into a crime he no longer has need to commit) and one errant moment ( a fall into a vat of chemicals and one snap of the mind later, the Joker is born) can change the course of a person’s life forever.

The Joker is the mirror image of the Batman in that he is what the Caped Crusader could have become on that fateful day that his parents were murdered. He could have turned bad; he could have gone insane and homicidal. The Batman knows this and it scares the hell out of him. Despite the atrocities he commits throughout the course of the book, such as shooting Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl and severing her spine, and kidnapping Commissioner Gordon and doing everything in his power to drive him mad, I feel that Moore portrays the Batman as sympathetic toward his arch-nemesis. He reaches out to him, even sharing in a laugh for a joke that is not that funny to begin with.

This book is not the definitive origin of the Clown Prince of Crime, but it is as close as we are likely ever going to get. The best line in the book comes when the Joker says, “Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another. If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice.” In the almost 25 years since its publication, it seems as if we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Related articles

• Mark Hamill Not Done With Joker: “Batman: Arkham City” and “Killing Joke” Tweets! (multiplayerblog.mtv.com)
• iMovie Assignment: “Batman: The Killing Joke” Video Preview (nespositobatman.wordpress.com)
• Comics’ Greatest Supervillain? No Joke, It’s the Joker (wired.com)