Read Batman the Killing Joke 1988 Colors

This is function of a series where I look dorsum at various works of "Batman" lore from the perspective of a heretofore casual "Batman" fan who enjoys the current Boob tube series, "Gotham."

Completing the holy trinity of Bat-comics, after "The Nighttime Knight Returns" and "Batman: Yr Ane," comes "The Killing Joke" (1988). While Frank Miller wrote the first two, some other comics legend, Alan Moore, penned this one. I know him best from "V for Vendetta," which came out meantime with "The Killing Joke" (and which was beautifully adapted into a movie in 2006) and five odd-but-fascinating "Star Wars: Devilworlds" tales.

A graphic novel the length of two standard comics, this essential tale of Batman's curvation-nemesis is shorter than the other two classics, but information technology has generated perhaps even more than discussion, springing from two questions: i) Is Joker's origin story, every bit presented hither, accurate? And 2) Did Batman impale the Joker on the final page?

It'due south fun to become downwardly the rabbit hole of the web to explore different theories, only my first impression is that the answer to both questions is "no."

Artist Brian Bolland's colors – which for the 2008 deluxe edition replaced John Higgins' original, more rushed colors – present clues that Joker'south origin story is not accurate. Bolland highlights dream-world details in cherry amid otherwise sepia-toned panels – details that are odd even inside the context of Gotham. Joker's wife has a bowl of tentacles on the kitchen tabular array; the thieves who hire Joker are eating bugs in a bar, which features people barfing, slumped over tables or grin maniacally in the groundwork; the thieves make Joker wear a Ruby Hood for no proficient reason; the idea that they need Joker to lead them through an industrial establish to a playing-card factory is illogical; it's unlikely that the police would know where to discover Joker to written report his wife's death; and the wife'southward electrocution-past-baby-bottle-heater demise is itself bizarre.

It'southward rubber to say that this is non the definitive Joker origin story. Indeed, Joker himself says "Sometimes I call up it one way, sometimes another." I think there is a kernel of truth to information technology, though. While this might not be how Joker's "ane bad mean solar day" unfolded in reality, information technology's psychologically true in his mind. His true, without-a-doubt origin story has never been told in 75-plus years of Batman comics, which is rather appropriate for this character. ("Gotham" is in the process of sort of telling a Joker origin story, although it is focusing more on the fashion proto-Joker Jerome Valeska'due south outlook has infected other Gothamites, leading to a cult of the Joker – amid which Jerome returned to life in Mon'southward episode, and from which the "real" Joker might bound forth.)

One thing that is clarified in "The Killing Joke," for me at to the lowest degree, is that Joker does not habiliment face paint like a clown. Batman discovers Joker's imposter in Arkham Aviary by noticing he is painted white. Joker's skin actually is white, which again suggests a nugget of truth to the backstory, where he is deformed by falling into a vat of chemicals (which, earlier "Batman & Robin," wasn't quite as much of a cliché).

The question of whether Batman killed the Joker is an odd debate. He patently didn't, because Joker appeared in "Batman" comics afterward this. While some have contended that "Killing Joke" is an Elseworlds story (i.due east., outside of the official continuity, like "Night Knight Returns"), that theory falls apart due to the fact that information technology includes a central signal of the lore: Joker shoots and paralyzes Barbara Gordon, marking her transition from Batgirl to Oracle. (In the TV show "Birds of Prey," Barbara is paralyzed when she's thrown into a support column during a fight between Batman and Joker.)

That'due south not to say the last folio, taken in and of itself, is clear. Moore and Bolland intended it to be cryptic. Batman laughs at the Joker'south joke, and so he reaches for his nemesis, whose laughter stops. Meanwhile, the headlight beams from the approaching law cars are turned off; this links to Joker'southward joke about a human being who would walk across a flashlight beam between rooftops, simply he'll fall to his death if the beam is turned off.

I am a fan of some ambiguous endings. I think the stop of "Concluding Man Standing: A Tale of Boba Fett" in "Star Wars: Tales of the Compensation Hunters" (1996) is brilliant: Han and Fett bespeak guns at each other and debate whether to let fly (likely getting them both killed), or just walk away. "The Killing Joke" is similar. From the kickoff, Batman is hoping there's a way that his disharmonize with the Joker can end without death on either side. Joker, in an affecting panel, gives a rare straight answer: "No. I'm sorry, only … No. It's too belatedly for that. Far too late."

I didn't similar this one quite as much, because I'g imagining how much more impactful it would be if we heard a "crack" of Batman breaking Joker's cervix, or alternatively, saw a console of Batman handing Joker off to the police, so he can be returned to Arkham and/or charged with his new crimes. The latter is what has to accept happened in order to allow for futurity Joker stories, merely information technology would've been nice to see that illustrated in light of Gordon's order that Batman practice this "past the book" – despite the fact that Joker shot his girl, took nude pictures of her, stripped Gordon naked and put him on a roller coaster, and made Gordon await at the pictures.

It's a fine line to walk, simply "Last Man Standing" fabricated me retrieve "Wow, that's a cool ending," whereas "The Killing Joke" made me want to see more pages – not just the scene of Batman arresting Joker, but also perhaps an epilogue with Gordon, Barbara and Bruce. (It'due south a skillful graphic symbol-based cliffhanger, though, because "The Killing Joke" does make me desire to cheque in on Barbara in her early Oracle days.) Even though those pages write themselves – which is maybe why Moore opted for a more creative ending – I think it would've been satisfying to meet them.

Interestingly, "The Killing Joke" gained another layer of controversy when it was adjusted into an animated movie last twelvemonth. In order to pad out the running fourth dimension, it includes a prologue focusing on Barbara Gordon. Equally far as I can tell from a perusal of the web, this prologue does non come from the comics. Part of the purpose – and joy – of these DC adaptations is that they are true-blue to the source material. If they blatantly diverted from that principle, I can understand the complaints.

Moore and Bolland's book, though, stands equally a archetype exam of the gap that separates Batman and the Joker. We're shown how like they are (Bruce, of class, was inverse by "one bad day" merely like the Joker was), just we're ultimately shown the cardinal difference: The Joker wants Batman to cut loose and be as crazy equally he is, but Batman won't take the bait. That'due south the gap that separates a hero from a villain.

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Source: https://reviewsfrommycouch.com/2017/01/comic-books/batman-flashback-the-killing-joke-1988/

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