Customer Reviews

Batman: The Killing Joke

5 star:		(190)
4 star:		(59)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Length:: 2:37 Mins

"The Killing Joke" is widely considered to be the be-all-end-all of Joker stories, so what better way to pay homage to the greatest comic book villain of all time near the eve of his re-unveiling in The Dark Knight than by reviewing his definitive story? This is the comic that (sort of) revealed the origin of The Clown Prince of Crime, humanizing him to an extent never before, and truly examined -with pictures rather than words- the antagonistic symbiosis that exists between Joker and his arch nemesis, The Batman. A beloved Gotham regular will never be the same and another will be put through hell before this story is done. Oh, and there are creepy little henchmidgets as well. Gotta love the henchmidgets.

The art is outstanding, the storytelling superb, and the character examinations are vital to understanding both combatants. The "one bad day" premise highlights the "two sides of the same coin" argument that Batman and Joker are in fact more alike than dissimilar. As if Bruce Wayne took a right when his arch-nemesis took a left. The controversial ending leaves little doubt as to Alan Moore's take on the debate, and I like it like that. While many critics have strongly resisted both the comparison and the somewhat sympathetic look at The Joker's past, the truth is that every great character -villain or hero- needs that sort of intricacy to their story to remain relevant in the world of modern fiction. Comics are no longer for children and adults realize that the world is seldom black and white, that all monsters were once men, and that unspeakable darkness and insanity resides deep inside each human mind. It can take years of suffering to bring them out or it can take one bad day. One bad day could ruin your very existence and everything you were; it's a frightening reality that cannot be overlooked while reading this comic. The more the reader is willing to ponder the ideas put forth by this story, the more you are likely to appreciate "The Killing Joke". An outstanding achievement in storytelling any way you look at it.

I was tempted to knock this down to four stars because with this book you are buying a single issue of a comic for what you could easily pay for a full trade paperback or graphic novel of equal quality like, say, Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, which is so good it may very well cure cancer (can you prove it doesn't?). But the fact is no Batman fan should be without "The Killing Joke" and I would rather stick to reviewing based on quality rather than haggling over price. The bonus story at the end (written and illustrated by TKJ artist Brian Bolland) is a killer little mini-comic that serves as a perfect companion piece to the main story and definitely sweetens the pot for those wondering if they should get this hardcover edition. "The Killing Joke" is an absolute mindless must-have for fans of the comic book medium and even more so if you claim to be a follower of The Caped Crusader or his twisted nemesis. End of story.

Batman: The Killing Joke is the greatest story ever told about the origin of The Joker. What make this story so brilliant is how Batman, by accident, created his greatest foe. The art in this story is perhaps Brian Bolland's greatest achievement. (No one can draw The Joker better than Bolland. ex: The cover of the Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told). Alan Moore delivers a dark story about Batman and his relationship with the Joker. From the first page when Batman visits The Joker at Arkham Asylum on a dark stormy night, to exactly 24 hours later when Batman confronts The Joker at an abandon carnival is brillantly told by Moore in the format of The Dark Knight tradition. I thought it was brillant to begin and end this story with the same panel (rain falling on the ground) which shows no matter what fates happen to everyone else, Batman and The Joker will always end up where they started..."There were once Two men in a lunatic asylum..." This one-shot format for mature readers is also exceptional how it can merge two stories (Joker's origin and Batman's hunt for him) together. For example, When the Joker's hand is outstreched toward's the clown in fortune teller machine, the panel before shows The Joker reaching for his wife, with the same expression on her face...while his expression is reflected in the backround. It is almost as if he were having a flashback to his orgin. It is also interesting to see Batman confront The Joker and offer to help him, despite all The Joker has done. On the panel where The Joker glances at Batman before he says no to Batman's help is very scary in the fact that The Joker is actually considering to accept help from Batman. I guess the best example of Batman's and The Joker's relationship is on the back cover, with both of them on the same playing card...Forever together and forever apart...like different sides of the same coin...

Blurbs on a cover always tell you that whatever book you're holding in your hands is better than the best, that you'd probably die if you'd put it back to where it came from, and more of that kind of nonsense.
In this case (in 1988) they had Tim Burton saying it's his favorite and that it's the first comic he ever loved. The poor fellow. Don't get me wrong: I adore Tim Burton. I love everything he did (after Batman), but there definitely are other great comic books out there.
But still, he is right in saying that this one counts among the best. That is, now it does. Now that Brian Bolland himself has redone the original coloring (by John Higgins). I love Brian Bolland. He is one of my all time favorite artists, a genius in black and white (which best brings out his fine and detailed pencils). And he did a great coloring job here, too. The colors are more pastel and thus bring back a balance to the book I missed in the 1988 paperback.
The original coloring looked as if Mr. Higgins had just bought himself a new set of colors and went for it. There was so much yellow, green and red dripping off the pages that it stopped me from entering the storyline. It looked seventies cheap. Also, to my taste it almost destroyed Brian's genius penciling.
Which is a shame, cause it's a masterpiece (yes, another one) written by Alan Moore. Not for kiddies. The Joker is too brutal for that here. A dark tale about insanity, true insanity, the ways of getting there and what it can lead to. The Joker is meaner and deeper than ever. Batman isn't weak, after all he's Batman, right?! But then, why is it so hard for him this time to deal with the creep? That is, can he?
As a small extra there is a bonus story of a few pages, a few sketches and instead of the tpb's first page with the splattering raindrops, you get a set of bloody eyes staring at you out of the dark.
Highly recommended. Buy this new version and enjoy Mr. Bolland's genius artwork and Mr. Moore's timeless tale.

This is the most in-depth Batman comic I have ever read, and has become my favourite Batman story of all time. The story deals with Joker escaping, paralyzing Barbara Gordon, kidnapping Commissoner Gordon, and trying to prove that any man can go crazy in a single, bad day. As Batman hunts the Joker, the reader is treated to the Joker's origin story, and sees how thin the line is that seperates Batman from the Joker.

I won't try to get into the psychological aspects of this story -suffice it to say that other reviews have covered it throughly and any attempt on my part would only make me look foolish. However, I will say that the most chilling part about this book is how, if you replace Batman and the Joker with two everyday people, the events still feel horribly real. This is not escapist reading as all comic books have been labeled, in fact, this is the book to show people who don't believe that powerful stories can be told in this medium. Both Batman and the Joker had a single bad day - so why didn't Batman go insane like the Joker did? The reader wants to know the fine line that seperates these two characters, partly so they can realize how close to crossing that line they are in their own lives. The art is truly amazing -detailed, moody, and brilliantly inked - the scenes in the Joker's funhouse scare the reader as much as they scare Gordon. The flashbacks are also impressively tied into the present, with similiar situations bookending each scene. The story begins and ends on the same note, like a vicious, never-ending cycle. Plus, you know you have something special when, after all the vicious, sadistic things the Joker has done, you still feel sorry for him.

"The Killing Joke" is a true masterpiece, and earns its place as one of the best comics of all time, and a true work of fiction.

The Killing Joke is one of the few Batman stories where you actually feel for the Joker as a character. In most stories he either comes off as a charicature of a killer or a sinister and dispicable murderer who you can't have any sympathy for. One of Alan Moore's masterpieces, it even has a song that you can sing. Its funny, but the tune just comes to your head. You automatically know how you should be singing it. The pacing is very cinematic and it is not overburdened with words. Wordless captions make the story more fast paced.
Bolland (why doesn't he do more interiors these days?) is the best Joker (and Batman) artist of all time. The expressions of dispair that he draws on the faces of Barbara Gordon, the Joker, Commissioner Gordon and others are among the most realistic I have ever seen.

I remember first reading this astonishing book about ten or so years ago around when I first got into comic books. Up until that point I had just read typical mainstream super-hero fare with stories where a bad guy is introduced, commits his crime, and the good guy takes him out. status quo remains in place and everybody goes home happy.

Then I chanced upon this book, not even yet knowing who Alan Moore or Brian Bolland were and was completely blown away! This was a story that mattered. The event's of this book changed the character's in ways that they could never go back, and that's a very rare and good thing in comics. Never has a comic book so brilliantly dug so deep into the nasty bowels of the Joker's mind like this. You see the events that lead up to him going over the top and becoming the criminal who would one day be Batman's arch foe. Then we have Joker's confrontation with Batgirl which would forever change the character's in the Bat books and go on to really show just how insane and demented the Joker actually is. Personally, every time I read it, I can't wait to get to the end of the story when Batman get's his hands on the clown for one of my favorite fight sequences ever! You know a man can write when he get's you feel that much hate for a fictonal character!

A first rate story, from a first rate creative team. This story is only second to The Dark Knight Returns.

I liked this story, generally speaking, but not unreservedly. Despite what others have written, saying the Joker needs no backstory, I actually liked it that we now have some idea where he came from. He is shown here as a failed comic, who is trying to eke out a living doing stand up comedy, but nobody laughs at his routines, and he can't support his wife. The scene where he momentarily snaps at his wife, and then is instantly regretful is very human and very believable, as is her trying to comfort him, and assure him that it doesn't matter and she loves him anyway. This makes it very understandable why he agreed to take part in the criminal venture that went awry and turned him into the Joker. He was desperate to be a husband and provider. There is also a moment where the Joker remembers his past life, and what he has lost, and you can see that there is a part of him that regrets it profoundly. This scene is done without words, and it is the artwork of Brian Bolland that makes it work.

But sympathetic though this treatment is, the Joker is too far gone in his insanity, and Moore shows this as well. Elsewhere in the story, the Joker commits some terribly brutal acts of wanton cruelty, which show why is such a feared villian in Batmans' rogue's gallery. He may have started out as a tragic, ordinary guy, but he has become a true monster.

That's the good. The bad is an out of character treatment of the Batman himself. The Joker is shown as SO brutal, dangerous, and slippery, that it is simply not believable that the Batman would not kill him, whatever his ordinary qualms about taking human life. Given the Joker's homicidal history, and his ability to esacpe confinement over and over again, Batman would simply have to ask himself how many innocents he would condemn to future death if he allows the Joker to live. His willingness to to laugh with the Joker at the end of the story is also out of character, and frankly inexplicable, given that the Joker just kidnapped and cruelly abused Commissioner Gordon, and permanently crippled Gordon's daughter Barbara, the former Batgirl.

Still, it's an effective story overall.

Comic books are often dismissed by many people as having no real value. They are usually looked upon as a hobby for boys and nostalgiac entertainment for men who have never really grown up. However, comic books can be and are often much more. At their best, comics can become a moving work of art and a powerful piece of literature all in one piece. Such is the case with BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE.

THE KILLING JOKE has become a comic classic for a variety of reasons. The book's illustrations have influenced a generation of Batman artists. The book offered insight into the Joker's personality. It changed the Batman universe (by what the Joker does to Barbara Gordon). It illustrated the strong bond between Batman and Joker and displayed the differences in world view that make the men who they are. It helped inspire a major motion picture.

However, the comic is much more than a story about the possible origins of the Joker and how he and Batman are so strongly bonded together. The story is a reflection of two very distinct views of life: the tragic and the comic. The Joker, ironically, views life tragically believing that all it takes is "one bad day" to transform the most normal person in the world into a psychotic maniac. His is the world of chaos and injustice. He holds onto this belief even though he knows (as the last pages of the comic show) it is false. On the other hand, there is the world view of Batman. Batman's life was changed too, by "one bad day". However, Batman's view is comic. He had one bad day, too, but it turned him into a hero. His is the world of order and justice. In the end, good triumphs over evil and the tragedians are forced to laugh at all the comedy. Life truly is beautiful. I bet you believed a comic could never be so thought-provoking.

A comic nearing perfection in both its graphic and story construction. The art, empasising sickly greens, oranges and reds (especially during Gordon's torture sequence) works brilliantly at evoking a sense of the deranged and desperate mind of the Joker. That this tale is only one brutal cycle in the continuing, and perhaps endless, Joker/Batman confrontation is made all-too clear by the same, full-page panel of rain falling in muddy water being shown at both the beginning and the end. The story itself is also spectacular, from Batman's initial attampt to reason with his archnemesis ("There once were two guys in a lunatic asylum...")Joker's merciless attack and humiliation of Barbara Gordon, to Joker's hideous claim that the only difference between him and the rest of the world is "one bad day." One of the most bizarre and horrifying moments in Batman history must be achieved in the two foes final confrontation...that one brief moment when the Joker turns-halfway to Batman...is he considering accepting the Dark Night's help?...to the final scene when both men laugh uncontollably in the killing rain; a single moment when the both the Batman and Joker get the same Joke: that they are together, forever, until they destroy each other. Perhaps this is the "Killing Joke" of the title?

The first time I read the Killing Joke I sat and thought, "Finally someone has given the Joker the treatment he so richly deserves." Alan Moore's writing draws us into the Joker's twisted, sick view of reality. The Joker now, is beyond redemption, a sick, giggling, sociopath. His sadistic torture of Jim Gordon, and his cold-blooded shooting of Barbara Gordon leaves us in no doubt that he is a pyschopath with no remorse, only a sick sense of humour. However his back story, told in flashback brings a once human face to the Batman's arch-nemesis and gives us an insight into Moore's seminal interpretation of the Joker's origin.

Whilst staying faithful to the sketchy outlines given in previous stories, the bad choices from good intentions and tragedy that lead up to the events that created the Joker make us more sympathic to who he was, whilst still giving us the Joker at his most dark and evil. His descent from decent loser to twisted evil murderous clown is all the more powerful for these details, whilst still leaving things open for others to interpret, "Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another....."

The story itself is simple, The Joker shoots and cripples Barbara Gordon, kidnaps Jim Gordon himself and tries to drive him insane whilst Batman tracks him downs and saves the day isn't exactly full of twists and turns. What makes this one of the definitive Batman stories is Moore's delving into the pyschological motivations of Batman and the Joker. They are Two-Face's coin. One face fair, the other scarred, twin faces. As the Joker proclaims in the graphic novel, "All it takes is a bad day. Just one bad day."

And this is the place where Moore begins his exploration of the pysches of these two intertwined characters. One the one hand, Batman, whose reaction to his "one bad day" is to be driven by his inner demons to go out into the night dressed as "a flying rodent" to try to fight a war that he cannot win. This is what gives Batman such pathos. The Joker's reaction to his "one bad day" is to descend into insanity. He justifies his actions to himself by trying to convince himself that everyone else would be like him, if only they had suffered what he has suffered. At the end he recognises that this belief is false, but he clings to it nevertheless, trapped in the insanity that now consumes him. This is just the Joker pathos too, and in my opinion the best villians and heros have pathos.

Both were transformed by their "one bad day", one into a man trying impose order and justice to chaos, and the other into becoming the embodiment of that chaos.

Brian Bolland's outstanding artwork should not be overlooked either. His visual characterisation of the Joker has become iconic, and his detailed style brings the Joker to life in a way that no one else had done before. In combination with Alan Moore's writing, they combine to provide a piece of work that transcends the negative connotations that labelling it a comic would give it.

The final scenes of the book, where Batman confronts the Joker, and tries to reason with him, appealing to him in the knowledge that their continued war will only bring about the death or either or both of them is truly touching, and the Joker's final rejection only forbodes further evil from the Clown Prince of Crime.

I know I am hyping this, but there are some Batman graphic novels that any self respecting Bats fan needs to own. The Dark Knight Returns, Batman : Year One, Batman : The Long Halloween, Arkham Asylum, Hush vol I and Vol II, Batman : Dark Victory and of course The Killing Joke. There are some graphic novels that any self-respecting comic book fan ought to own, V for Vendetta and From Hell to choose a couple from Alan Moore's work.

And there are some that everyone should own, just to remind people that sometimes, just sometimes, a comic or graphic novel will come along that shocks you and astounds your expectations. The Killing Joke, along with Dark Knight Returns and The Watchmen is one of those.

In the forthcoming sequel to Batman Begins, I only hope that it is this interpretation of the Joker that Nolan brings to the screen, because it is this Joker which is the truly the arch-nemesis that Batman deserves. I can't recommend this one highly enough.