The Killing Joke

I don’t get it.

 

Currently, I work at my local library. When shelving books, I saw that we had a copy of “The Killing Joke” in our branch. I remembered reading it once but I did not remember really anything about it. Well, aside from what happened to Barbara but I’ll get to that later. So, seeing it was an Alan Moore book and one of the big comic changers back in the 1980’s, I picked it up. I got home after work and read the whole story, even all the forewords.

I just don’t get it.

I don’t see why this comic is as popular as it is. I read this whole book and nothing, and I do mean nothing at all, was accomplished. I did not think this was a great look into the minds of Batman and The Joker. I don’t think this was a dark and evil tale of how one man’s day can change their whole life. I don’t even think the book was worth the $18.00 that someone had to spend to get this book in the first place.

To me, The Killing Joke was nothing more than a very weak one shot comic that latest way too many pages then it should. But just saying the book is bad is not good enough. No, I feel that I have to explain why I think it is just a whole bunch of overhyped nothing.

The first thing I have to say is that I do not hate Alan Moore. I have read his other stuff and I do find him to be a great writer. While a lot of his work does get a bit wordy (I’m looking at you Watchmen) that does not by any stretch of the mind make it even close to bad. Plus, Alan created Mogo, the Green Lantern planet, and that is awesome. As for Brian Bolland’s art, well, it fits. I can’t say that I’m a big fan of his work, but again that does not mean that I think it is bad. The colors are very dark when they need to be and the same goes with the bright colors. The art itself varies for me, sometimes very good and on some pages, like when Batman is in the fun house, I feel The Joker could have been drawn better.

But now I need to address the story itself. I plan on going on a scene by scene look this time since, well, that’s just what I want to do. The first scene is Batman going into Arkham to try and talk The Joker sane. Batman, knowing full well that this will never work, says he only is doing this to make him feel better, that Batman tried the passive route at least once. Of course, The Joker Batman is talking to is a fake and rage quickly sets in. My problem with this scene is with Batman himself. Batman says to the fake Joker that he wants to try to do things peacefully as to not have to resort to killing. Pretty much this scene says that Batman is ok with killing The Joker, and Batman says this while the police, including Commissioner Gordon, are standing right there. Batman doesn’t kill. He is not that type of hero.

The next scene is the Joker pretending to buy a broken down carnival. I say pretend since, and we all saw this coming, The Joker kills the man who was selling it to him. I have a few issues with this scene. First and foremost is the guy who is trying to sell this place to THE JOKER! As weird as this is going to sound, I think that guy was the crazy one. He was a no body who was trying to get money from The Joker. Heck, almost all of the some bodies can’t even do that. And what point does this man serve in the grand scheme of the plot? Nothing at all. His whole 2 pages do nothing but get the guy killed.

So why include him in the first place? Well I think he was a trigger to go into the Joker’s current past. Nobody knows anything about The Joker’s history, not even the Joker himself. But in this book, there are flashbacks to what The Joker calls his past. His past this time is that The Joker was a down-on-his-luck comedian who had a wife who loved him because he could make her laugh. Oh and for the sex. No, I am not joking. That is seriously all their relationship had. Anyway, The Joker is forced to join a mob group since he can’t think of any other way to get money. *Sigh* That is stupid but whatever. Right before the job, Joker’s pregnant wife gets killed, leaving him alone with the mob. The job goes down with the Joker in the Red Hood costume. Batman comes and The Joker jumps into the chemical waste in the water below. He comes out of the water a changed mad man.

As far as Joker history stories go, that is fine. My problem is that this story is spread out over the pages as a slow reveal. Since this book was just that, a book, the slow reveal just seems to rip you out of the action and really breaks up the flow. Myself, I would have liked it as one chunk.

The next scene is Batman wondering how he and the Joker can hate each other while knowing really nothing about each other. It was an ok 2 pages but it adds nothing to the overall story.

And now comes the part that everyone remembers. Yes, we are on the Barbara Gordon scene. As we all know by now, The Joker comes to the Gordon house, shoots Barbara in the spine, and kidnaps Commissioner Gordon. All while making as many book puns as he can.

Alright, if nothing else I am fair. This is a good scene and really good Joker writing. What you might not have known is that this book was not supposed to be canon when Alan wrote it. Of course this was changed by others at DC, hence why we had Barbara Gordon as Oracle. And really, Barbara getting shot was the only thing of any value happening in this comic, even before DC wanted to make it canon.

So yeah, after another 2 pages of Joker history, we see Barbara in a hospital bed with Bullock and Batman looking over her. Bullock leaves Batman alone with her. As soon as he does, Barbara wakes up and tells Batman that the look in The Jokers eyes means that he is serious this time. No idea when she saw this look on his face when she was in great pain, but whatever.

The next scene is Gordon, stripped naked and locked in a cage, is being attacked by 3 dwarfs with sunken in faces while carnie freaks watch. Where the Carnie freaks there the whole time or what? Anyway, Joker puts Gordon on a fun house ride where he shows Gordon naked pictures of Barbara, bleeding on the floor. And that is the extent of The Joker’s plan. That is seriously all he has to try and make Gordon go mad.

Pictures like that would not make me go insane. Pictures like that would just tick me off. And when Batman comes to save Gordon, Gordon is still the same. Meaning the Joker did nothing of any value. Well, aside from torturing a librarian. Librarian torture is not cool, says the librarian.

So Batman and Joker fight and we get some really memorial quotes. Like the one bad day speech, and if The Joker has to have a history, it should be multiple choice. The fight soon leads to Batman trying, again, to try and talk The Joker out of his insanity. The Joker has a break down and starts to cry at this. Like he really doesn’t want to do this, but his mind is just that messed up that he has no other option. The Joker says that this, as insane as it sounds, reminds him of a joke:

See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum...

and one night, one night they decide they don't like living in an asylum any more.

They decide they're going to escape!

So, like, they get up onto the roof, and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moon light... stretching away to freedom.

Now, the first guy, he jumps right across with no problem.

But his friend, his friend didn't dare make the leap.

Y'see... Y'see, he's afraid of falling.

So then, the first guy has an idea...

He says "Hey! I have my flashlight with me! I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk along the beam and join me!"

B-but the second guy just shakes his head.

He suh-says...

He says "Wh-what do you think I am? Crazy? You'd turn it off when I was half way across!

The story ends with Batman and Joker laughing at this joke, then silence.

This story does nothing, and I mean nothing at all. I did not get a look into the human condition. I did not get any new found feelings on the Joker. The Joker’s master plan was dull, boring, and seemed to be nothing more than an excuse to strip Barbara of her clothes and legs. And remember, Alan Moore did not write this as canon, so that means that when this story was written; even less was going to affect DCU as a whole.

Alan Moore has gone on record saying that this story was not one of his favorites. He has said things like "clumsy, misjudged, and [devoid of] real human importance". Alan said he wanted to write human characters but with Batman and Joker, that is very hard since those 2 are clearly comic book characters.

If you like this story, cool. But for me, I just don’t get the joke.

Both images (c) DC