Batman: The Killing Joke
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Template:Supercbbox Batman: The Killing Joke is a one-shot superhero comic book written by Alan Moore and drawn by Brian Bolland, published by DC Comics in 1988. It was recently reprinted in the trade paperback DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore.
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Plot summary
The plot revolves around a largely psychological battle between Batman and his longtime foe, the Joker, who has escaped from Arkham Asylum. The Joker intends to drive James Gordon, the Police Commissioner of Gotham City, insane, in order to prove that the most upstanding citizen is capable of going mad after having "a very bad day." Along the way, the Joker has flashbacks to his early life, gradually explaining his origin.
The Joker was an unnamed engineer who quit his job at a chemical company to become a stand-up comedian, only to fail miserably. Desperate to support his pregnant wife, he agreed to guide two criminals into the plant for a robbery. During the planning, the police came and informed him that his wife had just died in a household accident. Grief-stricken, the engineer tried to withdraw from the plan, but the criminals strong-armed him into keeping his commitment to them.
At the plant, the criminals made him don a special mask to become the infamous Red Hood. Unknown to the engineer, this was simply a way to implicate any accomplice as the mastermind of a crime to divert attention from themselves. Once inside, they almost immediately blundered into security personnel, and a violent shootout and chase ensued. The criminals were gunned down and the engineer found himself confronted by Batman, who was investigating the disturbance.
Image:Jokerkillingjoke.png In panicked desperation, the engineer deliberately jumped into a toxic waste vat to escape Batman and was swept through a pipe leading to the outside. Once outside, he discovered, to his horror, that the chemicals permanently stained his skin chalk white, his lips ruby red and his hair bright green. This turn of events, compounded by the man's misfortunes on that one day, caused him to go completely insane and resulted in the birth of the Joker.
The Joker kidnapped Gordon, shot and paralyzed his daughter Barbara, and imprisoned him in a run-down amusement park, stripping him naked and caging him in the park's freak show. He then chained him to one of the park's rides and cruelly forced him to view giant pictures of his wounded daughter in various states of undress. Once Gordon completed the maddening gauntlet, the Joker ridiculed him as an example of "the average man," a naïve weakling doomed to insanity. Batman arrived to save Gordon, and the Joker retreated into the funhouse. Gordon managed to stay sane despite the torture and insisted that Batman capture the Joker legitimately. Batman entered the funhouse and faced the Joker's traps while the Joker tried to persuade his old foe that the world was inherently insane and thus not worth fighting. Eventually, Batman tracked down the Joker and subdued him. Batman then attempted to reach out to the Joker to give up crime and put a stop to their decades-long war. The Joker refused, but responded in a regretful, rather than manic manner, saying only "No, it's too late for that. Far too late." He then told Batman a morbid joke about inmates in an asylum, and the two old foes laughed together as the police arrived to take the Joker back into custody.
Themes
The Killing Joke could be considered a meditation on the relationship between comedy and madness. Likewise, it could be considered an insight into character, and a person's moral fiber. For example, upon learning that his wife had died and going through a traumatic accident, the Joker went insane. Batman, however, also had what the Joker termed "a very bad day" when his parents were murdered, but he instead chose to fight for good causes. Jim Gordon went through extreme trauma, but did not lose his sense of self; he insisted that Batman capture the Joker "by the book" to "show him that our way works," remaining true to his faith in humanity and thus disproving the Joker's theories.
The exploration of the Joker's origin and the grim, hopeless outlook on life that belies his "evil clown" persona ("Madness is the emergency exit — you can just walk out on all the horrible things that happened and lock them away forever") and went a long way toward making him a more three-dimensional character.
Another theme explores the possibility that Batman is just as insane as the criminals he faces, but manifests insanity in a different way. This theme has since become central in mainstream Batman stories. The story told by the Joker at the end explores this theme symbolically: One inmate is revealed to be dangerously insane, when he suggests that the other man walk across a beam of light. The other man reacts in a sane way that protects his safety, but then makes a statement that reveals that he is just as insane as the first. The first inmate represents the Joker, whose insanity creates chaos and violence. The second inmate is Batman, who tries to prevent the danger, but with insane motivation. Throughout the story Batman tried to convince the Joker that it was not too late to change the path he was on, while the Joker conversely tried to use conflict to convince Batman that the world was too inherently sick to be worth living in. The Joker tried to use Gordon as a symbol; if a decent, "average" man could snap after one day, what was the point in trying to live in a society of rules and order? The whole time, the Joker's motive was to demonstrate the inherent insanity of Batman's mission: dressing up as a bat to fight criminals. It was only when Batman had rendered the Joker helpless and been rejected in his plea to save his old foe that the Dark Knight could appreciate what the Joker had been trying to do. When he did so, the Batman reacted just as the Joker would: he laughed hysterically.
The joke
The joke told by the Joker is a common one, in which two inmates are trying to escape a mental institution. When they are trying to work out how to get over the wall, one inmate says "I'll turn on this torch, and you can walk along the beam to get over the wall" the second inmate replies "I'm not falling for that, you'll turn the torch off when I'm halfway across."
Critical Reception
This comic book, although a one-shot, had an extraordinary impact on the DC universe. Most significant was Barbara Gordon's paralysis, which ended her career as Batgirl, and eventually led to her role as Oracle.
This was not the first time the Joker was given an actual origin. In fact, it should be noted that the Joker was honest enough to be very uncertain of the truth of his recollections about anything before the accident which disfigured him. Using elements of the 1950's story "The Mystery of the Red Hood" (Detective Comics #186) , which established the concept of the Joker having originally been a thief known only as The Red Hood, and whose real name was unknown. The tragic and human elements of his story, coupled with his barbaric acts as the Joker, portray the Joker less like a one-note monster, and more like a three-dimensional (if irredeemable) human being.
Since then, in 2004's Legends of the Dark Knight #54), much of the Joker's story from "The Killing Joke" was confirmed as being correct (since the events were observed and reported by a third party with no reason to lie), which seems to miss the point of the original story somewhat.
Tim Burton claimed The Killing Joke to be a major influence on his film adaptation of Batman.
External links
- 4ColorHeroesAlan Moore's Killing Joke
- The Killing Joke at DC Comics
- Alan Moore interviewit:The Killing Joke