Mini Review #3: The Killing Joke (1988)

During the marathon that was our Batman unit, we looked at many comic books from all over Batman’s timeline. The majority of them were okay- a bit confusing at times when there was a lot of action going on- but I generally enjoyed all of them. Then we read The Killing Joke.  Oh my god, I just need a second to process this story…

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Okay I think I’m good. Out of all of the comic books that I have read (all of which I can count on one hand), this one was by far my favourite. Technically, it’s two stories within two separate time lines, but I’ll get to that… maybe.

The Joker that I was first introduced to was Heath Ledgers portrayal in Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. When I first saw the movies, that joker generally creeped me out- but not in the bad way, but like in the “holy shi—taky mushrooms I need to keep watching” way. But after reading this, the creep-factor has been raised like a solid 4x higher.

(Going back to the two spate stories within the single story now. And GO!)

The modern plot line in the comic follows the commissioner as he’s kidnapped by the Joker and tortured (whilst being naked) with pictures of his daughter Barbra (no not his mom, or adoptive child-like person, but the other one; the Gordon’s daughter). Surprise, surprise, Batman ends up saving our favourite aged Commish from the weird baby goons of Jokers. A fight ensues and the ending is completely left to interpretation. I’m not going to spoil anything, but I kinda don’t want to joker to be dead.

The second plot line is a plausible back story to our dear friend the Mr. J. I say plausible because the Joker is past the point of insanity where his mind could potentially be making up fake origin stories. Or is he completely sane?! Cue X-Files theme song. ANYWAYS! We find out the Joker left his job at a chemical company to be a stand-up comedian and his pregnant wife is not happy about it. Long story short, whilst attempting to escape the rage of Batman, the Joker falls into a vat of SUUPER CONCENTRATED UNKNOWN CHEMICALS- turning him into the Joker.

But the part that I love most about this comic is not the plot points, or the graphics, or even a new take on a beloved character. The part that I love about Killing Joke is that when you’re reading it, you don’t realize it’s a comic. From what I previously knew, comics had little detail to them, besides the graphics. But in each panel that you read, you pick up on little things that just add to the story. Like the red accents during the Jokers black and white flash backs of grotesque things. Or the panel detailing and mirroring throughout the story. Or even the iconic panel of the Joker laughing that was recreated Jared Leto and his version of the character.

I think that everyone can pull a different meaning from this comic. At the least, everyone learns that choosing madness is always easy. Or just that entire monologue in general.  


I give this comic 10 dramatic reading of the Joker monologue out of 10!