The Killing Joke- Alan Moore

For Alan Moore I've read The Killing Joke, a one shot Batman story. I've been trying for a good while to get a copy of Watchmen, but the school library has it placed in open reserve, which essentially means it will never reach my hands and will instead be absorbed by the black hole that is the open reserve..Luckily, The Killing Joke is quite a read anyway, and I'm already a Batman fan.

What made The Killing Joke so effective for me isn't just writing- It's that the writing seemed natural, and wasn't pulling along the art, and the art wasn't outshining the writing. This is what comic books are meant to do.

Though a ride into the Joker's past is something I didn't expect picking this up, and would otherwise say is strange and ultimately unnecccessary, but it was handled well. The scene when Jack (the Joker) returns after another failed stand up act was especially interesting. He was so human, and so frustrated, and yet, be it the art or the writing, it still had a resemblance of the Joker.Granted, it was a bit heavy handed in some instances- The wife's sudden death, the loss of the baby- But in these areas, the artist's keen sense of expression pulled it through.

Of course, no one can talk about The Killing Joke without talking about Barbara! Moore's decision to have the Joker shoot and paralyze her is shocking, but fantastic. It's a reminder of who the Joker is, how cruel he can be while seemingly unprovoked.It left a mark on the Batman universe, and I feel like it's effect can still be seen in newer works, like The Dark Knight.

But better yet was how the final scene, the chase and fight between Batman and the Joker was handled. Good old fashioned laughing and dodging, fighting back, and of course losing to Batman's brawn. But in a very Joker fashion, he pulls a gun in a fist fight, but finds it empty. The following conversation was a fantastic read, as Batman attempts, just once, to offer help to the Joker, who instead tells a joke that compares the two to inmates that can't trust each other, and manages to get a chuckle out of a bemused Batman. There was something much more satisfactory in this scene than the typical throwing the Joker in a cop car, or leaving his tied and waiting for the authority, and I appreciate that it ends on the Joker and Batman alone in the headdlights of the oncoming police.


Though Moore himself has called the work clumsily done without much human element, I'm going to have to disagree with him. This was the Joker at his finest.