Essential Stories: The Killing Joke

It's hard not to with a gun to my gut...

Originally I was going to do a review of the new DC animated film Batman: Assault on Arkham, but given the untimely death of Robin Williams earlier this week it felt a little wrong. A little info, despite Batman’s name over the title the movie is focused on the Suicide Squad, a group of villains “hired” by the US Government for black ops missions. I might being overly sensitive about the situation, but I’d rather be overly sensitive to Robin Williams death than overly callous.

SO, what am I doing instead? I decided to roll out a new segment entitled Essential Stories. In it I’ll be giving a synopsis of the story and why it is so important I’m calling it Essential. And, since I’m working on a Batman theme of late I figured it would be best to work with one of the most tragic titles, “The Killing Joke.”

Pre-Joker, true or not, it's a sad story.

I touched on this one earlier with the Joker Villain Profile, but here are the bigger points. It opens with Batman visiting Joker in Arkham. He’s there on the pretense of convincing the Joker that it isn’t too late for them to change things. That he believes that one day he and the Joker are going to go head to head, leaving one or both of them in the ground. Before getting too far into his speech, Batman realizes that the Joker is in fact a fake. After voicing his “displeasure” at the guy helping the Joker escape Batman sets about tracking him down.

Joker, meanwhile, gets his hands on an amusement park. Afterwards, he makes a surprise house call to Commissioner Gordon’s place. He shoots Gordon’s daughter (And Batgirl) Barbara, crippling her for the next two decades, and kidnaps Gordon. Side note, I never got that point. Batman’s back was shattered by Bane and he was back at being Batman in almost no time. Batgirl gets shot through the spine, and she gets crippled for twenty years. Messed. Up.

The Clown Prince's most human moment
in decades.

Back on task. You’re probably wondering, what is Joker doing this time around? To put it simply, he wants to prove a point. That one bad day is all that it takes to completely ruin a man’s life and sanity. (Kind of what he was doing at the end of the Dark Knight.) SO, once Gordon was in his clutches Joker put him, naked, on a hellish roller coaster. He sang a demented song about how easy it is to just let go of his insanity while showing Gordon pictures of Barbara bleeding to death on the carpet.

Batman finally tracks him down and he and Joker have a bareknuckle beat down. Batman tries to reason with the Joker, losing battle if I ever heard one, even offering to help the Joker get a handle on his madness. The Joker answers with a “joke.”

It goes “See, there were these two guys in a Lunatic Asylum. And 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 moonlight… Stretching away to Freedom. Now, the first guy, he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend daredn’t 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 building. You can walk along the Beam and Join me. But the second Guy 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 Joker and Batman laughing together in the rain.

Most. Disturbing. Laugh. Ever.

Inter spliced between the scenes of Joker’s plan we see his origin. Or, perhaps, more accurately one of his possible pasts. The Joker makes it clear throughout the story how much he detests memory. The story goes that Joker was a former lab assistant turned comedian. The problem is, he’s not very funny. Joker tries to get rich quick helping the Red Hood Mob with a break in. His wife died in a fire earlier that day, and he took the unfortunate dip in the ACE chemicals.

This story is an Essential simply because it gives us a unique look into the Joker’s psyche. He makes it clear throughout that he detests his own memories and does his best to not think about it as much as possible. That is perhaps the one thing that makes me doubt the truth behind this origin. Perhaps aspects are true, other’s not. The level of Joker’s insanity has never really been revealed so its hard to tell how much he knows about himself. When you say, “If I have a past, I’d rather it be multiple choice,” any story about his past should be taken with a grain of salt.

The flashback scenes are done in black and white, aside from Red. Anything red is bright and vibrant. It makes things feel very eerie and surreal.

JUST LIKE MY MIND!

Yes, Joker, just like your mind.

Why wasn’t I asked to do this story?

Because you’d belittle aspects. Now get in the corner with Deadpool until I need you.

But-

SCOOT! Now, the story is a dark and twisted look into the Joker’s dark and twisted psyche. We see him at his cruelest, and also at his most pathetic point. Sure, in his next story he’s right back into his psychotic Clown Prince of Crime that we know and loath, but I think this story does help to remind us that no matter how evil and twisted the Joker is, there was a time when he was relatively normal. I’d encourage anyone interested in the Joker to read it. Next time… Why are we making all of the X-men American?

Joker takes off the Hood for the first time. The red tears are a nice touch.

 http://www.howtolovecomics.com/2014/07/25/batman-week-review-batman-killing-joke/

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_The_Killing_Joke

 http://sequart.org/magazine/20953/thats-not-funny-alan-moore-tragic-joker/

http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/File:The-killing-joke-joker.jpg

 http://www.comicvine.com/articles/the-killing-joke-re-enacted/1100-143753/