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It stands high above the average crawl of comics. He almost makes the insanity that occurs too believable.
Both writer and artist are perfectly suited to shedding light on Batman's most famous foe. This is an amazing marriage of Alan Moore's storytelling, Brian Bolland's art, and Batman's archnemesis.
Brian Bolland (especially in his re-rendering of the piece) is very bold in his ability to make Batman's world, almost too real. Truly getting to the essence of the insanity that exists in Batman's world is, in my opinion, rarely achieved in Batman comics.
Alan Moore is not afraid to tell this story. That is why you are paying what you are for just one comic.
I highly recommend it, as it is the perfect primer on the Joker's insanity, the Batman's insanity, and what makes them so fun to read.
One thing that stands up to this date is the masterful character study of the Joker himself. Over 20 years ago (1988) comic wunderkind scribe, Alan Moore teamed up with artist mastermind, Brian Bolland, to craft a 1-shot Batman book, "The Killing Joke" which would go on to serve as the blueprint for one of the most popular interpretations of the Joker ever (Heath Ledger in 'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns'). Although somewhat tame in today's era, at the time, 'The Killing Joke' stirred up a smidgen of controversy over the use of violence and depictions of The Joker's sadistic crimes. The book flashes back to reveal the Joker's back story and provides a complete retelling of his origin to flesh out the reasoning on why the Joker became such a sadistic, cruel and brutal cold-blooded killer. While the narrative may feel somewhat skimpy this tale is truly all about the Joker (along with Bolland's detailed and sumptuous art).
It is the same plodding plot that has always been associated with Batman and especially the Joker, and it is needlessly pretentious and unappealing. He's not an interesting villain any longer, and especially not as the same things are always done with him. The irresponsibility and sheer idiocy of having a major continuity event take place in an extraneous graphic novel and not the actual comic titles is immediately lamentable, but the event itself is even moreso.Essentially this is just an excuse to torment beloved characters in excessive ways, yet it manages to pioneer absolutely no new territory. Alan Moore was assured that the story would not be entered into continuity, and yet despite that it was. Generally I am forgiving with well-intentioned works; however, this is neither well-intentioned nor well-realised. It should never have entered into continuity, but now that it has, it's made the work even more lamentable.A piece of pretentious, self-important garbage. It seems that whenever a new writer attempts to give a new and dangerous spin to the Joker, it ends up being the same spin that every other new writer attempts to give him. I only wish he had known beforehand.The Killing Joke is one of the worst Batman stories ever composed.
Who cares.This is yet another supremely overrated piece of drek that was always just style over substance and added nothing -- in fact detracted majorly -- from the Batman mythos. All in all, it is completely needless, utterly superfluous, and should indeed not have ever been included in formal Bat-canon. Although Brian Bolland's art is, as always, striking, the writing for The Killing Joke is lacking and in fact virtually nonexistent. In this case, you have him doddering along and ruining a character for the long term (that is not even plausible considering the setting) just so that he can share a completely overdone and unexceptional 'moment' with his mortal enemy. It goes far too far in some ways, and yet not far enough in others. Moore himself even said that if he had known they were going to take it into canon, he would never have done it. It's not worth looking at, and it would be especially wonderful if everything that came from it were completely undone. It's not even worth it for the Bolland visuals.
and new to batman. my biggest problem with it is that it leaves you craving more. this book also has (in my opinion) one of the best origin stories for the joker (told via flashbacks) which is a little more grounded in reality and not the usual comicbook fantasy flair. i found that it will be very difficult to get more as most other comics with the joker portray him as a laughing fool, rather than a truly insane, calculating murderer. this edition especially. what pulled me to this book, like some of you, is the movie Dark Knight.
so, is the killing joke good. yes, of course. I will start out by saying i am new to comics. this book is pretty close to rational reality, without too much (or any) suspension of disbelief necessary. this book has been hyped up a lot before i bought it and i was expecting something incredible, it isnt incredible but extremely enjoyable and totally worth the price. more of the same art/writing/story telling. this has always been my favorite part of batman (and the reason i hated all the batman films between the original one and batman begins).
this edition also contains a short 3 page comic in the end about good/evil which i absolutely loved, its a philosophical debate a man in going through in his head about who is good and who is evil and how does one truly know oneself. i have read maybe 10 or so comics/tpb in my life prior to this book. batman here is portrayed as an intelligent detective who is feared and respected. the art is beautiful and an absolute pleasure to look at/read (i have a problem with comic book art of yesteryear, i think it looks incredibly childish, this book looks wonderful). in fact this mini-comic goes great to explain how the joker can go from the person he was, to who he is now.the killing joke itself is pretty good read, i found it to be short for a tpb but later understood its really just a slightly longer comicbook (not a collection of many comics). he seems very deep and troubled, possessing many internal demons and finding purpose in his life by doing what he does. if anyone has any recommendations please put it in the comments.
What with all of the hype surrounding this work, and with the reputation Moore earned with the Watchmen, I was extremely underwhelmed with the Killing Joke. The entire backstory concerning the Joker boils down to: starving artist, down on his luck, attempts his first crime to make a quick buck. (Apologies if that's a spoiler, but if it is here's another: Batman is really Bruce Wayne). One frame to the next might exhibit vast differences in coloring, technique, etc. It's probably been a while since you read Year One or Dark Night Returns. depending on how much the artist fixated. The dialog is of the typical amateurish, newstand comic variety, with lots of extremely unnatural sounding lines arising from the author's attempt to weave too much backstory into single sentences.The artwork is very good, of course, but even here I have issues with the inconsistency in style and art direction. Batman pushes him into some chemicals.
The overall impression is that the work as a whole lacks coherency and maturity.But my biggest exception - especially in light of the quotes and blurbs on the cover - is with the story. Honestly, the jacket copy praising the story is more interesting than the story itself. Aside from a little artsy "Batman and the Joker are on a collision course." monologuing, this really is a story that could have been written by an 8 year old.Forget this. Reread one of those instead.
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