- ISBN13: 9781401216672
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
One of the most famous Batman stories of all time is offered for the first time in hardcover in this special twentieth-anniversary edition. This is the unforgettable that forever changed Batman’s world, adding a new element of darkness with its unflinching portrayal of The Joker’s twisted psyche. Writer Alan Moore, acclaimed author of WATCHMEN and V FOR VENDETTA, offers his take on the disturbing relationship between The Dark Knight and his greatest foe. T… More >>
#1 by Lonnie on April 18, 2010 - 10:37 pm
Once again, I cannot imagine a Batman graphic novel getting five star. That would put the writing on the level of Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, ect.
With that said, this graphic novel (how you can call something a novel that has less that 25 words a page is beyond me), there are some really important events in the Batman story. First, you learn the origin of the Joker. Second, you learn the origin of Oracle and the end of the original Batgirl. Both of these events are decent.
The overall story is weak. They try to brush upon the psychological similarities between Batman and the Joker, but they do not do it justice. Really, these types of comparisons cannot be accomplished without some serious words on a page. I guess as readers we are supposed to fill in the gaps as to the psychological similarities, but it really doesn’t explain the difference that led them each down the path they chose.
I like the concept, but really, don’t spend the money, get the 500 word synopsis somewhere online just to fill in some important events in the batman story.
Rating: 3 / 5
#2 by P R on April 19, 2010 - 12:47 am
Generally I am forgiving with well-intentioned works; however, this is neither well-intentioned nor well-realised. Although Brian Bolland’s art is, as always, striking, the writing for The Killing Joke is lacking and in fact virtually nonexistent. Alan Moore was assured that the story would not be entered into continuity, and yet despite that it was. 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. It is the same plodding plot that has always been associated with Batman and especially the Joker, and it is needlessly pretentious and unappealing. It goes far too far in some ways, and yet not far enough in others. All in all, it is completely needless, utterly superfluous, and should indeed not have ever been included in formal Bat-canon. Moore himself even said that if he had known they were going to take it into canon, he would never have done it. I only wish he had known beforehand.
The Killing Joke is one of the worst Batman stories ever composed. 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. He’s not an interesting villain any longer, and especially not as the same things are always done with him. 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. 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. It’s not worth looking at, and it would be especially wonderful if everything that came from it were completely undone. 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’s not even worth it for the Bolland visuals.
Rating: 1 / 5
#3 by Kurt A. Johnson on April 19, 2010 - 12:51 am
Batman makes yet another visit to Arkham Asylum, this time he simply wants to talk with the Joker, and see if they cannot somehow come to an understanding. But, the joke’s on Batman when he finds that the Joker has escaped again. It seems that while Batman would like to end their long-running feud, Joker wants to take it to a whole new level. Grabbing Commissioner Gordon, he sets out to teach him, and Batman, a lesson in madness.
I am a huge comic book/graphic novel fan, but this one really did nothing for me. The author set out to give the story a “morally ambiguous theme,” but that is not all he left ambiguous. Batman acts strangely out of character, less a dark knight, and more…well, nothing really, he’s just less Batman. The Joker is well done, truly the crown prince of evil, but why add yet another Joker origin story? It seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the story. The ending is totally non-existent – I suppose that the author wanted an ambiguous ending, so he just left his board and went out for a Whopper and Coca-Cola. “Move along please, there’s nothing to see here.”
I thought that this was a terribly weak addition to the genre – filled with potential, but none of it totally realized. I highly recommend AGAINST this book. [If you want to read a good Batman story, with a similar theme, then read Batman: Jekyll & Hyde by Paul Jenkins.]
Rating: 1 / 5
#4 by Invisiboy2001 on April 19, 2010 - 1:22 am
The art in this book is quite good. However, the story lacks something.
Okay, the Joker had a rough life, and then goes crazy? Got it. Batman tracks his arch-enemy and captures him, and somehow finds time for a hearty laugh with Joker while Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl, lies in the hospital with a shattered spine? Got it. And Batman’s friend Jim Gordon was pretty much driven to the brink of insanity, but the character is just fine the next time we see him? Got it.
This comic was basically an excuse to make sure Barbara Gordon never became Batgirl again, or Batwoman, for that matter. And the book glorifies the Joker’s violence to an almost sickening point. It’s not intelligent; it’s not artistic. It’s just that: violence.
If I were going to make a list of classic Batman comics, this would never make the list. It’s a mess, and it’s not good writing.
Rating: 2 / 5
#5 by Eilonwy on April 19, 2010 - 3:18 am
Yesterday I gave this trade paperback a second read, and I can’t say it changed my first impressions. As a Bat-fan, I picked up the book because it contains an important moment in Bat history, central to the story of a character I care about. /Batman: The Killing Joke/ is the storyline in which the Joker paralyzed Barbara Gordon, former Batgirl — a constraint that eventually led to her becoming überdecker to the hero world, Oracle.
I’ve bought some fairly cheesy trade paperbacks in the name of Bat history lessons — /Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying/, for example, is the story of how Tim Drake becomes Robin, and it’s dripping with cheese and earnestness. I can cope with cheese (see my enjoyment of 70’s X-Men) but there’s something about /The Killing Joke/ that really rubs me the wrong way. It was written by Alan Moore, one of the two “dark” writers of the 80’s, who shocked the comics world out of its idyllic 70’s fluff and into grittiness. The other was Frank Miller. And while it’s obvious that Frank Miller has dark thoughts and muses far too much on sex with Wonder Woman, it’s equally obvious that Frank Miller loves superhero comics. Alan Moore, I have read and I now believe, hates superhero comics.
I omit my summary of the plot of the book, out of respect for Amazon’s no-spoiler guidlines, but you aren’t missing much; a linear plot with no real twists or surprises, or acts of astounding intelligence or fortitude by our hero. The only thing that enlivens the very twistless story is the counterpoint of a possible creation story for the Joker, where he’s a loser stand-up artist who can’t get a gig, tries one night of crime to support his pregnant wife, etc. The creation story is a little more interesting than the rest of it, but it’s a little more set in stone, a little more definitive, then I’ve ever seen DC let anyone do for a Joker story. He’s SUPPOSED to be mysterious — an image of the madness that can be birthed without reason from man. Except for “he fell in a chemical vat”, there is no bottom line on this man, and this weak explanatory backstory detracts from the Joker mythos, it doesn’t add to it.
The story lacks emotional punch where it needs it — the crippling of a major ongoing character, for heaven’s sake, and Gordon finding the resolve not to snap in the face of this ’sophisticated’ psychological torture — and, in fact, seems emotionally illogical. Gordon doesn’t ask Batman whether Babs is ALIVE when he’s rescued. The fiercely protective Batman, after never laughing at a single thing the Joker has ever said (I mean, that’s part of why Mr. J hates him!), laughs at a mediocre joke he tells after nearly killing Batgirl. Are these human beings? Flatly, no they aren’t. They’re mouthpieces for Moore’s shallow conceits — “one bad day makes people insane, in different ways,” and “the world is so awful you just have to laugh” — and the only thing they show any commitment to is disputing those overblown theories.
On top of that, the story makes no LOGICAL sense, something I am more than happy to overlook in a comic book, provided something else — emotional punch or comedic value — fills the void. Who was the guy in the Joker suit in Arkham? Where did the Joker get the money to buy the amusement park, or, for that matter, to outfit it with vast flat-screen displays and deadly traps within a few days? Where did the Joker find so many sideshow freaks who like to hurt people? And finally, when did bondage dwarf minions become part of Joker’s schtick? Joker is, Jack Nicholson aside, an asexual villain (please see Harley Quinn’s sexual frustration for details.) Stripping Babs for the pictures, naked Gordon leashed by bondage minions, et cetera, are Alan Moore saying, “Ooh, I’m so BAD!” NOT anything the Joker would do.
In short, I do believe Alan Moore hates superhero comics. And as Lana said on Smallville once, “If you hate your job so much, why don’t you just quit?”
Bottom line:
Pretentiously “meaningful” and pretentiously dark, not to mention painfully 80’s. Characterization shallow and perfunctory, story trite and unexciting. Pictures okay — a few very good Joker portraits.
Rating: 1 / 5