Looking Inside the Brains of Two Amazing Madmen

KillingjokeAlan Moore isn’t a writer you’d normally associate with the Batman series, but in 1988, he combined with Brian Bolland to produce one of the best stories in the series’ history. “The Killing Joke,” while a bit shallow at points and underdeveloped, ranks as an influential piece of lore and is worth reading for a ton of reasons. A one-shot story, it’s a quick read, but is marked with several moments that have changed the series forever.

Channeling the path of the Joker, who is hellbent on showing the Dark Knight just how similar they really are, this story is one that will force you to think more about the relationship between these two characters than ever before. While the length of the story itself [42 pages] doesn’t allow you to analyze it to the level you’d like, Moore does a great character study here that not only serves as a main inspiration for “The Dark Knight,” but one that truly asks the question: Can the way someone perceives the worst day of their life affect them forever?

When looking for the answer for this question, you’ll also have a front-row seat to the striking visuals of Bolland, which were already grand before being recolored for the deluxe hardcover edition of the story. Bolder and without a doubt more striking, they make an already solid entry into the Dark Knight canon a memorable one.

However, much like the art work of Jim Lee in another excellent Dark Knight story, “Hush,” the art takes a back seat to the writing and it is the story that separates it from the countless other Batman stories in print.

The opening pages wet your palette and put you in a situation to question the Dark Knight’s humanity: Why does he continually try to help a man that wants to kill him? And why does the Joker continue to push Battie’s buttons when he knows he won’t kill him? Just like Heath Ledger said in his portrayal of the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.

This time around however, there’s an answer – they share a laugh.

Funny, don’tcha think?

This moment alone makes for a magical reading experience, but the other moments away from the main story arc are equally as important.

For one, it not only marks the end of Barbara Gordon’s tenure as Bat-Girl, it also sees the emotional journey of Commissioner Gordon, one that directly inspired the descent from greatness of Harvey Dent in “The Dark Knight.” Because of this, we can see how one small story not only inspired Hollywood, but also ended up affecting the series as a whole.

For that, it ranks as a special one, in spite of its flaws.

And flaws there are.

Moore himself wasn’t completely happy with this work and after reading, you’ll understand why. While the psychological elements are engaging, there’s no real sense of urgency in this tale; it’s almost as if you know the Joker is going to get caught and Gordon will be able to fight his inner demons for the sake of the code he lives his life by. Sure, the rants the Joker goes on throughout the story, which aside from being prophetic and mesmerizing at times, do a phenomenal job of getting inside the readers’ head, but his plan to ruin Gordon on its own lacks the type of polish we’d expect from a man who has killed and pillaged his way to our hearts for over 60 years. The same can be said for the bulk of the origin section of the tale, as it borders on the generic and cookie cutter and is far from anything Moore has produced in other works.

Nevertheless, it is the psychological elements produced in this tale that make it a memorable one and one that is sure to continue to inspire readers for another 20 years.

Just like the Bee Gees, our villain started a joke, which started the whole world crying, but when he truly begins to cry, the world and his enemies begin laughing.

Because the joke, in the end, is on him.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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