Chris's Reviews > Batman: The Killing Joke

Batman by Alan Moore
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Jun 08, 08

bookshelves: graphic-novels

I wasn't going to do this one as an official entry - it's so quick to read that it feels like I'm padding the list. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt I wanted to talk about it, and so it goes on the List.

This was originally published twenty years ago, and is still one of the most popular and well-regarded Batman stories ever. Between them, Moore and Bolland - a master writer and a master artist - gave Batman and his prime antagonist new lives and new meaning.

It starts off in an unusual way - with the Batman trying to make peace with the Joker. This is, as many Batman fans will tell you, somewhat out of character for him. Batman's fight is the fight against evil, pure and simple. He is a man of black and white, a man of no compromises, and to see him sit down and offer the Joker a way out of their never-ending cycle of self-destruction is... unnerving to say the least.

But this story isn't about Batman. It's about the Joker - how he came to be, what he wants and what he thinks of the rest of the world. His hypothesis is simple: the only thing that divides a madman from a sane one is a single bad day. He knows what his was, and he's pretty sure what Batman's was, and he does his best to make one bad day for Commissioner Gordon that will take the rock of the Gotham police down into madness.

It does ask a very big question: what is it that sets us, the supposedly sane majority of people, from the mad? How much can a human endure before he snaps and dresses like a bat, or sports a permanent grin and murders people for amusement? Where is the boundary between sanity and madness anyway, and how do we resist going over that edge, especially when it is sometimes just so, so tempting to do so?

The writing is outstanding, but that's Alan Moore - we'd expect that. And the art is incredible, as we would expect from Brian Bolland. Read this slowly, and pay attention to the art. The amount of planning and thought that went into every panel is mind-boggling. If you're a Batman fan - and how can you not be? - you'll love this book. If you like a good story, well-told, you'll love this. And I have a feeling that it'll be a good idea to read this before the new movie comes out....
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