COMIC BOOKS: Batman: The Killing Joke

Jun. 3—"Batman: The Killing Joke" is a classic Batman graphic novel. So, classic, it's worth visiting every few to several years or so.

By writer Alan Moore and artist Brian Bolland, the 1988 storyline dared several things.

It gave a bare-bones origin to the Joker, a character still known by no other name after 80 years in print.

The story shocked readers with the Joker savagely shooting and assaulting Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl and daughter of Police Commissioner James Gordon. A development that continued into the Batman-DC canon with Barbara paralyzed by the attack, becoming the computer-savvy superhero dispatcher Oracle.

The story reveled in the Joker's attempt to drive Commissioner Gordon mad. The Joker trying to prove that one bad day can warp a life, as his backstory illustrates in flashback panels.

Then there's the joke shared between Joker and Batman and what fans have been debating for nearly 30 years ... Does the Batman kill the Joker at the end of what was intended to be a one-shot storyline? The Oracle connection to the book indicates Batman does not kill the Joker.

As a graphic novel, "The Killing Joke" is rich in context and digs deep into the relationship between the Batman and the Joker.

In an animated film of the same name, the original story seems threadbare. Its actions no longer shocking after decades and even less so in the animated medium.

Seeing how thin the plot seems in an animated movie, it makes sense the film opens with about 20 minutes of a back story between Batman and Batgirl to establish some depth and context to their relationship. There's an epilogue, too, that's not in the graphic novel.

But the graphic novel stands on its own from the story to the illustrations to the original coloring. It evokes mood. It set the tone for decades of Batman stories to follow.