Batman 75th Anniversary Special - Graphic Novel Review - Batman: The Killing Joke

I know its a long time coming and its very late, but finally, here it is. My special Batman 75th Anniversary post. So seeing as I spent most of last year doing Batman posts in the build up to Arkham Origins, I really did not know what to do for the caped crusader's 75th anniversary. I mean I've looked at all the films (both feature and direct to home media) and the majority of the video games (well at least the ones that are more recent than others), I've given my thoughts on who is the best Batman actor (both physical and voice) and who are my favourite villains from Batman's very impressive rouge gallery. Ultimately, I decided that because Batman originally came from the comics, to look at one of the more well known and loved of his many comic book adventures and with me having already reviewed Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, Under the Hood and A Death in the Family (and their respective DC Universe Animated Original Movies), that then left me with quite a few other great stories in the world of Batman and while I will review most of them over time, I decided to go with the one that talks about the origins of Batman's greatest enemy the Joker as well as the one that seems to always be in the top 3 of what many call the greatest and most essential Batman stories and that story, is The Killing Joke. So let's take a look and see how Joker can be described as a tragic villain:

So the story revolves around the Joker who attempts to drive Commissioner Gordon insane while hurting his daughter Barbara (who following from this story, would then ditch the Batgirl persona to instead be the Oracle, an information broker that provides information to Batman and other superheroes) and thus, Batman gets into action to save them both while contemplating about the inevitable that he and Joker would one day fight to the death because there is no alternative (which indeed they do in The Dark Knight Returns). As all this is happening, we also get a series of flashbacks that explain the origins of Joker and depict him as a former engineer turned bad stand up comedian who chooses to work with criminals to get money to support his pregnant wife (and before you ask, no its no Harley Quinn because at that point, they won't have met), which would ultimately make him become the Clown Prince of Crime.

So there you have. Its quite a short read, clocking in at just under 65 pages, but it is a very interesting one. It describes the Joker as more of a tragic villain than we originally thought and has us view him in a completely different angle. Its a good read that makes us Batman fans realise that despite Batman's efforts to take him down, they would reach a point in their lives that either one of them has to die in a fight to the death because Batman can continue to put him behind bars for as many times as he is still Batman, but there is no other alternative to stopping the mad man that the Joker is. It brings character development to both Batman and Joker and just makes us think about the stuff we do in our lives that will have to end eventually because of no alternative. 9/10