I wrote a 17 page paper on the Joker in the Killing Joke as an advocate for PTSD and Punctual Trauma. One cool thing in that story is that memory is always followed by violence. Remembering is literally dangerous.
I like that comic showed the similarities between the hero and the villain. Joker had a bad day and went nuts however Batman had a bad day too but that made him want to help people.
The drawings for this novel was so pure. i remember reading this and turn to the next page or 2 and seeing the Joker's crazy ass smiles and it look so creepy for some reason. lol
So glad you made this video, tired of people saying Joker hunted down Batgirl cause he knew it was her and took her father just because he showed up at the wrong time.
In my opinion, “the killing joke” is any law, any value, any imposed moral standard, any justification for violence/lethal force. The final page tells the whole story. The cop car (representative of authority, law, an assumed moral standard) shines a light between Batman and Joker’s feet, creating a line that clearly separates the two figures. In the final panels, Batman crosses the beam to put his hands on Joker, sure to keep his feet on his side of the beam of light. Then, the light goes away. Batman is the lunatic that jumped to freedom and is shining this beam between himself and Joker. Morality, laws, like a beam of light are intangible. You could say they’re imaginary - something we make up in our heads. Yet we’re willing to beat, aggress, potentially even kill people for being on the wrong side of these imaginary lines we make up for ourselves as a collective society of people. Assaulting someone is absolutely reprehensible in every instance - except when Batman does it? Because he had a bad day once when he was 8 years old? Because he is enforcing the law that tells people not to assault others? Has Batman ever considered the people he beats have had bad days that defined them as well? If Joker refuses to cross to the “right” side of the line, Batman has to cross it in order to force Joker into compliance. Because of some assumed morality that Batman has? How many people has Batman crippled over the years, but if Joker cripples one single person he is the bad guy. All because of an imaginary line we call the law. What a joke! A joke that leads Batman to use violence (lethal force) against the people he claims he wants to help. It won’t work and can never work. Joker refuses to be controlled or dictated by an imaginary line. Batman will have to kill him first. And kill him Batman will. Because if you have any moral standard to set, at the end of the day, the only way to get everybody to comply with your moral standard is to use violence/threat of violence or murder the people who refuse to comply. And if you have to cross your own moral line for it to exist then you have no moral line - which is why the light disappears in the last panel. That’s the killing joke. It’s any sense of morality that justifies lethal force. To fully understand The Killing Joke, you have to shed any assumption that Batman is a heroic figure, and even that there is such a thing as a hero. And you have to understand Alan Moore is an anti-authoritarian, anti-violence, anti-establishment anarchist. The way Moore sees it, Batman is no better or worse than The Joker... he’s just more hypocritical. The goal of the two lunatics is freedom. For one of the lunatics, the key to freedom is an imaginary beam we all have to pretend is real. The other lunatic realizes that beams can be turned on or off at the will of the person carrying the flashlight. Laws change with political agendas, so Batman is asking Joker to believe in a made up thing that changes with the times.
@@randomgirl01300 if you’ve read anything from Alan Moore (Watchmen being the prime example) then you have to know that every aspect of every panel matters and is intentional. No page space is wasted on unimportant or “filler” details. Which is why the pages containing no dialogue except for laughter stood out to me. So, I looked into their possible meaning. The otherwise nonsensical “joke” at the end of the book helped piece that together. It also helped that I myself have gained a familiarity with different political persuasions such as anarchism over the years. I know the mindset Moore is coming from. I suspect he identifies as strongly with the Joker as he does with Batman. As he said in the script for The Killing Joke, it is Joker’s story
Navon Myhand Maybe...But since he mentioned in the video something about movies being better than comics, I thought it might be cool to know which ones he thinks are better
I always imagined the joker to be alive. the last panel of the book is the exact same as the first, so that makes me think it's a sort of symbolism of what batman said about the two of them never ending.
I literally just read this storyline yesterday! I loved it and while I liked Death of the Family more overall as a Bat Family storyline, this was an amazing Joker storyline. I love how Joker's possible lady friend or wife died by a bottle warned that short circuited. That freak accident is just so random and probably explains part of why he's so crazy
I love jokers monologue in the mirror house. There it seemed to me that Joker was trying to make Batman understand him. Not to prove a point but just to have someone get him for once. I say this because at the end of the monologue when joker asks: why aren't you laughing? His face looks human and sad. I have never seen Joker like that. So yeah that's what i think. opinions?
I finished reading the deluxe edition of this comic and honestly I am discovering these Easter eggs right now. Not only that I am understanding the story now!!
when in DC rebirth it says there are three jokers, I believe it is saying there is a different joker for each origin : This one, the detective comics one, and the New 52
I just finished the comic book today and it was fantastic!!!! This is first ever comic book i have ever read and it really has me thinking! The ending is what got me cause it relates to the title! It also got me confused, but the comments help a lot!!! Please recommend me more Batman and the Joker comic books!!!
They sould bring back Troy Baker from the Arkham Origins game to voice a younger Joker again if they do an animated version of Ed Brubaker's "The Man Who Laughs" comic. It was meant to describe Batman's first encounter with the Joker.
They made up the first half hour, but the rest of The Killing Joke animated movie was surprisingly accurate. Most of the dialogue was word for word. And yes, I believe at the end of this particular story just like in The Dark Knight, Joker got Batman to break his One Rule.
i like to think that batman headbutt/knocked out the joker and the reason he was laughing was because he managed to disprove the jokers point by maintaining his cool and not snapping/killing him. and the fact gordon regained his sanity also helps to disprove his point.
Dear VariantComics. I love watching your "History Of" Episodes. Please, oh please do one for to of my favorite female Superheroes? She-Hulk and Hawkgirl. Please? I really want to see that. Please? Thanks for your time. Kind regards Spectrum 1701 P.S. Please do She-Hulk and Hawkgirl?
Aris, your videos are so cool I want to leave a like on each one, but i forget because i just jump from one to the next too fast XD. You´re one of my fav youtubers :)
I've heard that Fathom Events (the people behind Rifftrax Live) will be doing select theater screenings of Batman: the Killing Joke. While I'd like to see that, I'd much rather buy the BluRay.
The Killing Joke is maybe the one of the greatest CB/GN in history and IMO perhaps the greatest Superhero tale ever told. It explored the dynamics between the Hero and the villain in a more psychological level and explored one of the many possible origin tales of the Joker. But the real genius of TKJ is its deconstruction of the superhero genre, there's a one line in the comic that sums this is up, the scene where Batman is in the batcave and pondering who the joker is, asking himself: “How can two people hate so much without knowing each other?”
Aries I have a theory. If u have read darkseid war part 3 u know that the morbuis chair told batman 3 names. My theory is that there once were an army of joker. Ok just here me out. We know at one point joker was dropped in a vat of chemicals. So I thought that maybe that once he came out he gave some of his blood to multiple people. Like in the arkham game series joker gave his blood to different people and they became a part of joker but in the main universe it is different. I think that joker took some of his blood and mixed something in it so the people he is giving his blood to forgets his past. This would explain why joker has said he has no idea what his past was. Also that the chemical that gave joker his insanity got to those people. This theory would explain how joker dies and always comes back. I think that the original joker died in the death in the family because that is when he did his worst. But now there is only 3 jokers left. If u can please make a video on my theory.
Killing Joke kinda reminds me of Faust- a man dissatisfied with his job, enters a pact with the devil, that deal costs the life of his wife and child and his sanity
To be able to provide for his family (Yeaa, it's a little wishy washy) So the main difference is that the Faust character meets his devil after he is married not before; also not his wife but he himself becomes insane
I really hope that this goes well, if the Killing joke can be done well and tastefully can hopefully see much more graphic stories from the dc universe done in animated movies. I would especially love to see Knightfall updated for a more modern spin.
"Turning off the flashlight" made me think of Joaqim Phoenix's version of the Joker. The system that was meant to help him with his mental health problems was turned off. It was his "flashlight". I think its a statement in regards to crime and mental illness. You see this sort of thing, these sorts of people in the real world. The fact that this help is coming from someone who might just be as crazy (Dude wearing a Batsuit) doesn't really help that trust. So that leaves the system/Batman with the quandary of what can we do for these people if they don't want to stop, if they don't want to be rehabilitated so the end is left ambiguos because we don't have an actual answer for that. Do we rely on things like capital punishment?
The art by brian bolland and brillent story and dioluague by alan moore easly a masterpeice of comic book literature by far the the best batman joker story nothing can top the brilliance that is alan Moore's the killing joke
Love this! And your vids :). I just wanted to point out that the joker doesnt fall accidently to the vats, he jumps trying to escape Batman. Its really important because it means he chose to escape whatever the consequences
my mom got me the killing joke for my birth day and I finished it in the blink of and eye. It was great personally I don't know what to think happened in the end but I think some how the joker lived considering it was mentioned in the death of the family
This was the book that got me into reading comic books. The best one ever. I would love to know which are the other 2 among the 3 most favorite comics Arris mentions.
I own the killing joke, and it's one of my favorite batman storylines ever, probably my 5th favorite, behind in order:the dark knight returns, year one, the long halloween, and dark victory :)
Also this would explain how joker is unpredictable no one knows what his motive is until it happens. Each person has different ideas but share one thing their hatred for batman
never read the comic, but what stuck out to me, is that batman's laughter appears to always be the lower laughing when they laugh together. and then the top laughter stops. you could take it further. his first laugh was at the top of the screen and get dragged down until he's left alone, on a lower level. well done, artists.
I think the reaction to Riri Williams by the Marvel fanboys is hilarious. It's either, "it's about time " or "pc has gone too far ". Meanwhile I'm thinking DC has been doing this since before many of us were born and their fans embraced it. I mean John Stewart went on to be the Green Lantern with the strongest willpower back in the early 70's (for none comic fans he is the African American Green Lantern ). The female Robins (just as many female Robins as male ones) didn't just become more Batgirls for a reason too. When they put on that outfit they become more than themselves, their gender, or even the rest of their fictional society.
I think mainly because DC goes around it better and that's mainly because they have much more lore in their heroes, the green lantern core, the bat family, and the speed force all lend to "team" expanding for different types of characters better than Ironman, Thor, and Spidy.. all heroes that work typically alone in their comics but yet were used to introduce radically different people to pick up their mantle.
I just saw the movie and the second half is exactly like the comic. There is a whole other story in the first half just to bring you closer to Batgirl before the joker comes in.
The actual killing joke in the last two pages is by far my favorite part because of how well batman and the joker are compared together as one and the same, it's just that one took the right path (across the beam) and one is too scared to do it and stays mad. The whole reason batman kills the joker is because he realizes that he can't fix the Joker because he can't bring himself to walk across the beam even with the help of batman (shining the light).
you know random thought, but with the introduction of multiple jokers, he might have killed him and it still be canon, just means there was 4 at one point instead of 3
