The Killing Joke Goes Animated and Stays Dark

The animated adaption of The Killing Joke is a decent entry in the D.C. Comics animated film series. Flaws exist with the padded nature of stretching out the source material, but watching the film play out does bring the original comic work to life. A slight Ralph Bakshi-style edge to the animation adds to the dark nature of the film, but the source material -- the original comic book -- still is delivers an incredible emotional shock.




The Classic Alan Moore Comic Revisited

Alan Moore's classic The Killing Joke was one of four Batman arcs that forever changed the direction of The Caped Crusader as he would be portrayed in D.C. Comics. The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, and Batman: A Death in the Family all helped redefine a more mature and serious hero. The Killing Joke was unique in the sense the story did not redefine Batman, but redefined The Joker. Always evil, no one really understood The Joker's motivation behind his sheer insanity. The Killing Joke acted as The Joker: Year One in the sense the mysterious villain's early origin is fleshed out to a greater degree. "One bad day" is all it took for a failed comic to become a malevolent villain.

The Joker/Batman Duet

The Joker repeats this to Batman in the non-flashback sections of the tale. The irony is not be lost on The Caped Crusader.  One bad day is all it took to alter the path of young Bruce Wayne to become a dark, brooding vigilante.

The other piece of unmistakable irony is The Joker is not the only one with a psychological imbalance. The obsessed Bruce Wayne clearly suffers from a psychiatric disorder. Normal people do not dress up as a bat and fight crime.

And like The Joker, Batman has abandoned his real identity. While The Joker completely abandoned who he was before becoming The Clown Prince of Crime, Batman only maintains the Bruce Wayne persona because he is forced to do so. Batman cannot cease being Bruce Wayne due to all the complexities associated with being the billionaire owner of Wayne Enterprises.

Being Barbara Gordon and Becoming a New Batman

The animated version does try to flesh out the character of Batgirl in order to make the audience care more about her when she is victimized by The Joker. Creating a love story backdrop between Batman and Batgirl is a nice touch. Batman remains woefully detached since the Bruce Wayne, the human component to the dual character, is buried deep within a damaged psyche. Barbara Gordon is alive. She has not become Batgirl. Batgirl is the traditional alter ego intended to protect an identity. Barbara Gordon does not lose her humanity, which creates friction between her and The Batman.

A nice touch.

A 20-minute epilogue to a main narrative, however,  is not the same thing as decades upon decades of seeing the character in print. The shooting of Barbara Gordon in the comic book was one of the most shocking plot twists in D.C. Comics' history. Batman path to a darker and more serious future was cemented.

Changing a legendary character is not a decision any publishing house would like to entertain. At the time, D.C. Comics' hand was forced. 

D.C. Comics' New Direction

The Killing Joke was published at a time when Marvel Comics was embarrassing D.C. Comics in sales. Things were horrible in the late 1970's when D.C. Comics was forced to cancel a multitude of titles. Marvel Comics was able to ride the success of the KISS comics and the massive hit of the Star Wars title. Under Jim Shooter's tenure as editor-in-chief, Marvel Comics' sales would skyrocket. Marvel was the future of comics. D.C. was old-fashioned and headed towards irrelevancy. D.C. Comics did change direction and did so successfully. Great and memorable stories such as The Killing Joke were the reasons behind the success.

Making a Villain Relevant

The film and comic version of The Killing Joke are both intended to redefine The Joker. The short length of the graphic novel was able to dramatically achieve this result. The rather short movie doesn't entirely do so as well. The pathos of the "human" who becomes The Joker is a bit rushed in the film and not as paced as well as the comic.  Largely, this is because more time is spent on the Batgirl character in the film. The Joker's onscreen story suffers at the gain of Batgirl's.

The film does has its flaws. The revelation The Joker's wife has died was painfully brutal in the graphic novel. In the film, the scene is rushed (the same pace issue emerges again) and reaction to the news is ridiculously underplayed. The edge is taken off the deep sympathy that is needed to be directed to the character for the scene to work.

The impact of the reinvention of The Joker was always going to be dulled in the movie version. The graphic novel fit into the context of the (then) 60 years worth of conflict between Batman and The Joker. The animated version of The Killing Joke is too "standalone" to yield such an impact.

To repeat, The Killing Joke, as a movie, is a mixed bag. Certain stories just do not translate well to different mediums.