I take in
another deep breath, and sprint forward. There’s a sting in my lung, and I have
to stop yet again. The steps behind me are gaining, and I glance backwards,
panicking. Without much thought I lunge behind one of the park’s benches, and
try to control my loud breathing. The person following me slows down and stops
right in front of the bench I’m hiding behind, but doesn’t even look in my
direction. For a moment I dare to think that he has lost me, that he’s scanning
the darkness in front of him for me. But then the man speaks, the sound
crackling slightly.
“So this
clown and a blogger run into a park…”
He turns
his head to look at me, his white face covered in an unnaturally wide grin.
The Killing
Joke (WARNING! Major Spoilers!)
The Killing
Joke is the third of my Batquest, and has shown me dimensions that I couldn’t
fathom before. This comic, although featuring some major events that affected
the whole Batverse and maybe even the DC universe (haven’t really read any
other DC so I can’t say :D), does not build it’s awesomeness on that. Instead
it’s breathtaking art style and colouring coupled with an absolutely fantastic
storyline really show what a graphic novel can be.
The story
starts off with Batman going into Arkham Asylum to have a little chat with the
Joker. Instead of doing what I expected him to do (“WHERE ARE THEY?”), he just
wants to have one sane conversation with the one person in the world who’s
faith is so deeply tied to his own. Of course, this can’t happen; Batman
quickly discovers that the Joker has escaped and the person in the cell is just
a stooge pretending to be him.
This is
where we’re introduced to our first flashback. Before we go into it, I have to
say a few words: although the flashbacks seem to depict the origin story of the
Joker, I don’t believe this to be the case. Rather than being something that
actually happened, I think it’s one of the many crazy beginnings the Joker has
imagined up for himself, and symbolizes his relationship with the Bat. But let’s
talk about that a little later.
In the
first flashback we’re introduced to a failing comedian, and his pregnant wife.
They live in a tiny little shack, and the comedian can’t find any work because
he’s shit at what he does. He’s desperate for anything that could save him and
his little family. Eventually he finds a job; some thieving kind have decided
to rob a chemical plant that the comedian used to work in, and they ask him to
guide them for a share of the loot. They offer him the mask of the Red Hood to
use so that no one can recognize him. However just before the men are about to
leave for their heist, a police officer comes into the bar they’re sitting at
and tells the comedian that his wife and the baby are both dead. The comedian
tries to back away from the heist after this, but the robbers won’t let him and
force him to come with them. They make their way to the chemical plant, where
the Batman finds them and captures the other robbers. The comedian runs away
from him but trips into the sewage of the plant, getting away from the Batman
but discovering at the shore that his face is pure white, his lips rosy red and
his hair bright green. This is the last straw, and the comedian breaks down.
Insanity takes hold of him and the Joker is born.
Back to the
present day. Joker buys an abandoned amusement park, and sets up his planned
amusements. Then he goes to Gordon’s house, shoots Barbara snapping her spine
and paralyzing her from the waist down, and kidnaps Gordon. He takes Gordon
down to the amusement park and forces him to go through the haunted house ride
naked, with all of the usual decorations removed and replaced with giant
pictures of Barbara, lying on the floor of their apartment bleeding. Joker is
doing this to prove to Gotham, Batman, Gordon, and himself that anyone could go
crazy, they just need to go through one really bad day.
Eventually
Batman finds his way to the scene, and a fight ensues.
As I said
earlier, this comic book was brilliant. The
whole story is built upon the idea that Batman and the Joker are different
sides of the same coin, and that one wouldn’t exist without the other. This is further
reinforced by the flashback scenes, where Batman plays a part in Joker’s
creation; since the Joker exists psychologically because of the Batman, he has
created a past in his mind where the same happens physically.
It’s also
argued by Joker that the Batman is as crazy as the Joker is, and this is really
the first time I thought of Batman this way. This was the first time I thought
of the Batman series as a bunch of psychopaths fighting for the control of Gotham
rather than a hero trying to stop criminals. The only difference is that the
Batman refuses to steal things or kill people, and Joker even argues that
Batman himself was created by one bad day. Of course, this is all the more
compelling argument when we know this to be partially true; it’s certain that
the childhood trauma of having his parents killed right in front of him
contributed to his crime fighting, and this makes you wonder whether Batman
would even exist if it weren’t for that one day. What if only one of his
parents got killed? What if Alfred got killed instead? What if his dad had
killed the druggie first?
Other than
these very interesting ideas about the whole essence of Batman, the story
itself works very well. The pacing is tight and no scene feels like it’s
dragging on too much, and the story itself gets told in just enough time to
grasp the main points but not so long that the reader gets bored. Each scene
has something important to say in relation to the story, unlike a certain other
Batman comic I read recently *cough*The
Long Halloween*cough*.
The art on
the other hand is well done, but not on par with other works I’ve seen. It gets
its point across simply, with most of the comic being fairly bland coloured
except for the objects important to the plot. This style has been tried before,
but it definitely works, even if it can’t hold up to the deep symbolism that
the Long Halloween showed in its artwork.
Altogether,
this was an amazing comic book. It’s a must read for anyone interested in
Batman or comics in general, and I demand you read it right now. Do it. Do it
now.