Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore, Brian Bolland Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Batman: The Killing Joke
Book Review: Who's sane ?
Summary: 5 Stars
Commissioner Gordon gets a real shock-surprise when oneday his doorbell rings and when his daughter, Barbara (Batgirl), opens the door she is imediately shot by the Joker. The Joker kidnaps Gordon, leaving Barbara behind in a puddle of blood, and traps him in his personal circus. He is out to prove to the world that in essence everybody can be driven as mad as he himself is without even having to push very hard. This book is a milestone in the Batman continuity and has left a legacy to every Bat storyline since. Alan Moore is, like always, very up for the job and the great artwork by Brian Bolland isn't exactly awful either. Although I think it's a bit overhyped this book it surely makes for a good read.Book Review: A brilliant analysis on the Dark Knight
Summary: 5 Stars
Many super-heroes came and went through the years, but not one had the staying power that Batman had. Of course, Superman started his career earlier than Batman, and remains the symbol of the super-hero genre; but while in the 80s and 90s Superman gradually became boring and repetitive, Batman reached his peak in the late 80s. Since his first appearence in 1939 Batman constantly changed, taking different forms every decade, and thus in the 80s, the Renaissance of comics, the flexibility of his character enabled every author to make his own Batman. Some of the best and most revolutionary writers and artists in comic art worked with Batman, each giving him something different.The thing that made Batman so flexible and changable, in my opinion, is the very fact that he and his enemies lack super-powers. Both Batman and his foes are defined not by their powers, their physical strenght or their weapons, but by their personalities, by their MOTIVES. The Joker or Two Face, being purely head cases, are to me far more interesting than any enemy Superman or the Green Lantern ever had; and Batman's own imperfectness and problematic character make him far more interesting than those "super-heroes".
In the late 80s the writers who worked on Batman started studying these subjects more than ever. One of the most fascinating things they realized, is how very similiar - in some ways, at least - Batman was to his enemies. Many works from that period worked on that thin line between Batman's good-guy obsession and his enemies bad-guy insanity, and the unusual relationship between them; most notably Morrison's 'Arkham Asylum', Delano's 'Manbat' and later Alan's Grant 'The Last Arkham'.
Alan Moore, one of the greatest minds in comic book and graphic novel writing, took that idea to its limits. In all of Moore's works, he played on very similiar ideas - basically, the idea of good and evil. Unlike other great writers like Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison, Moore makes a point of using very traditional, very mainstream comic book ideas but using them in a very ironic, very criticizing way, exploring the problematic ideas of good-guys and bad-guys. The best example is, of course, 'Watchmen', in which he took the idea of the super-hero to disturbing new places, but his ideas also show in his conception of Jack the Ripper in 'From Hell' and in his approach to the unusual character of the Swamp Thing.
In 'The Killing Joke' Moore studied the characters of Batman and the Joker in an unusual way, which is very disturbing to old bat-fans who are used to the good Batman and the bad Joker. The Killing Joke is a disturbing work indeed, a graphic novel which draws you into it like few others do - especially if you read a lot of earlier Batman stories. Reading it you'll be shocked to find yourself undestanding, even feeling pity for the Joker, not long after he crippled Barbara Gordon, than took pictures of her naked and showed them to her father ( No, it's NOT a book for children. )Strangely and ironically, it presents the Joker more human than ever, and re-defines his personality, his story and the unusual relationship between him and the Batman.
The Killing Joke is a graphic novel, meaning that it stands all by itself as a complete work. It needs no introduction, and it doesn't really matter where it fits in with Batman's history ( well, except for the Barbara Gordon thing ). From the cover to the back cover, it is one perfectly combined masterpiece, complete with beautiful artwork by the excellent Brian Bolland. Along with Miller's 'Dark Knight Returns' and Morrison's 'Arkham Asylum', The Killing Joke is the most brilliant, most ingenious Batman stories ever written, if not one of the best comic books ever made.
Book Review: A Well-Written Drama for the Genre
Summary: 4 Stars
Moore makes the Joker so unlikable in his actions, yet so vulnerable and, dare I say it, HUMAN, that you almost forgive his unspeakable attrocities before the climax. I felt manipulated and confused, delighting in his long speeches about morality and the confines of "order" and "sanity" Batman, doing his usual brooding and stomping around, is secondary in this story acting almost as a force of nature. At a moment where the Dark Knight reaches out for some connection, some understanding with his arch enemy, the Joker perpetrates acts against his closest allies that prove that the two are always going to be connected; two opposites locked against one another until one or both are destroyed.It is a moving and intelligent story of how we deal with the loss and injustice this world sometimes loads on us. One of Moore's best.
Book Review: For Comic Book Fans Only
Summary: 4 Stars
This book suffers from the same problem as most superhero graphic novels: It won't mean much to you unless you are already familiar with the character and his/her history. If you are not familiar with Batman and his history, or are only interested in Alan Moore because of such works as the Watchmen or From Hell, this only gets 2 stars as it is the weakest work I have ever read from the otherwise amazing Alan Moore (the Bolland artwork is fantastic, but not enough to save the story otherwise). Other than its insights into the two characters (Batman and Joker) it has nothing interesting to say. However, if you are familiar with Batman, this is an interesting and entertaining look at the eternal battle between Batman and the Joker and its underlying psychology, and is one of the first works to note that such characters as the Joker would not have arisen in the Batman universe if Batman himself did not exist (a sort of yin/yang thing). And seeing Batman and Joker sharing a laugh over a joke is a wonderful moment, but only if you are familiar with the two.This book is also interesting for its rare retelling of Joker's origin (again, only of real interest to Batman fans). The only other one I am aware of is from the 1930s or 40s. It is also the story in which Batgirl gets raped and becomes handicapped. Much better than other Bat-crap like Knightsfall.
Book Review: A classic tale...
Summary: 5 Stars
Alan Moore has never ceased to amaze me. His writing is just ... amazing. I loved this story and I can't say exactly why. But this is one story I hope everyone has read. ...