Batman: The Killing Joke

I've finally manage to get this novel graphic after quite a long time. Hard to get, luckily, it was the the last copy(or i have to order and wait), and I just took it without thinking much. At first, I wanted to buy The Question: Zen and Violence...but....this was kinda hard to get in Malaysia. Bought the deluxe edition which DC has announced a 20th anniversary special hard cover edition of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s classic Batman tale The Killing Joke.

Being a Batman fan, I was happy to get this copy. Have quite few Batman collection back home since few years ago. Written by Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Watchmen, League of Extaordinary Gentlemen) and drawn by Brian Bolland (2000AD, Camelot 3000). In a way, I could say this was like the origins of Joker, The Clown Prince of Crime.

The man who will become the Joker is an unnamed engineer who quits his job at a chemical company to become a stand up comedian, only to fail miserably. Desperate to support his pregnant wife, Jeannie, he agrees to guide two criminals into the plant for a robbery. During the planning, the police inform him that his wife has died in a household accident involving an electric baby bottle heater. Grief-stricken, the engineer tries to withdraw from the plan, but the criminals strong-arm him into keeping his commitment to them.

At the plant, the criminals make him don a special mask to become the infamous Red Hood. Unknown to the engineer, this disguise is simply the criminals' scheme to implicate any accomplice as the mastermind to divert attention from themselves. Once inside, they almost immediately blunder into security personnel, and a violent shootout and chase ensues. The criminals are gunned down and the engineer finds himself confronted by Batman, who is investigating the disturbance.

Panicked, the engineer deliberately jumps into the chemical plant's toxic waste catch-basin vat to escape Batman and is swept through a pipe leading to the outside. Once outside, he discovers, to his horror, that the chemicals have permanently bleached his skin chalk white, stained his lips ruby red and dyed his hair bright green. This turn of events, compounding the man's misfortunes of that one day, drives him completely insane and results in the birth of the Joker.

source:Wikipedia

(lazy to type the story =) )

The big effect from this event was, Barbara Gordon was shoot by Joker and become paralyse and for that she cant become Bat Girl but becomes Oracle(if you have watch Birds of Prey, you'll know)

And I've notice that some how the first Batman movie which was directed by Tim Burton, had a bit of influence of the Joker's origin especially when Jack was drop by Batman (yeah...I've watch few times and seems like Batman purposely let Jack fall....heh..i think) to the toxic waste which he survives and blah..blah..blah..you know the rest right.

The Dark Knight, which Ledger was the Joker(best act as a Joker i've known) also uses this book as a reference especially having 'multiple choices'.

Back to the book, the ending wasnt much as i expected like the title itselfs. During te last pages, Joker starts telling Batman a joke and somehow Batman was laughing....a bit creepy when Batman is laughing.

To tell you the truth, there's a lot of Joker's origins but mostly it has the same thing in common, toxic waste@chemical waste. If you have this comic like 20 years ago and still in a good condition, it could worth from 8 USD to 32USD for the each issues and 18USD for the hard cover.

A quote from Joker....

"You had a bad day once, am I right?"
"I know I am. I can tell. You had a bad day and everything changed."
"You had a bad day and it drove you as crazy as everybody else....Only you wont admit it"
"You have to keep pretending that life makes sense that there's some point to all this struggling"