The Killing Joke

For this week, I read Batman: The Killing Joke for this week. In this story, Joker becomes the main character. The story explains how Joker became Joker. Joker used to be a normal person who had a wife and a baby would be born very soon. After reading the whole story, I couldn’t help thinking what if Joker didn’t quit his job as a lab assistant, would everything be different? It seems like everything started from there. We can tell before the guy got mad and became Joker, he was actually not a brave man. He would have quit the crime if the other two men hadn’t threatened him. However, after experiencing his bad day, he chose to give up his sanity, since he had nothing to lose anymore.

It’s kind of hard for me to have connections with either Joker or Gordon. In Joker’s case, it was his own fault that caused the tragedy. He could have had other choices to make money. However, he chose the worst choice. And in Gordon’s case, he’s very admirable. He wasn’t defeated by Joker’s pure malice. I don’t think I could say something like “I want him brought in, and I want him brought in by the book” if I were Gordon. They are two extremes.

I think this comic can be made into a film. The part of Gordon riding the ghost train is very impressive. I can imagine the scenes with light effects with crazy music in the background with Joker singing and dancing on the massive monitors.

The ending of the story is very interesting. The villain seems to give up running away, although I’m sure he wouldn’t, and tells a bad joke. The superhero and the villain laugh together and the story ends there. The silhouette of Batman and Joker laughing together doesn’t look like typical superhero and the villain. Maybe Joker isn’t the only one who’s crazy.