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A review by ponch22
Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore
5.0
Heard this was one of the great Batman books (despite its lackluster, R-rated movie adaptation from last year) so decided to pick it when I noticed it on my library's digital website.
This was the rerelease with all new coloring (black and white flashbacks, more muted present action) and after searching for images of the original pages, I have to say I love this version a lot more.
It seems there was some controversy when [a:Alan Moore|3961|Alan Moore|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1304944713p2/3961.jpg] used "The Man Behind the Red Hood" as some inspiration for the Joker's origin story (unlike movies which seem to always require an origin story, comic books aren't supposed to mention it as much it seems). But the Joker admits to being an unreliable narrator ("If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!" very a la Ledger's "You wanna know how I got these scars?") so I like seeing something, especially when almost every change from past to present is accompanied with fantastic match cut transitions.
The actual story is pretty dark (the Joker "permanently paralyzes" a character; although in a one-off novel, I'm not sure exactly how anything can be permanent) but the ending has a nice ambiguous tone that I was already prepared for (it's my feeling that no one dies in the end).
One minor complaint I have is how ineffective the Joker seems to be. I mean, he did accomplish a lot to put his plan into motion, but his ultimate plan of proving that "[a]ll it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy" is proven wrong when Gordon doesn't snap despite multiple trips through his tortuous fun house. But it's not a big enough problem for me not to love the book for all its worth (despite Moore seeming to hate his involvement with it).
This was the rerelease with all new coloring (black and white flashbacks, more muted present action) and after searching for images of the original pages, I have to say I love this version a lot more.
It seems there was some controversy when [a:Alan Moore|3961|Alan Moore|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1304944713p2/3961.jpg] used "The Man Behind the Red Hood" as some inspiration for the Joker's origin story (unlike movies which seem to always require an origin story, comic books aren't supposed to mention it as much it seems). But the Joker admits to being an unreliable narrator ("If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!" very a la Ledger's "You wanna know how I got these scars?") so I like seeing something, especially when almost every change from past to present is accompanied with fantastic match cut transitions.
The actual story is pretty dark (the Joker "permanently paralyzes" a character; although in a one-off novel, I'm not sure exactly how anything can be permanent) but the ending has a nice ambiguous tone that I was already prepared for (it's my feeling that no one dies in the end).
One minor complaint I have is how ineffective the Joker seems to be. I mean, he did accomplish a lot to put his plan into motion, but his ultimate plan of proving that "[a]ll it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy" is proven wrong when Gordon doesn't snap despite multiple trips through his tortuous fun house. But it's not a big enough problem for me not to love the book for all its worth (despite Moore seeming to hate his involvement with it).