A review by sundayray
DC Comics Novels - Batman: The Killing Joke by Gary Phillips, Christa Faust

3.25

"What it lacked in style, it made up for in decay.”

For those who have read (or know about) the comic book, this novelisation does not bring anything new to the table. As expected it is the same origin story of the Joker (although a really good one) with some extra narrative. Batgirl also plays an important role here, whereas in the graphic novel she doesn’t even make an appearance.

I am not going to lie, I was a bit disappointed with this one. The parts that were based on the comic book were superb, and what was added was more details and description of the scenes. This work was done tastefully. The remaining parts were very far from being that good. There are entire sections that I don’t really understand why they exist as they’re not relevant to the story; it’s just “noise”.

Notwithstanding Batgirl saves the day. She has been incorporated into the story in a way that I ended up liking more than I thought I would. She also has a really, really good fight scene in the second part and for me it’s the best developed character after the Joker. Even Batman is boring compared to those two! I also liked Alfred Pennyworth and his sense of humour - who doesn't?

Alan Moore and Brian Bolland did a remarkable job with the graphic novel but unfortunately this novelization is not up to the same standard. I hope that the other two DC Comics novels published by Titan Books are slightly better.