Batman: The Killing Joke Deluxe Edition Review

About.com Rating 5 Star Rating

User Rating 3 Star Rating (1 Review) write a review

By Aaron Albert, About.com Guide

The Killing Joke

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Title

Batman: The Killing Joke – The Deluxe Edition

Writer:

Alan Moore

Artist:

Art and Colors – Brian Bolland [h3}Letterer: Richard Starkings

Publisher:

DC Comics

Content:

Batman: The Killing Joke is for mature audiences and contains violence, intense situations, brief nudity, and horror elements.

Introduction:

This has become one of the ultimate Batman stories to come out of DC Comics. It was a part of the group of comics that came out in the late eighties that helped change the face of the comic book world with the “grim and gritty” style that has become commonplace in the comic books of today. This one shot comic book has influenced creators, filmmakers, and has been hailed as the greatest Joker story to date.

Story:

"One Bad Day."

This is the premise behind Batman: The Killing Joke. What would it take to drive a man insane? The Joker, Batman’s long time archenemy longs to find out. His victim? Jim Gordon, Batman’s ally and friend. What happens is a morbid tale that tests a man to his limits, reveals what could be Joker’s origin, and the future of what could be the future for Batman and The Joker.

Review:

There’s good reason why this comic book has influenced so many and has stood the test of time in its influence of the DC Universe. The Joker is portrayed here in his most cunning, calculating, and mad self. What we see, however, is insight into a possible origin of The Joker, but as he says himself, “If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!” Even this seems to fit into what makes The Joker who he is, completely unpredictable.

This story has had a lasting impact on the DC Universe, primarily with the shooting and paralyzing of onetime Batgirl, Barbara Gordon. Since then, Barbara has been force to aid the DC Universe in a different way, that of the master of information, Oracle, a fact which seems to be hidden in the opening sequence of the comic when Barbara and Jim are talking about the information that Jim Gordon has on the masked villains of the DC Universe and how he needs to let her put things into a proper filing system. Something she inevitably does herself.

The art is realistic and downright creepy in a few sections. The “evil dwarves” come to mind – Up, up, up! And having seen the comparisons from the original colors to this edition, I felt the washed out tones of the flashback sections helped to make the transitions between the sections more fluid. I felt the also first reveal of The Joker after his transformation had more impact. Overall, it was a good re-imaging.

What can you say about Alan Moore’s writing? Most would say that it is spot on, but Alan Moore himself found flaws with the story later on. I guess it goes to show that many great creators are never finished with their works, even after critical acclaim.

This deluxe edition sees Brian Bollard redoing the coloring chores, making things more realistic and somber, and not as bright as the previous colorist, John Higgins, had done. Bollard had even gone back in and redid some of the faces in the comic and he states in the “extras” section of the comic, “The eagle-eyed may notice that every page has something slightly different on it from THE KILLING JOKE of 20 years ago.”

Conclusion:

The Killing Joke Deluxe Edition has a lot to offer the Batman fan, insight into the artwork by Bollard, hardcover, new colors, and even a complete comic written and illustrated by Bollard himself. The price is decent for a hardcover and this comic should be in every Batman fans collection. The nice thing about this one is the DVD like extras and even if you have the original, with the extra work by Bollard, this makes it great to still pickup and compare what has changed in twenty years.

User Reviews

3 out of 5

The Killing Joke, Member ZacharyF

This is a much hyped Batman story from the pen of Alan Moore, drawn by Brian Bolland and originally coloured by John Higgins. Personally I felt the story was fine but not as good as The Dark Knight Returns comics by Frank Miller and Lyn Varley which had a more original take on The Joker. This is a good story but not a great story, I don't think Alan Moore is overly taken with it either. The most annoying thing was the poor joke at the end which let it down, it implied The Joker and Batman shared a moment of humour (and not a good joke at that) after the atrocities The Joker had caused. Brian Bolland's drawing is impressive as ever although some of his drawings of The Joker makes the character look a bit doe eyed and not as menacing as he should have been. The colouring by John Higgins really made the images stand out from the page, Mr Higgin's is a much underated artist and second to none when it comes to colouring. Unfortunately the new 20th anniversary delux edition has Brian Bolland re-colouring the artwork. I know Mr Bolland didn't like the original colouring but he just hasn't the sense of colour for this kind of job. He's mostly a cover artist and seems unable to maintain interesting colour flow from panel to panel let alone across a series of pages, he just isn't adventurous enough with the medium. The new colouring, albeit clean, lacks any drama, there's no lift to the line work that the original had. If you buy this graphic novel, buy the original version as the colouring was probably the best thing about it.

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