The Killing Joke Review

The Killing Joke by  (50 pages)
My Rating: 4 Stars
Date Read: 5 January 2017

Synopsis:

For the first time the Joker's origin is revealed in this tale of insanity and human perseverance. Looking to prove that any man can be pushed past his breaking point and go mad, the Joker attempts to drive Commissioner Gordon insane.

After shooting and permanently paralyzing his daughter Barbara (a.k.a. Batgirl), the Joker kidnaps the commissioner and attacks his mind in hopes of breaking the man.

But refusing to give up, Gordon maintains his sanity with the help of Batman in an effort to beset the madman.

My Review

I really enjoyed reading this comic.

We get the Joker's origin story. He was in a robbery gone wrong and fell into acid because his wife and unborn child died in an electrical fire accident right before the robbery. He was poor, down on his luck, trying to get a job as a comic, and needed some money fast to keep them from losing their apartment. He started off by trying to do an honorable thing and it haunts him for the rest of his life. It is one of the reasons he has gone a bit loony, he cannot face the fact that he is alone in his grief.

We get the reason for Barbara Gordon's paralysis and her origin into becoming the Oracle. (Thanks Joker)

Detective Gordon is attacked by the Joker who is trying to show him how painful it is to lose something he loves. Joker wants to turn Gordon crazy, but doesn't.

Batman does not want his fight with the Joker to end in death, but it will if it has to.

Overall, I really enjoyed this comic and recommend it to anyone who likes the Joker and wants to know more about him.

I love the Joker's last joke, so I'm going to write it out.

Two guys are living in a lunatic asylum and one night they decide they do not like living in an any night they don't like living in an asylum anymore. They decide they're going to escape. So they get up onto the roof and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the roofs of the town, stretching away in the moonlight, stretching away to freedom. The first jumps across with no trouble. The second pauses, he is afraid of falling. The first calls back and says, "I'll turn on this flashlight I've got and you can walk across the beam." The second replies "What do you think I am, crazy? You'll turn the light off once I'm half way across."

I love that joke and the fact that both Batman and the Joker crack up after it.