The 1980s were a creative heyday for Batman. Stories like A Death in the Family, Batman: Year One, and The Dark Knight Returns pushed mainstream comics further away from the kiddie reputation they loathed and set the stage for more adult stories. One of those books doing the pushing was Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, which explored a possible origin for the Joker and changed the course of several Batman characters. It’s exerted influence on DC’s view of Batman, and some of his ensemble, ever since, defining the adversity Barbara Gordon had to overcome, and creating a darker, bleaker view of the Joker that still defines the character. But DC’s love of the past is getting in the way of its future. And nowhere is this more obvious than the animated adaptation just released over the weekend.
Batman: The Killing Joke, both movie and comic, follow the same plot. The Joker, newly escaped from Arkham, wants to demonstrate to Batman that we’re all “one bad day” away from insanity. To prove it, he kidnaps Commissioner Gordon, gunning down Batgirl in her civilian identity as Barbara Gordon in the process. The Joker then strips Barbara, takes nude photos of her bleeding body (at the least), and uses those images to try and push Gordon over the edge. Along the way, we see what the Joker believes to be his “one bad day:” In flashback, we witness a failed comedian learn his wife and unborn child are dead, get pressured into a robbery, and fall into a vat of acid that turns his skin white and his hair green all in the same day.
The book was, at the time, unlike anything else on the stands, thanks in part to Bolland’s artwork. Bolland’s panel depicting the exact instant the Joker snaps, by itself, has defined the Joker, so much so that when Jared Leto debuted his Joker, he deliberately imitated that panel. But the decision to paralyze Barbara was controversial, and has only gotten more so over time. At root: Barbara does in the story is get victimized, which even Moore has acknowledged as a problem with the story. And to the animated adaptation’s credit, writer Brian Azzarello makes an attempt to make Barbara more central to the plot.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work, and the panel and screening at San Diego Comic-Con was something of a disaster. All Azzarello’s script does is emphasize just how unimportant Batgirl is to the plot except as a victim, constantly defined by the men around her instead of defining herself. One scene in particular, revealing Batman and Batgirl have a sexual relationship, is a spectacular misfire, and throughout the rest of the movie, it’s hard not to wonder just what the point is of making a cartoon out of a 30-year-old comic book many of DC’s own fans seem to increasingly dislike.
Even at the time, DC’s writers and editors moved on quickly from the book. Barbara Gordon, who’d “retired” as Batgirl just before the events of The Killing Joke, became the information broker and superhacker Oracle, and even became the leader of the Birds of Prey, DC’s enormously popular superheroine team book. In the New 52, she regained the use of her legs and became Batgirl once again, with a recent reboot making her a brighter, cheerier character who defends Gotham’s hipster neighborhood Burnside from nanites, anime fans, and other unusual villains.
Even if DC wanted to pretend The Killing Joke never existed, it’d be impossible. But the fact that the book keeps being brought up when fans have made it clear they’d rather move on is baffling. DC has never gotten a clearer sign than this movie’s reception. DC has, in Barbara Gordon and Batgirl, an enormously popular character fans want to keep reading now, and a vibrant collection of Batman comics that are some of the best the company has seen in years. Instead of going back to what sold in the past, DC should focus on what’s working in the present, and look towards the future.
