One of the most controversial works of the DC Comics; Batman: The Killing Joke is soon going to be made into an animated feature film. Written by author Alan Moore and drawn by illustrator Brian Bolland back in 1988 was a one-shot superhero graphic novel which gave a background story to the life of Batman’s enemy, Joker.
The novel revolves around the life of Joker, Gotham City Police Commissioner: Jim Gordon, his daughter: Barbara Gordon and Batman. The story starts off with the revelation that Joker had escaped from the Arkham Asylum and had taken an abandoned amusement park under his possession. Slowly he started getting flashbacks about his past life where he was an engineer who quit his job to become a stand-up comedian in which he failed miserably. Under the pressure to feed his family, he helped few criminals to get into the chemical plant for robbery but fate wasn’t on his side. His wife died before the robbery and as events turned out while escaping from the robbery scene where he was going to get caught by Batman, he jumped in the chemical plant’s toxic-waste which led to change in his skin, lip and hair colour. The tragic turn of events led him to go insane and now he wanted to prove that the world is inherently insane.
The book became famous because of two things: Joker’s story and also because in this issue Joker presumably sexually assaulted and shot Barbara Gordon which led to her losing her ability to walk. In 2014, Joker’s character completed its 75th anniversary and as a tribute, the cover got a reboot drawn by Rafael Albuquerque which got controversial as it looked as if the Batgirl has become the victim of Joker and is physically restrained by him. This outraged many of the fans as they stated that threats of violence and harassment are wrong and have no place in comics or society. The artist immediately asked the DC publication to pull down the cover.
The wishes of the fans have been finally granted by animation feature producer Bruce Timm and in 2016 The Killing Joke’s animated movie will see the light of day. Will the movie do justice to one of the best illustrated comic edition? We will have to wait and watch. Along with this, DC also announced two other animated features, namely; Batman: Bad Blood featuring Batwoman and Justice League vs Titans featuring Teen Titans.
