Review of Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) by Liam M — 24 Jun 2017

The Killing Joke is one of the most controversial comic books, and now has evolved into a controversial animated feature. However the controversy is no longer the violent and sadistic nature of the story, but rather the added prologue added to introduce you to Batgirl before she gets shot and paralysed by the Joker, and also to add to the runtime!

Now because this is technically two movies, I will review both of them and average up the scores to in order to be as fair as possible!

The prologue is for a lack of the better word, dogshit! It wasn't wanted nor was it necessary and actually made Batgirl really unlikeable! She is portrayed as an arrogant, violent, lustful bully who constantly argues with Batman and ends up forcing herself on him while he's unconscious, leading to an out of place sex scene!

This is what upset me and many others for 3 major reasons! The first reason is that Barbara Gordon in the comics was in a relationship with Batman's first sidekick Dick Grayson. Second, was the age difference between Barbara and Bruce. Barbara is in her late teens to early twenties whilst Bruce is in his late thirties to early forties. And the third reason is, Batman is not only training the commissioner's daughter behind his back, but is also having sex with her as well! Some friend!

However, when we finally get to The Killing Joke segment, it is extremely well done and very faithful adaptation! Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy bring each panel to life as the Joker and Batman respectively, and it was really interesting to see Mark Hamills take on Pre-Joker during the flashback to one of the possible Joker origins.

So because of the actual Killing Joke segment was decent, i'm only going to subtract 1 star for the prologue, because one bad segment shouldn't turn one of the best comic book stories ever written into a flop.