The artwork was really good, especially on the Joker. Delightfully disturbing.

My two gripes (and they are major ones) are:

1. The Joker gets a back story. Remember the movies are the only Batman stories I know well, but one of the things that I loved about the Joker was that he didn't have a back story. He isn't misunderstood or a tragic figure. He's evil, something that Bruce Wayne doesn't know how to deal with. Evil tends to be a dirty word in fiction and it's not hard to see why, but I thought The Dark Knight pulled it off. It had a villain with no motivation (other than to "watch the world burn") and no discernible origin. He had sob stories, yes, but they couldn't all be true. I always assumed that the Joker was mocking the idea of villains always having an event that made them they way they are. In here we get the idea that the Joker does this, because he doesn't remember the event (and, we the reader, now know the event... ugh). The Joker in TDK (or at least my interpretation of him) was bold. An evil character with no motivation or origin can not work. But he does.

2. This is just personal preference and it's no fault of the story, but I didn't like the ending. I wanted Batman to win. The ending pretty much went against everything I stand for so, while I can respect The Killing Joke as a work of art, I can't say I like it.

Taral-DLOS wrote:

Dude, you might have missed a line in the book. The backstory they provided was not necessarily correct (and isn't canon). "...if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!"

No, I noticed that line. I figured that the flashbacks were being told by the omniscient narrator rather than the Joker's memory. I also thought his origin was rather tame and uninteresting. Compare it to Rorshach's origin. The Joker's origin was easily my least favourite part of the comic.

Caedus_16 wrote:

@Reep: The ending was perhaps the most brilliant part because of the ambiguity of it and the revelation that they're both pretty much insane for the same reasons, but they reacted different ways.

I agree that it was brilliant, but I'm not sure whether I liked it simply because I'm very biased in Batman's favour. I liked the idea that Batman and the Joker have similarities (that aspect was in TDK also), but I wasn't as much of a fan of the Joker's nihilistic ideology winning out. Again, my second point was personal preference and it isn't necessarily a flaw.

It was a very interesting comic, it had a very simple, elegant plot, and I'm certainly glad I read it. I plan on reading some more Batman comics soon.

Ya I get that. I dunno, they kinda stalemated to me. Batman extended the olive branch and Joker declined because of his view. Batman and Joker are the way they are because they're the only ones who "get it" (The nature of reality) and they're the ones who allow themselves to be affected the most drastically. Batman is the idealist, asking Joker for peace so that they might survive it. Joker is the cold realist. Batman's ideals will never truly win out. The comics point out a lot that he is the reason supervillains exist in Gotham, so he is the answer to the problems he is causing. Joker merely exists, and in another graphic novel it was suggested that he may be a new version of sane that is simply dealing with the reality he's discovered the only way that works. Read Arkham Asylum: A Serious House for Serious Earth and you'll get to read the other most amazing Batman comic as well as see some of these points.

Caedus_16 wrote:

I dunno, they kinda stalemated to me. Batman extended the olive branch and Joker declined because of his view. Batman and Joker are the way they are because they're the only ones who "get it" (The nature of reality) and they're the ones who allow themselves to be affected the most drastically. Batman is the idealist, asking Joker for peace so that they might survive it. Joker is the cold realist.

I wanna re-read it now.

I think I'll read it once more before taking it back and then I'll check out either the Arkham one you suggested or one of Taral's suggestions. I'll see what my library has.