Embrace the Madness

“All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.” -The Killing Joke

  

The Killing Joke, written by Alan Moore with artwork from Brian Bolland, is delightful to read. I was excited to read this for class because I love the Joker and was interested to see how Moore portrays him. I was not disappointed.

First off, the artwork in here is not to be ignored. Bolland does a sensational job at bringing the comic to life with the details in every frame and the coloring. I got a great sense of story in every illustration even if there were no words. The contrast of colors and lighting are beautifully done and really aid in carrying the dark tone of the story where it is needed.

Now onto the Joker himself. I've always thought he was a fascinating character and I loved watching him in Batman: The Animated Series (especially when Harley was around). The origin story was interesting in this comic. There's probably hundreds of Joker origin stories floating around, but I liked Moore's approach probably because I'm a sucker for the combination of love and madness, and the origin story here definitely plays that up.

The Joker is an asshole, but he's mad and embraces his madness, and that was enough to have me hooked. The way he calls himself mad and a loon among other things in The Killing Joke is great. It makes me wonder if someone was truly mad, if they would even know to call their self that, but the

way the Joker goes about it has me convinced of his lunacy and his cognizance about it, which makes for a perplexing character. He does not care about the chaos he spreads, but rather he is on a mission for everyone to embrace that chaos...for everyone to have that one bad day and join him in madness. I love the way he taunts Batman about how he must have had a bad day once, otherwise why would he be dressed up as "a flying rat?"

But then the way Batman and the Joker share a laugh at the end just made my heart smile. I loved the ambiguity of the ending. They beat the shit out of each other and then laugh darkly in the rain. Brilliant. We may instantly label the Joker as the psycho, and while I don't think Batman is psychotic, he is definitely dark. Otherwise he would not seek the Joker out to talk about their batshit madness and then join in on the joke. It's wonderful. I love the messed up dynamics of that relationship.

“Madness is the emergency exit. You can just step outside, and close the door on all those dreadful things that happened. You can lock them away…forever."