Batman: The Killing Joke

[darkphoenix]

I have been trying to get my hands on this for the longest time, but I haven't just yet. I was wondering how many pages (roughly) it is and if it is any good.

[Dark Empress]

its about 20 pages and if your looking for a story centered on barbara you should look somewhere else, its basically just a batman vs. the joker story, barbara getting shot and the repercussions of it only take up like 4 pages. it also shows the jokers origin story of how his pregnant wife dies and stuff

[DrayvensCrow]

If it's Babs you want, you can try Batgirl: year one, the BOP two-parter, or just find back issues of BOP. She doesn't show up regularly in the other Bat-family books, except for maybe Nightwing, as she and Dick are making a go-of-it....You could try looking at a Batgirl web ring, also.

As for TKJ, it's just a matter of taste and if you really want to invest in it......I found it to be an interesting tpb, but not something that I just couldn't live w/o.

[Terry]

Originally posted by Dark Empress
its about 20 pages and if your looking for a story centered on barbara you should look somewhere else, its basically just a batman vs. the joker story, barbara getting shot and the repercussions of it only take up like 4 pages. it also shows the jokers origin story of how his pregnant wife dies and stuff

what!? i gotta get this issue then

[Cassandra Cain]

I personally really enjoyed it. Batgirl year one is very good also :)

[super85]

Its one of the alltime best Batman/Joker stories and written by the great great great Alan Moore with wonderful Brian Bolland Art. And its a 48 page read.

[darkphoenix]

*looks at depressingly empty wallet* I gotta get me ALL of those! hee hee hee!!!!! Seriously, they all sound really cool. Thanx for the imput!

[Dark Empress]

its only about 6 bucks

[Terry]

thats a lot :(,comics down here are usually about $3:75

[super85]

6 bucks is a fair price, its a classic story, and its 48 pages instead of the normal 32 paged books, and its Add-free.

[darkphoenix]

Very cool. Epp! Must go buy......

[StoyBoy720]

It's a really good story, and a nice piece of the Batman Mythos from the 80s, it happens almost right before "A Death in the Family" in which Jason Todd is killed.

[hb695]

Speaking of Jason Todd, a few ofthe too post-Crisis batfans at the Robin message boards at dccomics.com want Tim's girlfriend Stephanie Brown/Spoiler dead.

[StoyBoy720]

Well maybe DC will do just that, maybe they're planning it right now. Either way, I don't want to know, I wouldn't want to be spoiled.

*laughs, then slowly realizing it's not funny, groans*

[DrayvensCrow]

UGH! Bad puns....draining strength....must....stop....typing in James Kirk style....lol

I think Steph will go the way of Arrowette....

[Jesse321]

You can usually find The Killing Joke easily on Ebay.

[BlacCanary124]

I wanna story with Babs as Oracle, I read Batman: Gotham Knights and Birds of Prey but the Knights is mostly about Batman "obviously" and BOP just focuses on Black Canary. The DC should make a Oracle comic series. THat would rock

[StoyBoy720]

Try the Birds of Prey "Catwoman/Batgirl" and "Catwoman/Oracle" books. They came out recently, and focus mainly on Babs, and on Selina Kyle too. I liked em a lot.

[DBZ_EXP]

Any Oracle book would need another hero, after all she stays in her apartment, she is the field comander giving orders from back on base.

[StoyBoy720]

So, basically, Birds of Prey?

[Jesse321]

Stoyboy ... basically yes.

The new writing and art team promise to make the book a bit more balanced by giving Oracle more to do and bringing in the Huntress and other "guest operatives."

I've seen some the work in Horizons, which is a comicbook store preview kind of publication and it looks GREAT !!

[DBZ_EXP]

Yup.
Wow, me and Jesse321 are in agreement, hazaa.

[jaguarin]

Mmmm someone could send me in a PM a resume or the the part were the joker shots Babs? Is hard find this comic here....

[Jesse321]

The opening of BOP was pretty darn accurate on the actual shotting of Barbara ... the book just goes further into the story.

[jaguarin]

OkOk... and do you know (I couldn't find here BOP comics books) if in one of BOP comic books, Babas talk about his father and what happened to him after she leaves the hospital?

[Jesse321]

BOP wasn't being printed when this took place ... Babs was shot WAY before BOP was ever created .. but that was covered in several of the Batman books, like any life altering experience it wasn't easy for either of them, but Barbara is a strong cookie .. before you ask .. I don't know exactly which ones.

[jaguarin]

Yea... I always do strange questions that confused people as the "Mater age" in Helena Kyle forum....

I just was guessing where would be Gordon now...

[jaguarin]

Hey jesse, remember that we were discussing about the rape of Batgirl a few months ago?

I found this:

The killing joke (http://www.rambles.net/killing_joke.html)

So to prove his point, the Joker, newly escaped from Arkham Asylum, selects Commissioner Gordon. The unfortunate bystander in the plan is Gordon's daughter, Barbara, also known as Batgirl. She is shot in the stomach, severing her spine, stripped and violated in unimaginable ways (thankfully not directly shown to the reader), and left to die ... which she would have if not discovered by a friend joining her for an evening yoga class. As it is, we are told, she will be paralyzed for life.

Gordon, meanwhile, is brutally beaten and degraded. His senses are assaulted with a wild array of strange sights and characters, and he's forced to view photos of his daughter's plight.

The Batman, meanwhile, is tearing apart the underworld in an attempt to find his friend. He needn't have bothered; the Joker issues him a personal invitation to witness Gordon's final humiliation. But the commissioner is made of sterner stuff than the Joker believed, and the Batman isn't in the mood for jokes.

It's here we learn that the proper sound to make when hit over the head with a large piece of wood is "HHUT," and the realization you're about to be punched very hard by an angry vigilante is "FUHHH." The appropriate response to being knocked through a wall is "UNNF."

The interaction and character development in this book is some of the finest DC has ever produced, and the artwork is a credit to an excellent tale. The complex relationship between hero and villain, and the inevitable path it must follow, has never been explored as well as Moore has done here, and his (the Joker's) discourse on the human condition is thought-provoking, to say the least. The only flaw in the entire book is on the very last page; given the circumstances, and knowing what the Joker has done to both Jim and Barbara Gordon, I don't believe the Batman would have found the joke even slightly funny. [ by Tom Knapp ]

[Frostbite]

I didn't understand the last page of The Killing Joke at all. It looks like Batman stabs the Joker in the stomach.

[jaguarin]

i'm looking for the comic book... but i guess i need go to Mexico city to get it becouse here is impossible... It would be next moth :D

[Frostbite]

Just go to www.Amazon.com

[jaguarin]

Yea, I went there but i don't think that they send you a package just for a comic book...

[Red Mask]

With the variety of large envelopes available I don't think they need to use a box.

[Jesse321]

Jag .. yes they will ... they will just charge you appropriate shopping for it, there is no mimimum order that I have ever been aware of with Amazon.