Batman: The Killing Joke is a 1988 graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Brian Bolland which was conceived as a standalone origin story for the longtime hero/villain relationship between Batman and the Joker. Two different narratives are pursued, neither of which are to be considered official canon in the timeline of the Caped Crusader, but existing rather as a “what if?” possibility. A flashback tells the story of how the Joker came to be while in the present day he latest fiendish plot is to drive Gotham Police Commissioner Jim Gordon insane while enjoying the spectacle of Batman trying to stop him before he succeeds.
The flashback became the point of origination which would eventually lead to the film which made the Joker a character responsible for taking two different actors to Oscar gold, 2019’s Joker. As in that film, the man who will eventually become Batman’s signature nemesis begins as a struggling comedian. Instead of finding success on the stand-up circuit, he becomes a tragic figure who has one very bad day that succeeds in driving him to the point of insanity. While he gets involved in an ill-chosen decision to help two thieves carry out a robbery his wife is killed in an accident at home. The robbery goes very badly and he winds up falling into the a vat of chemicals that live his skin permanently bleached a horrific bone-white. In the present day, having already long transformed into Batman’s nemesis, he escapes from Arkham Asylum, paralyzes Barbara Gordon with a bullet, and kidnaps her father.
Moore has stated that the driving motive behind this story was to reveal that Batman and the Joker are essentially mirror images of each other in multiple ways, each driven to obsession by random acts of tragic chance that forever defines their perspective toward society. The message that the story ultimately delivers is today taken for granted, but at the time was a shock to long grounded systemic view of Batman as pure heroic entity: that Batman is only slightly less psychopathic than his most psychopathic adversary.
Years later Moore would subsequently go on to take the position that he does hold The Killing Joke in very high esteem among his own celebrated works. His criticism is not of the storyline per se, but rather that because neither Batman nor the Joker are personalities that actually exist anywhere in real life, the message he intended to convey is not applicable to society in any feasible way.
