everyone I knew who read it at the time assumed it was Batman killing him and we all understood it wasn't in continuity, and thought 'good, I was tired of that guy.' Fast forward a few years, suddenly it's *canon*
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it's not some recent theory, I was there when the book came out and everybody got it. it's only interpreted wrong now because they made it continuity- it's right there in the title!
The funny part is, re-reading the except of that bit of Morrison talking about it on Kevin Smith's podcast, Smith, gobsmacked, says Batman killing Joker would make the story an "Elseworlds," an imprint that didn't exist in 1988 Smith evoking it implying flipped canonicity
Honesrlt i think whether or not Batman DID or DIDN'T 86 the Clown Prince of Crime only REALLY starts becoming vitriolically debated once you say "KILLING JOKE" counts instead of being a standalone meditation. Like, Bruce looks at a PHOTOGRAPH of the Dick Sprang Bat Family, Bat-Mite included!
Another work with weirdly adverse mainline effects, setting off a decade-ishcof Batman and Superman as terse co-workers instead of friends because folk didn't realize the point of Bruce and Clark being at loggerheads was that it was a friendship that fell apart
It was never supposed to be in mainline continuity in the first place, right? That that was a decision only made a couple years later when Ostrander or whoever introduced Oracle?
I was a wee baby Victor at the time so I wasn't reading real time so I don't know how the Bat books proper treated it but yeah, at the very least Ostrander and Yale introducing Oracle in Suicide Squad basically seals the deal
it's a Lady or the Tiger ending so it's supposed to be up to interpretation, but if he lives the reading is then "Batman has a good laugh with the guy who did horrible things to Barbara."
I don’t know shit about superhero comics, but The Killing Joke is maybe the only Batman book I’ve ever read and my takeaway was that Batman ices that motherfucker for pretty much that reason (I get why it wouldn’t be interpreted that way, too, but, c’mon.)
Alan Moore didn't typically write stories about characters who Don't do something. Gordon's yelling at him not to kill him because he knows what's going to happen. (in my reading)
it's got a lot of good bits in it but also stuff that's really too ugly to be in a Batman comic imo. But I did get Brian Bolland to sign it on the page with the Batmobile that year!
For what it's worth, when I reread it, I read it as killing, and I don't think Moore's too principled to... Remember differently in the light of his forever feud with Morrison
I'm too busy with my new Parker Remembers The 80s series, right now we're doing a deep dive on Adam Sandler's rise from Remote Control and a spotlight on Kari Wuhrer
Yeah I was thinking about this when rereading TDKR and seeing something about death in the family. People seem to over-analyze it now but TDKR having Jason’s death being a factor def moved that needle then. Also he sucked so that helped
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https://atomicjunkshop.com/dumb-fan-theories-part-i-the-killing-joke/
2) I have a loooooong history of misreading/misunderstanding Moore's works.
I only read Fist of the North Star and there’s no doubt about it Kenshiro would have brain-exploded the clown years ago.
HMU when you wanna pitch Fist of the North Star 66