Sam Liu’s Batman: The Killing Joke is the 27th of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies. It was written by Brian Azzarello and based on the celebrated graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland. There is a prologue to the movie that runs for more than the first 30 minutes. During the prologue, Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Barbara Gordon / Batgirl (Tara Strong) are on the trail of Paris Franz (Maury Sterling), the nephew of a local mob boss who wants to leverage a better position in the Gotham crime scene. Batman and Batgirl become romantically involved until Batgirl finds Paris and nearly kills him. Batman believes Batgirl has gone too close to “the edge” and refuses to continue working with her. Batgirl agrees with Batman and decides to go back to her librarian duties and spend more time with her dad, Commissioner Gordon (Ray Wise).
Buy Batman: The Killing Joke Blu-rayOnce the prologue is fully told, the Joker (Mark Hamill) finally shows up at the 34-minute mark with just 45 minutes remaining in the film. Batman goes to Arkham Asylum in hopes of trying to mend the schism between himself and the Joker, but the Joker at the Asylum is an imposter. The real Joker is at Commissioner Gordon’s house where Barbara and he are spending a relaxing evening together. The Joker shoots Barbara in the stomach, paralyzing her from the waist down, kidnaps Commissioner Gordon, and takes him to an abandoned amusement park. At the park, the Joker does his best to make Commissioner Gordon go insane by showing him pictures of Barbara naked and in agony from her gunshot wound. Especially important to the Joker is to force Gordon to stop being so “righteous” all the time and finally let his superior morality fly away in the wind. Gordon, however, is a tough nut to crack.
At this point, the story is a series of intercuts between the present and flashbacks to the Joker’s origin story. We learn that the Joker quit his job working in a chemical plant to try his hand at stand-up comedy, a skill for which he appears to be sorely lacking. His wife is pregnant and they need money, so when two hoodlums come calling with a request for the Joker, he is unfortunately willing to listen. The hoodlums want to break into the playing-card manufacturing plant connected to one end of the chemical plant that the Joker knows like the back of his hand. The Joker will dress up as Red Hood for the caper. Unbeknownst to the Joker and the hoodlums, the chemical plant has hired armed guards, and it is only moments into the job that the Batman shows up to put an end to the heist. The Joker falls into the river of chemicals at the bottom of the plant which permanently dye his hair green, stain his lips red, and give him a rictus smile.
In present day, Batman finds the amusement park and is accosted by a series of carnival fun-house baddies and the Joker himself. The fight scenes are very well choreographed and Sam Liu’s direction keeps the story on track. In a way, Liu is juggling three stories at once: Batman and Batgirl’s romantic and work relationship, the Joker’s backstory, and the fight involving Commissioner Gordon, Batman, the Joker, and the Joker’s cronies at the amusement park. At the very end of the movie, the Joker tells Batman a joke the viewer will enjoy trying to parse and contemplate as a special moment in the film and in the decades-long arc of the story of the Joker and the Batman.
There is one mid-credits scene involving Oracle.
