Batman: Smile, please!
Batman: Smile, please! (Original title: Batman: The Killing Joke ) is a 1988 graphic novel written by Alan Moore with drawings by Brian Bolland . The story is about the Joker's revenge on his archenemy Batman . In addition, a story about the origins of the Joker is told. The story had a big impact on the comic book community. Elements of the story have been used in numerous other mediums, such as movies and video games. The Killing Joke is a regular at the top of comic book rankings. In 2016, the comic was filmed as an animated film by the filmmaker Sam Liu under the name Batman: The Killing Joke .
action
The plot consists of two timelines, with the one shedding light on a possible background of the joker in the past.
Batman goes to Arkham Asylum to meet the Joker. Tired of the never-ending struggle, he tries to convince his conscience in order to avert an inevitable catastrophe. However, it turns out that it is only a make-up straw man who is incarcerated in the joker's cell. The Joker has long since fled. He is occupying an old abandoned amusement park and preparing for his revenge.
Flashback: The Joker, a nameless former engineer of a chemical factory, tries unsuccessfully as a comedian and lives with his pregnant wife in a shabby apartment.
In the bath cave Bruce tries in vain to find the whereabouts of the Joker. He wonders how it is possible that two people who don't know each other can hate each other so much. The Joker and his henchmen ambush Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbara - the former Batgirl - at their home. Barbara is gunned down by the Joker, while Gordon is badly beaten and kidnapped.
In the past, the man who becomes the Joker meets two gangsters in a cocktail bar. In order to be able to take care of his wife, he agrees to smuggle the two men through the chemical plant, his former workplace, so that they can rob the playing card factory next door. The planning is interrupted by two policemen who inform the man that his pregnant wife was killed by the short circuit of a warming box for baby bottles. Deprived of the sense of his undertaking, he wants to get out, which the gangsters refuse.
Present: Batman visits the completely distraught Barbara in the hospital. The bullet shattered her spine, the doctor says she will never be able to walk again. It also turns out that the Joker undressed the injured Barbara and took photos of her. The Joker has Gordon captured by the members of his freak show. He is forced to ride naked and chained on a perverted ghost train while pictures of his naked, injured daughter are shown on huge screens. He hopes to prove to Gordon his theory that there is only one bad day separating any normal person from losing their mind. After taking the ghost train ride, the Joker puts Gordon in a cage, where he is ridiculed by his freaks as a naive average person who is doomed to madness. Batman's attempts to track down the Joker are in vain. Only a hint from the Joker himself leads him to the abandoned amusement park.
The last look into the past starts with the break-in in the chemical plant on the same day. The gangsters put a special red mask and cape on their accomplice, the former engineer. The engineer does not know that they want to divert attention from themselves and lead it to the so-called “Red Hood”, a crime boss who can be practically anyone. The criminals are caught by a security guard and a shooting breaks out, the two gangsters lose their lives. The masked man is provided by the Batman, who has since arrived. Terrified, he jumps into a chemical sewer and is flushed outside through a pipe. To his horror, he discovers that the chemicals have disfigured him. His skin is now chalk white, his lips ruby red, his mouth twisted into a grotesque smile and his hair dyed green. Because of the disfigurement and horror of the past day, he finally fell mad. The joker is born.
Batman arrives at the amusement park and is able to free Gordon from his prison. The traumatized man asks Batman to arrest the Joker according to the regulations despite his offenses, in order to prove to him that Gordon's moral concept is correct. Batman enters the cabinet of mirrors, which is riddled with traps, but can avoid it. The joker, switched on through loudspeakers, ponders the fragility of life and the madness that pervades the world. He himself was changed from a normal person to what he is now through one bad day. However, he does not remember exactly how this happened and prefers to have several options when it comes to his past (which raises doubts as to whether the Joker's backstory told here is really true, his true origin remains a mystery ). Batman tells the Joker that Gordon was not broken by his psychological torture and that his theory is worthless. Rather, the Joker has always been a sick creature in and of itself. A struggle ensues that shifts outside. Batman can eventually incapacitate the Joker when he can shoot Batman but pulls an empty pistol. A conversation ensues. Like at the beginning of the story, Batman appeals to the Joker to end their eternal war before one of them is killed and offers him his help. The Joker refuses and makes it clear that it is long too late for a reconciliation. He tells a joke about two inmates of an insane asylum (hence the title of the original edition "The Killing Joke"), which can be understood as a metaphor for the relationship between him and Batman. After the punch line, he begins to laugh manically. Completely unexpectedly, Batman joins the Joker and both characters laugh together while the police cars arrive in the background of the rain-soaked scenery.
publication
The story, completed in 48 pages, first appeared in March 1988 on DC Comics . Twenty years later, a revised hardcover edition with comments was published.
The first German translation was published by Carlsen Comics in 1990 . This was published under the title "Smile, please!"
In the 2005 published volume on Batman in the series classics of comic literature , which were selected by the features section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , the story is included under the title The Killing Joke . Panini Comics also published the story several times.
In 2017, a revised new translation was published which, in addition to "The Killing Joke", also contains the short story "An Innocent" Guy (1996), a double-sided, alternative origin story of the Joker and a cover gallery.
analysis
The story also deals with the character of the "Joker" and the "Batman" beyond its origins. It shows how he reacted to a single event that shaped him. Batman came to his calling in a similar way. However, according to Geoff Klock, he reacted by drawing a meaning for the rest of his life from the violent death of his parents. The Joker reflects the absurdity and injustice of life that happened to him in his actions. As Alan Moore himself said about the comic, Batman and the Joker behave in a mirror image of each other and are both crazy.
When the Joker himself admits that he can only vaguely remember his trauma, even having contradicting memories, he creates a moment of unreliable narration in the story.
reception
Batman: The Killing Joke was Best Graphic Album at the Eisner Comic Awards in 1989 and Alan Moore received the Best Writer Award for the comic .
In 1001 Comics Andy Oliver writes that the story offers “the portrait of the man who became Batman's nightmare.” The plot contains, beyond the analysis of the two well-known characters, with the murder of the fairground owner, the “cruelest [scene] in the whole History of the DC Superhero Universe ” . The end, however, “rattles” a bit and is predictable. The implementation by Brian Bolland, with “photo-realistic drawings and filigree lines that […] give an amazing image sharpness” , “sophisticated page architecture and elegant camera positions” , was brilliantly successful and reading a pleasure.
The transformation of the Joker through toxic waste inspired Tim Burton in his Batman film with Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton in the lead roles. He also said of the comic : "THE KILLING JOKE is my absolute favorite. I fell in love with this comic."
Individual evidence
- ↑ The 25 Greatest Batman Graphic Novels. In: IGN Entertainment . Ziff Davis , April 9, 2014, accessed August 6, 2015 .
- ↑ Clark bull: 10 Essential Batman Graphic Novels. DC Comics , July 23, 2014, accessed August 9, 2016 .
- ↑ Movie releases: Batman: The Killing Joke. Retrieved May 2, 2020 .
- Jump up ↑ Batman: The Killing Joke. In: Batman Wiki. Fandom, accessed May 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Booland, Brian., Moore, Alan: (3) - Smile, please! 1990, accessed May 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Bolland, Brian., Moore, Alan: Batman, Killing Joke: A Deadly Joke . PANINI COMICS, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-7416-0233-7 , p. 3 ( google.de [accessed on May 2, 2020]).
- ↑ a b Paul Gravett (eds.) And Andreas C. Knigge (transl.): 1001 comics that you should read before life is over . Zurich 2012, Edition Olms. P. 528.
- ^ Geoff Klock: How to Read Superhero Comics and Why . New York, Continuum, 2002. pp. 52-53. ISBN 0-8264-1419-2 .
- ^ Alan Moore in Alan Moore Interview conducted by Brad Stone , Comic Book Resources October 22, 2001. Accessed November 28, 2013.
- ↑ David Leverenz, Gordon Hutner (Ed.): The Last Real Man in America: From Natty Bumppo to Batman in The "American Literary History" Reader . New York, Oxford University Press , 1995. p. 276. ISBN 0-19-509504-9 .
- ^ Eisner Awards 1989: Winner and Nominees
- ↑ Comment by Tim Burton in the German edition of Batman: Smile, please!
- ↑ Bolland, Brian., Moore, Alan: Batman, Killing Joke: A Deadly Joke . Panini Comics, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-7416-0233-7 , pp. Cover ( google.de [accessed on May 2, 2020] Quote on the cover of the German edition.).