Batman: The Killing Joke Animated Film Adaptation Announced

[Asclepion]

Some people do die in pretty brutal (and sometimes funny) ways in the movie. Bomb collars do play a big part in it.

And that guy who got shattered apart after being frozen.

And the general mayhem.

I had a lot of fun with Assault on Arkham (it reminds me of a Shadowrun game), and I've enjoyed most DC animated works, so I'll look forward to this one as well.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I don't know.

A lot of recent DC animated movies have been a bit too keen on the adult/grimdark *cough Assault on Arkham*, and this adaptation could just be fanning those flames even more.

 

[WonkyWarmaiden]

DC really does have a massive boner for The Killing Joke, don't they.

 

[Jeyl]

I'd hate to be on the opposite side of everyone looking forward to this, but I'm getting a little impatient with DC animation not doing anything for their female characters. The fact that their next one is the story that cripples Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) just so they can glorify how awesomely committed Batman and Gordon are to their jobs just comes off as bad taste.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Well, they did Joker's killing of Jason Todd in the Red Hood movie, so fair's fair I guess?

On a personal level, I'm not looking forward to the movie at all. I may not remember every detail of the arc, but I know how it ends, and I can go without a refresher course of the details.

 

[thepyrethatburns]

I don't see this one getting out without being considerably toned down. Not just because of the content but because of how the content is perceived now as well as DC's current direction with Batgirl.

 

[KungFuJazzHands]

I'd love to see an uncensored interpretation in the film, but it will never happen given today's social climate. I think that's sad. It's too bad artists big-money studios are so adverse to taking risks these days due to the fear of being hounded into [strike/]irrelevancy[/S] bankruptcy.

 

[Naqel]

DC really does have a massive boner for The Killing Joke, don't they.

It's one of the most highly regarded stories in their history.

Plus Marvel already beat them to the punch, again, in caving to the SJW crowd, so while DC Super Hero Girls is still a thing that's happening, they might just as well try scoring some points with the long-time fans.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

DC really does have a massive boner for The Killing Joke, don't they.

The only one they seem to have a bigger boner for is The Dark Knight Returns, which is basically where I feel about 70% of BvS is being cribbed from.

Plus Marvel already beat them to the punch, again, in caving to the SJW crowd

What the seven hells are you going on about?

 

[lunavixen]

I have the Killing Joke, it's going to be difficult to adapt. One thing I will say is that it's going to have to be handled a little carefully to avoid getting peoples backs up, particularly those not familiar with TKJ in the first place.

 

[vallorn]

Hopefully they'll get Mark Hamill to do Joker again. Apparently he's not only straight-up said that he'd be very interested in playing Joker for The Killing Joke if they ever made an animated version of it, but he's been actively encouraging fans to continue asking for this movie to be made.

They just need to offer him his own musical number like they did in Arkham Knight.

I don't think Mark Hamill would be able to resist.

 

[Johnlives]

I not a huge comic fan (please don't bully) but I have a friend who loves Batman so I get passed the best ones and I've seen most of the animated films, in this plebs mind they are really well done so I'm looking forward to this.

Plus one for Mark Hamill, also I'd like to see a Court of Owls film.

 

[MrPeanut]

So, what, more Joker stuff?

They seriously need to make batman get like, a 2 year joker-break or something...guy is wayyyy overused

 

[Angelous Wang]

I'd hate to be on the opposite side of everyone looking forward to this, but I'm getting a little impatient with DC animation not doing anything for their female characters. The fact that their next one is the story that cripples Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) just so they can glorify how awesomely committed Batman and Gordon are to their jobs just comes off as bad taste.

This the event that lead to her becoming Oracle, it's arguably the important event in Barbara Gordon's life. Though her reaction and recovery are not in the story, so that does take away a bit.

And Oracle > Batgirl in every way. Oracle defeats far more bad guys with just her mind, than she ever does as Batgirl.

As others have said I hope they play down the Gordon part. They did get pretty adult with Quinn in Assault on Arkham.

 

[WonkyWarmaiden]

DC really does have a massive boner for The Killing Joke, don't they.

It's one of the most highly regarded stories in their history.

Plus Marvel already beat them to the punch, again, in caving to the SJW crowd, so while DC Super Hero Girls is still a thing that's happening, they might just as well try scoring some points with the long-time fans.

What? How did Marvel cave? By having female characters featured more prominently in their comics and movies? Dear God, surely the world shall end because there are more women in a comic than men! Not like the opposite has been true for the last 80 years or anything.

 

[Dragonlayer]

I'd hate to be on the opposite side of everyone looking forward to this, but I'm getting a little impatient with DC animation not doing anything for their female characters. The fact that their next one is the story that cripples Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) just so they can glorify how awesomely committed Batman and Gordon are to their jobs just comes off as bad taste.

Better they cripple her and have her become *the* information broker for Gotham then have her magically healed in The New 52 and ironically be more useless.

OT

Neat! It's going to be weird seeing that bizarre circus of gimp freaks tormenting Commissioner Gordon in motion though....

 

[MatParker116]

?I've proved my point. I've demonstrated there's no difference between me and everyone else! All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day. You had a bad day once, am I right? I know I am. I can tell. You had a bad day and everything changed. Why else would you dress up as a flying rat? You had a bad day, and it drove you as crazy as everybody else... Only you won't admit it! You have to keep pretending that life makes sense, that there's some point to all this struggling! God you make me want to puke. I mean, what is it with you? What made you what you are? Girlfriend killed by the mob, maybe? Brother carved up by some mugger? Something like that, I bet. Something like that... Something like that happened to me, you know. I... I'm not exactly sure what it was. Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another... If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice! Ha ha ha! But my point is... My point is, I went crazy. When I saw what a black, awful joke the world was, I went crazy as a coot! I admit it! Why can't you? I mean, you're not unintelligent! You must see the reality of the situation. Do you know how many times we've come close to world war three over a flock of geese on a computer screen? Do you know what triggered the last world war? An argument over how many telegraph poles Germany owed its war debt creditors! Telegraph poles! Ha ha ha ha HA! It's all a joke! Everything anybody ever valued or struggled for... it's all a monstrous, demented gag! So why can't you see the funny side? Why aren't you laughing??

 

[The Harkinator]

Please, please, please, PLEASE get this right DC. If this is done then it has to be as the definitive animated version of The Killing Joke. It they mess it up DC will likely not get another chance to do things properly for a while. I worry a bit that they'll go overboard on the gritty, grown up, and dark stuff as they've been doing recently. Assault on Arkham was alright, but it was trying too hard to be dark and grown up in that overdone style that turns it into a self parody.

If they end up making The Killing Joke in that self parodical manner they'll overdo it. The Killing Joke is already very grown up and mature, without being tacky and overdone. There's no need to modify events in the story and I'll be disappointed if they do. The quality of it will really depend on the vocal performance of whosoever plays the Joker. I would love Mark Hamill to do it, no offence to Troy Baker (who has done a fantastic job whenever he's been in the role) but this really is a job for Hamill, especially since he does that older Joker voice that would be perfect for it.

The Killing Joke is one of the mid to late stories in Batman's career. Some consider it to BE the last story, though that was disproved by canon (I still like the theory), this story is a job for Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, both portraying Batman and The Joker as older and more experienced. If they can get those two signed on, and not shy away from some of the more...difficult moments in the book without overdoing them to the point of messing them up I'll be very happy.

Just imagine Mark Hamill doing the speech, "Why can't you see the funny side? Why aren't you laughing?"

 

[Jake Martinez]

DC really does have a massive boner for The Killing Joke, don't they.

It's one of the most highly regarded stories in their history.

Plus Marvel already beat them to the punch, again, in caving to the SJW crowd, so while DC Super Hero Girls is still a thing that's happening, they might just as well try scoring some points with the long-time fans.

What? How did Marvel cave? By having female characters featured more prominently in their comics and movies? Dear God, surely the world shall end because there are more women in a comic than men! Not like the opposite has been true for the last 80 years or anything.

Please relax, it's perfectly fine for people to be annoyed at obvious tokenism and pandering.

Just because someone is cynical about why Marvel is introducing Generic Gender-Bent or Diversity Flag Carrier Super Hero #200230 this month doesn't mean they are afraid of getting girl cooties in their comic books, it just means that they believe Marvel as a business is being cynical themselves. After all, if they were truly invested in diversity, they'd hire more diverse comic book creators instead of just gender/race swapping existing heroes. I don't know about you, but I was actually offended when they "promoted" Falcon to Captain America. It felt to me like Marvel was sending the message that the only way they could have a black character headline a book was if the white character got out of the way for them and it was in my perception a very cynical move on their part.

It's a really convenient straw man to pretend that people are actually upset about the make-up/gender/race of comic book characters when clearly that's not the issue that people have. We are simply taking umbrage with the bald faced cynicism and pandering on behalf of the companies that are producing tripe like She-Thor instead of say, putting Valkyrie in her own book. That's what annoys people - when Marvel ignores characters that are fully developed like X-23, and then put her in Wolverines costume and call her the "All New-Wolverine" simply because they believe people won't buy a book titled "X-23: Totally derivative of wolverine, but has boobs."

So, while some people may want to applaud these moves for the sake of "diversity" all I see is creative bankruptcy, pandering, and changes that will get ret-conned whenever the next fad takes hold. Extrapolating that into "OMG STOP BEING AFRAID OF GURLS" is just intellectually dishonest. No one is afraid of girls in their comic books, they just don't have any respect for the way it's being done.