Since Batman - The Killing Joke is only 48 pages long anyway, this review will be similarly brief. First, the good: Moore writes very well, and he employs many of the same cinematic techniques that he used in The Watchmen with his deft combinations of text and panels. (In fact, the nine-panel pages of this graphic novel are eerily reminiscent of Moore's other work.) As always with Moore's work, there is never an awkward moment in the narrative, and he hits several emotional high points too (the two pages devoted to the family life of a second-rate comedian are surprisingly affecting). And Brian Bolland's drawing of the Joker is a chilling reflection of every bad dream I've had about that pasty, green-haired, homicidal maniac.

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be anything here that I haven't seen before. The Joker is crazy, true, but I thought that Frank Miller's portrayal of the Joker in Batman, the Dark Knight Returns was much better--it was certainly more disturbing. Moore presents the Joker's background well, but not in a way that surprised me or particularly moved me. And Batman's inner demons here are far less obvious and important than his demons in (again) Miller's seminal work.

This is not to say that this book isn't dark--it is, in fact, almost excessively violent (just look at what happens to Gordon's daughter). But somehow the violence just didn't work for me. It didn't seem to lead anywhere, and I think if this book had lasted much more than 48 pages I would probably have gotten bored.

Copyright © 2001 Steven Wu