One DC’s big announcements at Comic-Con was the they are making a Batman: The Killing Joke animated movie, and just this week it was confirmed that the “THE” Joker himself Mark Hamill would reprise his role as the Clown Prince. Now The Killing Joke is a landmark graphic novel, and I am always okay with Mark Hamill’s devious laugh tickling my ears, but do we really want a Killing Joke movie?
The Killing Joke is about the Joker trying to drive Jim Gordon crazy, and pushing the Batman to break his code not to kill. Real light reading. Again a great book, but not one I am sure that I want to see acted out. Between the torture of Jim Gordon, and assault and crippling of Barbra Gordon it will be a hard movie to get through. I don’t expect all movies to be daisies and lollipops, but The Killing Joke might just be too grim to watch. Especially one featuring a mainline comic book hero.
We will see how this pans out, and Mark Hamill has wanted to do it for years, so I am sure that DC will make the best possible movie out of it they can. I just don’t know if I will want to watch it. Knowing me I probably will, but I may not be very happy with what I will witness. Hey at least we will get an Oracle origin story out of this right?