Yesterday I posted what I felt were some of the highlights of this year’s San Diego Comic Con, all related to upcoming movies (and I didn’t focus on the plethora of TV and *gasp* comic book related material!).

As fascinating as so much of the stuff released and teased was, there was one noticeable negative to emerge, and that involved the panel focused on the as of yesterday, July 25th just released The Killing Joke, the animated DC feature adaptation of the controversial Alan Moore written, Brian Bolland drawn graphic novel from 1988.  This is the cover to that graphic novel…

Over at i09.com, the i09 Staff offer a very good article concerning the panel and how it went so very wrong…

The Killing Joke movie is a disaster, right down to its Comic-Con panel

I don’t want to step too hard on the article’s toes (you really should read it) but the bottom line is the panel revealed additions were made to the original graphic novel story as it was only 48 pages worth of material, in order to make it a full length animated film.

To many in the audience, these additions didn’t go over well.

In the original Alan Moore penned graphic novel, readers learn possible aspects of the Joker’s origin while wrapped around what I considered then, and still do now, one of Mr. Moore’s darkest -and most perverse- stories, if only because it features such comic book icons (take that haters of Batman v Superman!).

I nonetheless say this with considerable regret because up to about that point, Alan Moore was an author that, in my mind, could do absolutely no wrong.

I got into Alan Moore’s writing earlier than most people on this side of the pond for I was one of the very few buying Saga of the Swamp Thing, his first American work, as it was released to newsstands.  In fact, I recall many snickering when I told them the book was really, really good.

I still recall the thrill of reading “The Anatomy Lesson”, Issue #21 of the book which brilliantly framed the beloved character in a whole new light.  So blown away was I by Mr. Moore’s storytelling that I hunted far and near in those pre-internet/pre-Amazon days desperately searching for more of Mr. Moore’s works.  Imagine my thrill when I got my hands on issues of Warrior Magazine and was exposed to MarvelMan (later MiracleMan) and V for Vendetta.

My point is this: I was a HUGE fan of Mr. Moore’s writing.

And then things changed.

While Saga of the Swamp Thing started so incredibly well, I found the series lost steam as it went on.  Sometimes the stories Mr. Moore presented were really out there and while this worked in some cased, in others it didn’t.  Part of the problem, I suspect, was the grind of releasing a book on a monthly basis.  Because of the time crunch, Stephen Bissette and John Totleban, the magnificent main artists during Mr. Moore’s run, were unable to keep up that schedule and there were more than a few “fill in” stories presented now and again.  Some worked (Issue #28’s “The Burial”) while others…didn’t.

I also noted that as good a writer as Mr. Moore was, his strengths lay in “single issue” stories and in initiating longer stories and not so much in providing a strong conclusion (the “American Gothic” storyline, IMHO, started strong and then kinda limped to its end).

Having said all that, Mr. Moore would go on to write Watchmen, one of the greatest superhero deconstructions ever made, before going on to write The Killing Joke.

When the graphic novel was announced, I was very hyped to see it.  An Alan Moore written, Brian Bolland (one of the greatest British artists to come, ever!) drawn Batman graphic novel?  One focused on Batman’s arch-enemy, the Joker?

I mean, come on!  What was not to love?

As it turned out, quite a bit.

In Mr. Moore’s story, the Joker pushes Batman to his limits.  He does this by ambushing Barbara Gordon, ie Batgirl while she’s in her civilian clothing in her apartment.  He shoots her, she falls backwards through a glass table, then he strips her and, as the cover of the book shows, starts photographing her nude while in her injured/bleeding state.  While it isn’t outright stated, I couldn’t help but wonder if the Joker hadn’t raped her as well.

But wait, there’s more!

Afterwards, when she’s in the hospital, we learn Barbara Gordon was crippled as well.  Later still, Commissioner Gordon, her father, is captured by the Joker who tortures him by showing off those nasty nude photographs he took of Barbara.

Incredibly, incredibly nasty stuff…and what made it all worse is that the story, for all its bleak perversity, just wasn’t all that good.

In looking back, the release of The Killing Joke may well have been the moment I really started questioned Mr. Moore’s writing.  While there was always a dark edge to his works, it seemed he went too far.

Mr. Moore would leave DC comics soon afterwards and the split was far from amicable.  Mr. Moore swore to never again write for the company, a promise he’s kept to this day.  He produced more comics, some which featured a softer tone while others were just as -if not more, dark, but these independent works never appealed to me quite as much as his 1980’s output and, with a couple of exceptions (From Hell, among them), I haven’t read most of his post DC stuff.

When I heard Warner Brothers was working on an animated version of The Killing Joke, I was curious yet harbored doubts this was a worthwhile project to tackle.  Well, the movie was made and, incredibly, it appears to be even nastier than the graphic novel.

In the movie, panelists at the Comic-Con found, the story was expanded to include Barbara Gordon and Batman “getting it on,” this despite the fact that she’s the daughter of his biggest ally!  Further, the movie then presents her as a jilted lover, pining for the return of her beloved Batman, when the Joker comes-a-callin.

And then there’s this tidbit of something that happened during the panel, as presented in the article linked to above:

It was during the Q&A that things got dicey. A Joker cosplayer asked the writers why they would downplay Barbara Gordon, such a strong female character, and make her story more about the men in her life. According to Bleeding Cool reporter Jeremy Konrad, the writers insisted she was still a strong female character. Konrad, who’d already seen the film and didn’t agree, himself sarcastically shouted, “Yeah, by using sex and then pining for Bruce.”

That’s when co-screenwriter Brian Azzarello seemed to put it all out there. “Wanna say that again? Pussy?” he asked.

Now, I wasn’t there and who knows what the mood and emotions were like in that panel up to that point.  I’ve been a guest at conventions and know that sometimes the pressure can get to you. Regardless, if Mr. Azzarello said what he said…come on, man.  Control yourself.

Regardless of all that, the bottom line for me is this: The Killing Joke graphic novel was, to put it kindly, a very flawed product to begin with and the animated film and the additions it makes to an already flawed story are just as, if not more, questionable.

In the long run, however, this is but one Batman animated film -and graphic novel- out of tons of them so for those who find the whole thing icky, just get it out of your system and ignore the movie.

Certainly another, better one is to come.