Fanart Thursday: About A Month Late to the Party, But Who the Hell Cares?

[lego_joker]

Another amazing piece from my pal Juliandroid, original concept thought up by me during that whole #ChangeTheCover controversy ages ago. Juli's going to be offering commissions via tumblr pretty damn soon, so snap up those slots if you're interested!

(Okay, yes, I know the pic doesn't perfectly gel with The Killing Joke's chronology, but DC itself had retconned the whole "Barbara retired as Batgirl before she got shot" thing even before the DCnU, so I think it's fair game.)



(Tangent: I've heard rumors to the effect that Moore himself wanted to reverse Barbara's crippling one day, and I would've paid good money to see that story. But given that Moore only wrote TKJ as a favor to Brian Bolland - he'd already received the infamous Watchmen screw-job from DC by then - I'm not sure it's anything but a rumor.)

Comments

[mrstatham]

With regards to Moore and TKJ, it's important to note that he never wanted the story to be in-continuity in the first place. It wasn't meant to be an in-continuity story as he wrote it, and DC just shoehorned it into place alongside Death In The Family, making Batman look like an even more terrible figure. And that makes sense to me - there's a sort of finality about TKJ and the conversations that Batman maintains with the Joker about how long they can keep doing what they're doing, and I don't see how Batman could continue working civilly with the GCPD, Barbara, or his fellow heroes after being found by the police laughing with the Joker on the last page.

Still, that's definitely a good piece of art, and a nice, cathartic alternative to having that scene shoved in our face for the better part of four years, and that cover. Ugh. I love Rafael Alberquerque as an artist - he and Snyder are a superb team on American Vampire and in terms of the technique/style? Fine. That cover was great. In terms of the content? Yuck.

[ozaline]

There is one comic where Babs gets in his face about him sharing that laugh with the Joker.

[mrstatham]

True, but he never gave her a good answer and TKJ still sticks out like a sore thumb and is probably the source of all the 'Batman needs his enemies/Batman creates his enemies' nonsense some people cling to.

[starwolf_oakley]

That is an issue of BATMAN CHRONICLES an Oracle origin story. "I heard the two of you were laughing over a joke. Was it me?"

The last issue of GOTHAM KNIGHTS had Hush saying "I don't know how you can even look at Barbara Gordon without begging her forgiveness." (Paraphrasing.)

[lego_joker]

Uhh... did you get the whole "meant to be non-canon" thing from TV Tropes? I think it's been debunked by now, and I don't think the infamous "cripple the bitch" conversation would've happened if it was supposed to be an Imaginary Story from the start. Personally, though, I think it's infinitely stronger when taken as non-canon.

And on Batman laughing... y'know, I've heard that complaint quite a few times, and I think it's kind of narrow-minded. "Batman laughing" does not equal "Batman is happy" - I personally imagine him giving the same raspy, tear-choked laugh that Tim gave right after That Scene in "Return of the Joker", and... well, could YOU listen to that laugh and conclude "Yeah, Tim's totally a-okay 'cause he's laughing!"?

The laugh of a mental breakdown is much, much different from a laugh of genuine amusement, especially when it comes from someone as grim as Batman.

(And if that doesn't work... well, Bruce could always tell them "The Joker tagged me with his laughing toxin, honest!")

[mrstatham]

I'm pretty sure there are bits out there from Moore suggesting it was originally supposed to be non-canon, althouh I *might* be confusing matters. As for the 'cripple the bitch' conversation, that could easily be a matter of discussing content and Moore questioning how far he could take things, too.

Also, again, it's not a matter of 'Batman being happy/Batman breaking down after one of the worst nights ever' that bugs me - I get it in the context the book wants it in, but DC's absolute failure to contextualise the story properly beyond 'Barbara got shot' in terms of any real ramifications or follow-ups just genuinely frustrates me. It'd be more fascinating to me, frankly, if follow-up writers had tried taking a page from Moore's book in terms of Batman's appeal to the Joker at the end of the story; Most writers just seem to take away the idea that they need to have the Joker do increasingly depraved stuff to make him relevant. So again, it's not the idea of Batman breaking down that bothers me, it's DC's failure to address that finale and take away anything of real worth from the story.

[starwolf_oakley]

JOKER: How come you laughed? When I made that joke about the flashlight?

BATMAN: You tell me.

JOKER: Because it's absurd. Because we're absurd.

I thonk thats from a Sam Keith miniseries.