The Killing Joke

Looks like one of Alan Moore's most famous stories is getting an animated adaptation.

http://comicbook.com/2015/07/11/batman-the-killing-joke-coming-as-an-animated-movie/

Mark Hamill says this would be the film to bring him out of Joker retirement? (Edit: Maybe not, apparently that was fake)

Must happen. The musical number alone warrants his return, plus Mark hasn't had the opportunity to play a somber Joker in forever.

Though I admit I'm a bit more interested to hear who's voicing Batsy, just for...

"WHERRRRRRE IS HE?"

edited 11th Jul '15 1:05:40 AM by KnownUnknown

Y'know, I've had this comic sitting around for a while. Maybe now is when I should actually go ahead and read it.

He said it.

They seriously can't fuck this up by not getting Mark Hamill to play him. They just can't.

Can't wait.

They even got him back for Arkham Knight(because he isn't alive so saying "I won't play Joker if he returned to the living in the games" isn't a lie)so there's no way they won't get him for this when he wanted to do something with the book, be it a audiobook or a movie.

Pretty awesome impersonation and animation of Hamill in TKJ. Video won't embed for some reason.

edited 11th Jul '15 11:29:31 AM by Tuckerscreator

I thought the guy who played him in Injustice did a pretty decent Mark Hamill impression.

^^ Youtube embedding is broken, coders are aware of the issue.

My only question is this: will Batman strangle the Joker to death in cold blood as he cackles maniacally at his final, Actually Pretty Funny joke at the end?

edited 13th Jul '15 9:27:05 AM by TobiasDrake

It'll probably be an inconclusive fade-out, much as in the comics.

In general, of all the arguments for Batman restraining himself from snuffing the clown, this story presents the most viable case - he simply didn't want to. As in, he hoped there was some chance for rehabilitation left, while considering that the alternative would indeed mean having to kill him, or getting killed himself. The question is, did he lose that hope in the end? And, as it's most likely he did, did that mean he finally killed the Joker, or that he himself snapped, laughing alongside him?

As my own general conclusion regarding the perennial "kill the Joker" debate, I hold that it's not a matter of killing at all, but of problem-solving. If a story posits that no prison can hold the Joker, and that he will not be reformed by any other means, then I do find murder to be the best solution, since there don't appear to be any other options left. But if a story ignores that particular tidbit and focuses on another issue altogether, then locking the Joker up is as conclusive and happy an ending as any.

The Killing Joke does both - it sets up the "one bad day" question, and answers it definitively. And as for the other issue... yeah, I do feel Batman kills the Joker in the end, to the chagrin of pretentious deontologists everywhere. Not that it would stick, one way or another, but it still provides for the, in my opinion, second best "Batman kills the Joker" scene after Terry McGinnis frying the clown's digitized consciousness with his own joy-buzzer. Ha. Ha.

edited 13th Jul '15 12:08:45 PM by indiana404

Honestly Troy Baker does such a good job as joker Hamill is more like a bonus at least for me. Like Hamil is best but Troy is very very close. As long as it isn't john D.

TBH Roger Craig Smith did a better Batman in Origins than Kevin did in Knight so I'm fine with either of them.

I have a hunch they're going to add some action padding, since the original story wasn't big in action other than the fight at the end, and these movies tend to include at least three action pieces each.

Maybe Batman will have to catch the Penguin after a struggle and then question him instead of having a single panel visit to his cell?

Imo, years of repetition have taken a lot of the personality and nuance out of Conroy's Batman voice, and his performances sound flatter than they ought to be because of it. Hamill has that to an extent as well, but perhaps because he plays a lot of different villains with similar voices but various personalities it didn't hit him as hard. So wouldn't mind not having Conroy on this one, though I'd still prefer it.

And on the topic of Joker - even moreso than Batman himself, Joker actors are pretty much solely judged by the fans by how closely they do a Mark Hamill impression, so they might as well just get Mark Hamill himself if they can.

edited 13th Jul '15 10:48:27 AM by KnownUnknown

I kinda want them to cast Kevin Michael Richardson or Brent Spiner, just to troll the fanbase.

The present day Joker is Hammill, but every time he flashes back to his origin, to keep up with the unreliable memory motif, he's voiced there by a different prior voice actor, ranking from Richardson to Epting to Spiner.

I vote for Bob Hope.

I liked John Dimaggio's take on the character.

Though it probably wouldn't fit this version.

Well, I never complain about more Hamill in my entertainment. I even played through Grandia Xtreme solely because he did the voice of the villain (he was by far the best part of that game... I doubt anyone's surprised). So count me in.

As for the perennial "Why doesn't Batman just kill The Joker?" question... I think Batman is at least Genre Savvy enough to know it wouldn't stick. Bats has even seen Joker bite it on multiple occasions, and he keeps coming Back from the Dead.

It's been pointed out before how part of what gets Batman the support he gets is others' faith in his Thou Shalt Not Kill stance. Even beyond the question of whether or not he'd lose it in this instance, would you even risk throwing away your reputation for something that's extremely unlikely to even work?

In a way, The Joker can't die... and Batman might not be as aware of the fourth wall as The Joker is, but he knows enough about how his world works to realize that The Joker cannot be permanently killed.

The greatest sin The Legend of Spyro ever committed wasn't being a Darker and Edgier reboot of a classic video game mascot. It was using a voice filter to distort Mark Hamill's glorious, glorious voice into sounding like a generic evil villain.

edited 15th Jul '15 7:36:40 AM by spashthebandragon

I feel the same way.

It worked because it was a bulkier Joker, so the rougher voice fit. TKJ Joker is the regular skinny version.

I am one of the few who is very fond of Kevin Michael Richardson's Joker.

Kevin Michael Richardson's always fun to listen to.

i didn't like it the first time i saw it but i'd probably be less hard on it now if i watched the batman again.

I love KMR, but he didn't really fit Joker. Not that he did a bad job, though.