I mean, do you know how hard it is to find representation as a Latino comic book enthusiast? Yeah, Tony Stark, Kyle Rayner, and Bane are all Latino comic book characters. And what do they all have in common?
Tony Stark. White name. White face. No discussion of Latin American culture.
Kyle Rayner. White name. White face. No discussion of Latin American culture.
Bane. Super interesting background as a Guatemalan who dresses up like a luchador. (Wait, that's different!) Becomes a popular supervillain in The Dark Knight Rises, where he has a white face and no one even mentions his Latin American culture or heritage. (Oh yeah! I knew there was a reason I mentioned him.)
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| Latino representation in the 2010s. |
So yeah, long story short, comic books piss me off sometimes. But when you can actually get your hands on the one you want, they can be pretty amazing. For example, "The Killing Joke" by Alan Moore, published in 1988, was a great way to make people realize that The Joker didn't have to be some hilarious splash of dandyistic color.
So if you really liked the way Heath Ledger portrayed the Joker, you can thank Alan Moore for crafting a story where The Joker is exactly the kind of sociopath who would dress up like a clown and kill schoolbuses full of children for laughs.
In this story (watch out: heavy spoilers, in that I tell you the whole plot in detail and if you try to read the comic book afterwards nothing will surprise you), The Joker escapes out of Arkham Asylum (again? who would have guessed!), shoots Barbara Gorden in the spine, kidnaps Commissioner Gordon, strips him down naked, puts him on some creepy old amusement park ride, and makes him look at pictures of his daughter before, during, and after she became paralyzed from the waist down.
The climax of the story isn't even a fighting scene. It's The Joker's villainous rant to Commissioner Gordon, which is basically the same speech he keeps trying to give in The Dark Knight. You know, the old, "I'm crazy because I had one bad day. Now I'm going to give you a bad day and you're going to become just as crazy as I am."
Now you guys know my two standards when it comes to entertainment: fun and interesting. And this was definitely fun, in a horrifying kind of way. The scene in the beginning, where The Joker is playing cards with Batman, works as both an eerie "Let's Have Tea with Chthulu" moment, and as a shout-out to The Joker's motif. Then, after he's escaped, The Joker manages to make buying abandoned property exciting.
And honestly, as psychopathic as this may sound, I think the most fun thing in the world was watching as The Joker does every shitty thing he can imagine to Commissioner Gordon. I honestly started rooting for The Joker in that scene. (Is that evil of me?)
But what was interesting was the ending. Now, you might remember, at the end of "Batman Begins," Batman lets Ra's al Ghul die, sort of a "good guys don't kill people so I'm just going to leave you on this train that's about to crash instead." At the end of "The Dark Knight," Batman tackles Harvey Dent off a building and kills him, not even looking for a "well it's not really killing" loophole.
And, I think worst of all, at the end of "The Dark Knight Rises," Batman defeats Bane by cutting off his access to his anesthetic, which is about as badass as hiding a diabetic's insulin. Then Catwoman kills him, and Batman's kind of like "Thanks! Now I don't have to break my no killing rule that I only really pay lip-service to anyway."
But here's where the ending to "The Killing Joke" differs. When Batman saves the Commissioner from The Joker, Gordon hasn't turned into a hateful clown who uses The Stranger as his go-to life guide. He hasn't lost his internal moral compass. He hasn't even lost his dedication to the law. He tells Batman that he wants the Joker caught "by the book."
Christopher Nolan's Batman disregards the judicial system, the privacy of innocent citizens and the rights of the accused. And he treats his "no killing" rule like something to work around at best and ignore at worst. The criminals Batman faces are dark, Nolan reasons, so Batman must become even darker.
But "The Killing Joke," for all its darkness, puts Batman firmly in the side of light. The victory at the end isn't just about catching the bad guy, but proving to him that, no matter how much evil a good man encounters, no matter how much you torture and humiliate him, no matter how bad you make his day, a good man can and will do the right thing, always.
So if you really liked the way Heath Ledger portrayed the Joker, you can thank Alan Moore for crafting a story where The Joker is exactly the kind of sociopath who would dress up like a clown and kill schoolbuses full of children for laughs.
In this story (watch out: heavy spoilers, in that I tell you the whole plot in detail and if you try to read the comic book afterwards nothing will surprise you), The Joker escapes out of Arkham Asylum (again? who would have guessed!), shoots Barbara Gorden in the spine, kidnaps Commissioner Gordon, strips him down naked, puts him on some creepy old amusement park ride, and makes him look at pictures of his daughter before, during, and after she became paralyzed from the waist down.
The climax of the story isn't even a fighting scene. It's The Joker's villainous rant to Commissioner Gordon, which is basically the same speech he keeps trying to give in The Dark Knight. You know, the old, "I'm crazy because I had one bad day. Now I'm going to give you a bad day and you're going to become just as crazy as I am."
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| Meatloaf again? That's it! I'm going to become a serial killer. |
And honestly, as psychopathic as this may sound, I think the most fun thing in the world was watching as The Joker does every shitty thing he can imagine to Commissioner Gordon. I honestly started rooting for The Joker in that scene. (Is that evil of me?)
 |
| "We have to take him to Joker. But first, let's piss on him!" |
And, I think worst of all, at the end of "The Dark Knight Rises," Batman defeats Bane by cutting off his access to his anesthetic, which is about as badass as hiding a diabetic's insulin. Then Catwoman kills him, and Batman's kind of like "Thanks! Now I don't have to break my no killing rule that I only really pay lip-service to anyway."
But here's where the ending to "The Killing Joke" differs. When Batman saves the Commissioner from The Joker, Gordon hasn't turned into a hateful clown who uses The Stranger as his go-to life guide. He hasn't lost his internal moral compass. He hasn't even lost his dedication to the law. He tells Batman that he wants the Joker caught "by the book."
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| So The Joker kills a bunch of people and gets brought in by the book, but Mike Brown steals a cigarillo and gets shot six times? |
But "The Killing Joke," for all its darkness, puts Batman firmly in the side of light. The victory at the end isn't just about catching the bad guy, but proving to him that, no matter how much evil a good man encounters, no matter how much you torture and humiliate him, no matter how bad you make his day, a good man can and will do the right thing, always.
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