{"id":675,"date":"2013-05-15T15:26:14","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T22:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bannedbooks.world.edu\/?p=675"},"modified":"2016-07-01T16:25:57","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T20:25:57","slug":"banned-books-awareness-batman-the-killing-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/2013\/05\/15\/banned-books-awareness-batman-the-killing-joke\/","title":{"rendered":"Banned Books Awareness: \u201cBatman: The Killing Joke\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cBatman: The Killing Joke<\/em>\u201d is a one-shot graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Brian Bolland. Published by DC Comics in 1988, it has remained so popular that it has been in print since then.<\/p>\n

It has also been subject recently to censorship efforts.<\/p>\n

Looking into the content and subject matter it\u2019s not difficult to understand why, but that- as usual- hardly justifies censorship.<\/p>\n

The story\u2019s effects on the continuity of the Batman and, in fact, the entire DC Universe included the shooting and subsequent paralysis of Barbara Gordon (a.k.a. Batgirl) by the Joker in his attempt to drive Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon insane. His henchmen strip Gordon naked, cage him in an abandoned amusement park\u2019s freak show, and force him to view a giant screen of his wounded daughter in various states of undress, hoping to drive Gordon insane in order to prove that even the most upstanding citizen can go mad after having \u201cone bad day.\u201d<\/p>\n

That theme is presented in a retelling of the fateful day a simple man became the monstrous Joker and its parallel to the Bruce Wayne-Batman transition, brilliantly exploring the idea that Batman is just as insane as the criminals he faces, albeit simply manifesting it in a different way. In an interview, Moore summarized the theme as, \u201cPsychologically, Batman and the Joker are mirror images of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Joker delivers the point home in a masterful monologue to Batman about having just \u201cone bad day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critic Geoff Klock summarized those ideas saying, \u201cboth Batman and the Joker are creations of a random and tragic \u2018one bad day.\u2019 Batman spends his life forging meaning from the random tragedy, whereas the Joker reflects the absurdity of life, and all its random injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The events in the story also directly led to a storyline shortly after in which the Joker beats the second Robin, Jason Todd, to death with a crow bar. It might be worth noting that fans were part of a long voting campaign to decide whether to kill off Todd\u2019s controversial character.<\/p>\n

It has been hailed by critics as one of the greatest Batman stories ever written, with IGN declaring it the third best of all time. The story even influenced Tim Burton\u2019s film adaptation of the franchise as well as Christopher Nolan\u2019s critically-acclaimed persona of the Joker artfully played by Heath Ledger, who used the novel as reference material for the role.<\/p>\n

The book has been the subject of feminist critique for its treatment of Barbara Gordon. Author Brian Cronin noted that \u201c[many] readers felt the violence towards [her] was too much.\u201d Author Sharon Packer also wrote: \u201cAnyone who feels that feminist critics overreacted is advised to consult the source material…Moore\u2019s The Killing Joke<\/em> is sadistic to the core.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gail Simone included the character\u2019s paralysis in a list of \u201cmajor female characters that had been killed, mutilated, and depowered,\u201d dubbing the phenomenon \u201cWomen in Refrigerators<\/a>\u201d in reference to a 1994 Green Lantern story where the title character discovers his girlfriend\u2019s mutilated body in his refrigerator.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey A. Brown, author of Dangerous Curves: Action Heroines, Gender, Fetishism, and Popular Culture<\/em> (2011), noted The Killing Joke<\/em> as an example of the \u201cinherent misogyny of the male-dominated comic book industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, with all of this in mind, the Columbus, Nebraska Public library Board did the right thing and rejected a protest to remove the title from its bookshelves.<\/p>\n

A patron had referred to the book as \u201cvery adult\u201d and said in the challenge that it \u201cadvocates rape and violence,\u201d requesting the book be removed from the shelves where it is currently located in the young adult area of the library yet cataloged in the graphic novels section.<\/p>\n

During this week\u2019s meeting board member Carol Keller said, \u201cI don\u2019t find it worthy of being removed from the shelf.\u201d Others agreed, voting 3-0, with two members absent, noting that many comic books and other publications include violence and the patron\u2019s interpretation of rape was \u201cmisconstrued.\u201d<\/p>\n

Batman: The Killing Joke<\/em> will now be added to the list of Alan Moore\u2019s books that have been challenged in libraries<\/a> across the nation such as Watchmen, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,<\/em> and Neonomicon<\/em>-, which was officially banned from a South Carolina library last December amid a media firestorm and covered here in Banned Books Awareness.<\/p>\n

Not only is this a victory for free speech, but it\u2019s a stark reminder that comic books have definitely grown up. Now if only some people would.<\/p>\n

For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Sources: Columbus Telegram<\/a>, Wikipedia, Comic book Legal Defense Fund<\/a>
\n\u00a9 2013 R. Wolf Baldassarro\/Deep Forest Productions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBatman: The Killing Joke\u201d is a one-shot graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Brian Bolland. Published by DC Comics in 1988, it has remained so popular that it has been in print since then. It has also been subject recently to censorship efforts. Looking into the content […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15,42,47,70,184,194,203],"class_list":["post-675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-change","tag-alan-moore","tag-banned-books","tag-batman","tag-censorship","tag-joker","tag-killing-joke","tag-libraries"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Killingjoke.jpg?fit=250%2C383&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1337,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions\/1337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}