Entertainment Geekly: Is the Dark Knight lightening up?
No one should be surprised thatThe Killing Jokemovie is terrible.
Which doesnt mean its bad just flimsy.
Credit: Warner Bros
Hes taking it to the limit this time!
Barbara tells Batman four pages later in the hospital, tears in her eyes, legs useless.
doesnt even come up in the story.
Shes an incidental figure in the story that paralyzes her.
Actually, the stakes ofKilling Jokeare purely philosophical.
So Barbara Gordon is collateral damage in a three-way battle between the men in her life.
This is a frustrating story point, and its partly whyKilling Jokehas a bad reputation.
And that rep tends to obscure the heart of the story.
Its become conventional wisdom to say that Batman is the most aspirational and possible superhero.
Hes got no superpowers; anybody could be Batman;youcould be Batman.
Were decades deep into the hot idea that Batman and the Joker are two sides of the same coin.
Heres a novel idea: If anyone could be the Batman, maybe anyone could be the Joker.
Most of us arent raised in mansions; maybe most of us wouldnt be Batman at all.
Bollands workisgorgeous, with drippy detail that splits the difference between surreal, creepy, realistic, and hilarious.
My favorite image inThe Killing Jokecomes during the Jokers climactic monologue.
When I saw what a black, awful joke the world was, I went crazy as a coot!
Why cant you see the funny side?
he asks Batman/the reader.
Why arent you laughing?
The look on his face isnt funny at all.
My second-favorite image inKilling Jokecomes in the final hero-villain fight.
HHUT says the Dark Knight.
He looks like what a man in a bat-suitshouldlook like.
He looks like a goof.HHUT!!!!
Killing Joketook it to the limit.
Like much of Alan Moores great superhero work, its a self-aware text.
Scared the hell out of me.
Moore was enough of a scholar of Bat-history to know that Batman was never just for kids.
That series was hugely popular, and lighthearted, and campy.
So DC Comics, capitalizing on the popularity, made the Batman comic books lighthearted and campy.
We are now much further in time fromKilling JokethanKilling Jokewas from Adam West.
Batgirl is barely in the originalKilling Joke; what if she were the main character of the movie?
In the right hands, this could bring a cockeyed and lateral view to problematic material.
One thinks of Mary Harron, whose movie adaptation ofAmericanPsychofelt more like a critique ofAmerican Psycho.
But the Batgirl stuff inKilling Jokedoesnt actually have anything to do withKilling Joke.
Youre not in it like I am, he says.
Its still a game for you.
Its still a thrill.
You havent been taken to the edge yet…the abyss.
The place where you dont care anymore.
Where all hope dies.
Then they have sex.
This would be an intriguing new idea, butThe LEGO Moviegot there two years ago.
This feels like a simplification; the core problem withBatman v Supermanwas that it was unwatchable.
Still, attention must be paid to this curious cultural moment.
Millers vision is still with us, of course.Batman v Supermanwas draped in Millers imagery.
(Zack Snyder is the Miller obsessive who also directed300.)
Two grimdark 80s Batman stories mashed together: What could possibly be less fun?
But the Change is coming.
Next year sees two wide-release Batman movies.
You would expect that from theLEGOfilm, of course.
More surprising is howthe Comic-Con trailer forJustice Leagueaims to get so much mileage out of Batman doing un-Batman-like things.
Here is a Batman who banters with Wonder Woman.
Here is a Batman who jokes around with Aquaman.
I hear you’re able to talk to fish, Bruce Wayne tells Arthur Curry.
The comic books got there first, of course.
So the fun of the Snyder/Capullo Batman was all the fun they let Bruce Wayne have.
Color returned to the Dark Knights world; he fought the Riddler again.
Their run ended with a new official Batman costume.
The Dionysium had fountain-of-youth effects on the Caped Crusader.
Youre the fastest and strongest Batman since, well, ever, Alfred says.
All of his scars have been healed;Batmans back is smoothas a babys bottom.
The idea of a scar-free Batman is kind of stunning, really.
But rebirth is in the air.
I start with Bruce, the voice says.
How important is Batman?
He might be my only chance at this.
This almost-exact scene also happened inBatman v Superman, with a different Flash and a different Batcave.
Maybe that explains the move away from gritty-realism in the Bat-universe; you cantmudwrestlewith Darkseid.
Its obviously impossible to graft some single interpretation on the State of Batman across all of popular culture.
Plenty of people seem to be grooving onto the punk-y bad-guy antics of Deadpool and the Suicide Squad.
Batman could go pop-punk, I guess.
We should support this new Batman.
He might be our only chance.
