Negative buzz and bad weather surrounded Monday night’s screenings of Batman: The Killing Joke, the highest-selling event in distributor Fathom Events’ history. Variety reports that Fathom has booked 1,075 screens for the company’s biggest release to date, while Comic Book Resources adds that Fathom has expanded its initial one-night-only release to include a second evening Tuesday, July 26. But early ticket sales for the screenings preceded controversy surrounding the film’s adult content, particularly a sex scene between Bruce “Batman” Wayne and Barbara “Batgirl” Gordon.
The film is based on Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s brutal graphic novella The Killing Joke, one of DC’s top sellers since its release in 1988. In the comic, Moore explores the origins of psychopathic Batman villain the Joker via a grim story that leaves Barbara Gordon shot in the stomach and paralyzed below the waist. That trauma is meant to shock Police Commissioner James Gordon, Barbara’s father, into going insane, thereby proving the Joker’s point that anyone is “one bad day” away from becoming just like him. Aside from that traumatic moment, Barbara is barely featured in Moore and Bolland’s comic.
In the film, however—written by comics writer Brian Azzarello—Barbara has a romantic relationship with Batman prior to her paralysis. In fact, the two characters have sex while still wearing their costumes. This addition to Moore and Bolland’s comic doesn’t sit well with some fans, given how much older Bruce “Batman” Wayne is from Barbara in most Bat stories. At last weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, Azzarello took the criticism head-on, insisting that Barbara is “stronger than the men in her life in this story.” Bleeding Cool’s Jeremy Konrad scoffed at Azzarello’s claim from the safety of the peanut gallery: “Yeah, by using sex, and then pining for Bruce.” Azzarello yelled back: “Wanna say that again? Pussy?”
And Konrad’s not the only one who finds The Killing Joke unsettling. In a 1990 interview conducted by The Comics Journal’s Gary Groth, Moore insisted that he was “uneasy” with his story’s dark content. He attributed his discomfort to his general ambivalence toward “the adventure genre,” a comic mode that he applauded Frank Miller for mining in his equally influential The Dark Knight Returns. Moore has since said that he thinks The Killing Joke doesn’t say “anything very interesting,” and that he regrets both The Killing Joke and Watchmen’s influence on contemporary superhero comics. “[Superhero comics] have lost a lot of their original innocence, and they can’t get that back,” Moore said in 2009. “And, they’re stuck, it seems, in this kind of depressive ghetto of grimness and psychosis. I’m not too proud of being the author of that regrettable trend.”
Say what you want about Moore’s takeaway, but he’s not wrong about The Killing Joke’s influence. Early promotional material used for Warner Bros.’s upcoming Suicide Squad movie introduced fans to Jared Leto’s version of the Joker using photographs modeled after Bolland’s now-iconic Killing Joke artwork. The Killing Joke is also now considered to be the Joker’s canonical origin story, as well as a turning point for Barbara in numerous Bat comics (she remains paralyzed in almost all contemporary Bat stories). Moore and Bolland’s interpretation of the Joker is also probably the only common influence shared by Bat directors Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan.
But what do fans think? Not even a torrent of rain could stop ticket-holders from filling up a cavernous auditorium in Manhattan’s Union Square 14 theater. Many moviegoers knew nothing about the film going into it. Ed, a 38-year-old Manhattanite, had heard mostly “positive feedback” about The Killing Joke, and was eager to see-slash-hear Batman: The Animated Series voice actors Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise their roles as Batman and Joker, respectively.
Not every ticket-holder was as optimistic as Ed. “I’ve heard scary, terrible things,” said Mara, a 34-year-old Queens native, referring to Barbara and Bruce’s romantic relationship. “It’s just not right. That shouldn’t happen except in fan [fiction].”
Mara’s onto something. There’s a palpable unease surrounding *Batman: The Killing Joke’*s big sex scene. This sequence isn’t explicit, but we do see Batman grabbing Batgirl’s hips right before she takes her top off (she’s wearing a bra). The scene was met with bewildered laughs Monday, right up until the intentionally funny capper: a shot of a stone gargoyle overlooking the two heroes.
Audience members also laughed heartily at a scene where Batman warns Batgirl that small-time crook Paris Franz (yes, really) is only “objectifying [her].” The sex scene’s ending is supposed to lighten things up; Batman’s admonition, though, is an over-serious stab at making a comic-book character sound adult and self-aware.
Azzarello tries to give Barbara a meaningful role, but The Killing Joke can only really be taken seriously during scenes in which Hamill sells Joker’s metaphysical spiel about the relativity of good and evil. Director Sam Liu doesn’t always know how to film the Joker’s more long-winded speeches, but Hamill single-handedly elevates his scenes. Some fans didn’t care for the Joker’s dialogue, much of which is taken verbatim from Moore’s original comic. One anonymous viewer complained that the screenwriters were “trying to cram in as many SAT words as possible.”
Still, I tend to agree with Mara’s take on Batgirl and Batman’s relationship. Azzarello may be trying to give his version of Barbara more agency, but it doesn’t quite work given how many of her choices are reactions to Batman’s decisions. None of these decisions appear in Moore’s original comic, which suggests that Azzarello and executive producer Bruce Timm were uncomfortable having a major heroine like Barbara get tortured without at least giving her a little backstory first. So in this version of the story, Barbara realizes that she’s addicted to the thrill of fighting—and that scares her. Batman sees this in Barbara and tries to mansplain her own personality to her. He gives her orders, and she responds accordingly. The net gain of all that backstory is negligible.
In fact, the only times Barbara steps out of Bruce’s shadow are, first, when she chooses to have sex with him, and, second, when she decides—before she’s shot in the stomach—to step away from crime fighting. These choices make it harder to see Barbara as a strong, independent heroine. Your enjoyment of Batman: The Killing Joke ultimately depends on how you take Barbara’s story—and like it or not, the Joker didn’t get the last laugh Monday.
