Batman: The Killing Joke

In 1996, John Ostrander and Kim Yale wrote a story entitled "Oracle: Year One: Born of Hope" which appeared in The Batman Chronicles #5. The story consists of Barbara recounting the events of The Killing Joke from her perspective, and the immediate aftermath of those events, including her recovery from her injuries and her adoption of the Oracle mantle.

In 2007, Geoff Johns wrote a companion story to The Killing Joke entitled "No Joke" that appeared in the series Booster Gold.[15]

In the story, Booster Gold is charged by Rip Hunter to go back in time and save Barbara from being shot by the Joker. Booster arrives at the carnival and is attacked by Joker's freaks. He manages to escape, but arrives too late to save Barbara. Catching the Joker in the middle of taking photos of his victim, Booster attacks in a rage. The Joker nevertheless gains the upper hand, snapping several photos of Booster in the process. Rip returns Booster to the future before the Joker can murder him, but Booster demands to be sent back again. He fails several times until learning that the Joker is destined to paralyze her, as this prompts her to become the Oracle. Rip did this to demonstrate that some points in time, like Barbara's paralysis, are fixed and cannot be altered, so that Booster would not continue insisting on rescuing his friend Ted Kord from death, another fixed point. The story also reveals that Batman kept the photos of Barbara and Booster, and had been waiting until Booster came of age before confronting him. Batman thanks Booster for trying to stop the Joker and offers him his friendship. Eventually, Dick Grayson, who becomes the new Batman for a short time, would also learn about this and offer his thanks to Booster.

In 2010, writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Cliff Chiang collaborated on a one-shot story called "Ladies' Night", which was published in the anthology series The Brave and the Bold. The story is set shortly before The Killing Joke and deals with Zatanna and Wonder Woman struggling to come to terms with the impending attack on Barbara after Zatanna has a precognitive dream about it. Like "No Joke", the story heavily implies that the heroines cannot alter Barbara's fate, despite their desire to do so, instead giving her a final night on the town before she loses the use of her legs. The story also implies that Wonder Woman served as the inspiration for Barbara Gordon's eventual codename of the Oracle.[16]

When DC Comics relaunched its continuity in 2011, many of Batman's stories were erased from history or altered, but the events of The Killing Joke remained intact. In the new continuity, Barbara Gordon recovered from the paralysis after three years. Although she resumes her work as Batgirl one year after recovering her mobility, she continues to have posttraumatic stress disorder when exposed to gunfire that could result in receiving new spinal damage.[17]

On March 13, 2015, DC Comics released 25 Joker-themed variant covers for its various monthly series in celebration of the character's 75th anniversary. Among them was a cover to Batgirl #41 by artist Rafael Albuquerque that took its inspiration from The Killing Joke. The cover depicts the Joker standing next to a tearful Batgirl, who has a red smile painted across her mouth. The Joker has one hand holding a revolver draped over Batgirl's shoulder and is pointing to her cheek with the other hand, as if gesturing to shoot her. The cover quickly drew criticism for highlighting a dark period in the character's history, especially when juxtaposed with the youthful, more optimistic direction of the series at the time. The hashtag #changethecover drew dozens of posts on Twitter and Tumblr asking DC not to release the variant. DC ultimately withdrew the cover from publication at the request of Albuquerque, who stated, "My intention was never to hurt or upset anyone through my art...For that reason, I have recommended to DC that the variant cover be pulled".[18]

• Along with The Dark Knight Returns, Tim Burton has mentioned that The Killing Joke influenced his film adaptation of Batman, specifically the origin of the Joker. Burton was quoted as saying, "I was never a giant comic book fan, but I've always loved the image of Batman and the Joker. The reason I've never been a comic book fan — and I think it started when I was a child — is because I could never tell which box I was supposed to read. I don't know if it was dyslexia or whatever, but that's why I loved The Killing Joke, because for the first time I could tell which one to read. It's my favorite. It's the first comic I've ever loved. And the success of those graphic novels made our ideas more acceptable".[19]
• Director Christopher Nolan has mentioned that The Killing Joke influenced the story, themes and Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker in the 2008 film The Dark Knight. The Joker's ambiguous, multiple-choice past and depiction as an unreliable narrator who provides various alternate possibilities of his origins, was inspired by the comic, as was the character's line "Madness is like gravity. All it takes is a little push", a nod to the Joker's philosophy in The Killing Joke that "All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy". In both stories, the Joker tries to corrupt one of Batman's allies by harming their loved ones. Ledger also stated in an interview that he was given a copy of the graphic novel as reference for the role.[20]
• Writer/director Todd Phillips has stated that the Joker's descent into madness after an unsuccessful career as a stand-up comedian, his past as a struggling lower-class citizen, and his ambiguous past in The Killing Joke served as an inspiration for the narrative and thematic elements of the 2019 feature film Joker.[21]

• The story is referenced in a flashback scene in the DC Universe Animated Original Movie, Batman: Under the Red Hood. Red Hood lures Batman (voiced by Bruce Greenwood) to the chemical factory where the Joker's (voiced by John DiMaggio) accident took place. The flashback then shows a fleeing Joker had attempted to escape while trying to claim that he was set up, only to accidentally fall into the chemicals that disfigure him. The film's villain, Jason Todd (voiced by Jensen Ackles) – whom the Joker had murdered, and who takes up his murderer's former criminal identity upon being returned to life by Ra's al Ghul (voiced by Jason Isaacs) – calls it Batman's greatest failure. Jason also obliquely refers to the Joker crippling Barbara.[22]
• Batman: The Killing Joke animated film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 2, 2016, and also played in select theaters on July 25 and 26, 2016. Sam Liu directed and Bruce Timm executive produced the film. The Batman: The Animated Series castmates, Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Tara Strong returned as Batman, the Joker, and Batgirl, respectively, alongside Ray Wise as Commissioner Gordon.[23] The film received a mixed reception.[24] The film's storyline follows the original comic, but also includes a new storyline involving Barbara's decision to retire as Batgirl after a crisis involving a Mafia war, as well as a brief sexual relationship between Batman and Batgirl that earned a particular amount of criticism from critics and fans.[25]
• The Killing Joke was referenced several times in the interactive film adaptation of Batman: Death in the Family, which serves as a follow-up to Batman: Under the Red Hood. The film also reused the pictures the Joker took of Barbara in The Killing Joke animated film. If Batman sacrifices himself to save Jason, two possible scenarios can play out. If Jason chooses to disobey Bruce's dying wish, he meets the Joker at a diner. Joker reminisces about Batman by retelling Jason the same joke he told Bruce at the end of The Killing Joke before Jason stabs him to death. If Jason attempts to uphold Batman's moral code and arrest Joker without killing him, Joker reveals to him that he has been repressing all the times he killed criminals during his time as the Red Hood and has become more of a successor to the villain himself rather than Batman - all because of "one bad day".

• In the pilot episode of the 2002 Birds of Prey television series, the pilot episode includes a version of the scene in which the Joker shoots Barbara in her in the spine, paralyzing her.
• In the FOX TV series Gotham (2014–19), story arcs involving the show's "Proto-Jokers",[26] Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska (both played by Cameron Monaghan), are heavily influenced by The Killing Joke. Several scenes, themes, and lines of dialogue are directly taken from the comic. The episode "A Dark Knight: One Bad Day" takes inspiration from the Joker's observation that "All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy", and ends with Jeremiah shooting and paralyzing Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova).[27]
• In Young Justice, Barbara Gordon/Batgirl (voiced by Alison Stoner) is introduced in Season 2, but is shown to become Oracle in Season 3 during the two-year time skip between seasons. In Season 4, it is revealed that Barbara was paralyzed after saving the Joker from an assassination attempt by Cassandra Cain. However, Barbara tells Cassandra she did not save the Joker for his sake, but to prevent Cassandra from becoming a killer.[28]

• In the 2013 video game Injustice: Gods Among Us, a downloadable content Killing Joke pack includes three skins for the character from the story. It includes his Hawaiian attire, the Red Hood, and his hat and long coat.
• In the 2011 video game Batman: Arkham City, the Joker (again voiced by Hamill) recounts his backstory from The Killing Joke to Hugo Strange (voiced by Corey Burton). When Strange expresses doubt at the Joker's story, the Joker admits that he prefers his origin story "to be multiple choice," repeating the line from the graphic novel.
• The 2013 video game prequel Batman: Arkham Origins, makes several references to The Killing Joke. When Batman (voiced by Roger Craig Smith) enters a carnival-themed room, the Joker (voiced by Troy Baker) tells him he got a great deal on an out-of-service amusement park, and jokes that "You should have seen the look on the real estate agent's face when we shook hands on the deal!", an allusion to the scene early in the graphic novel in which Joker cons the owner of a run-down amusement park out of the property, and then murders him. In a level depicting a psychiatric interview with Dr. Harleen Quinzel (voiced by Tara Strong), Joker is playable as the Red Hood, walking through the chemical plant that will end with his transformation into the Joker. Another scene shows him in an altercation with patrons at a comedy club who exhibited a poor reception to his act. Baker recites a monologue from the graphic novel.[29]
• The 2015 video game Batman: Arkham Knight depicts the Joker's shooting of Barbara Gordon as one of the hallucinations Batman experiences.[30]

Novelists Christa Faust and Gary Phillips wrote a novel adaptation of Alan Moore's story, published on September 25, 2018, by Titan Books.[31]

One of the two covers of the comic book Darkwing Duck Annual, published in March 2011, was a homage to Brian Bolland's cover of The Killing Joke.[32]

In a 2000 interview, and elsewhere, Moore has been critical of his work, saying: "I don't think it's a very good book. It's not saying anything very interesting".[45] Later qualifying that personal critique, he summarized the book saying: "I was making a point... '[that] there are a lot of similarities between Batman and the Joker.' That was the main point of The Killing Joke."[46] In 2003, he further clarified why, with the benefit of hindsight, it was this view that leads him to consider it one his lesser works:

"The Killing Joke is a story about Batman and the Joker; it isn't about anything that you're ever going to encounter in real life, because Batman and the Joker are not like any human beings that have ever lived. So there's no important human information being imparted...Yeah, it was something that I thought was clumsy, misjudged and had no real human importance. It was just about a couple of licensed DC characters that didn't really relate to the real world in any way."[47]

Bolland gave his own thoughts on Moore's response in 2008:

"The Killing Joke was not a project instigated by Alan, nor was it, as far as I know, a labour of love for him, and it doesn't usually appear in a list of his greatest works. I was glad he agreed to write it, though."[48]

In a 2004 interview with Wizard magazine, Moore was also critical about his decision to disable Barbara Gordon: "I asked DC if they had any problem with me crippling Barbara Gordon – who was Batgirl at the time – and if I remember, I spoke to Len Wein, who was our editor on the project... [He] said, 'Yeah, okay, cripple the bitch'. It was probably one of the areas where they should've reined me in, but they didn't".[49]

In the introduction to the story as it appears in the trade paperback DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore, Brian Bolland disputes the widely held belief that the story started as a Batman annual story and ended up as a prestige-format book. Bolland recalls that the idea for a one-off Batman story focusing on the Joker—with Batman more of an incidental character—was his. Bolland says that in 1984, Dick Giordano told him he could do any project for DC he wanted, and Bolland requested to do a Batman/Joker prestige book with Moore as writer. Bolland has also expressed dissatisfaction with the final book, and regrets that its impending schedule for release meant he could not color the book himself (John Higgins was the colorist). Bolland says that "the end result wasn't quite what I'd hoped. I don't think it rates with some of the highlights of Alan's career".[50] March 2008 saw the release of the artwork as Bolland intended it: the twentieth anniversary hardcover edition of The Killing Joke is completely recolored by Bolland himself. The book made The New York Times Best Seller list in May 2009.[51]

Critic Mark Vogler wrote that The Killing Joke provided the Joker "with a sympathetic back story as it presented some of the villain's most vile offenses".[52] Moore's rendition of the Joker's origin employs elements of the 1951 story "The Man Behind the Red Hood" (Detective Comics #168), which established the concept of the Joker originally having been a thief known only as the Red Hood. According to Will Brooker, in his 2001 book Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon, the tragic and human elements of the character's story, coupled with his barbaric crimes as the Joker, reveal the character as more of a three-dimensional human being. During an interview with Salon, Moore explained that the Joker's psychotic nature could have been caused by a "bad decision" in his life.[1]

Much of the Joker's backstory from The Killing Joke is also referred to in 2004's "Pushback" (Batman: Gotham Knights #50-55; reprinted with #66 as Batman: Hush Returns), in which the events are observed and reported by the Riddler, who recounts that the pregnant wife of the pre-accident Joker, who is called "Jack" prior to his accident, was kidnapped and murdered by the criminals in order to force his compliance.[53][54]

Many have argued that the novel implies that Barbara Gordon is raped by the Joker. The book has been the subject of feminist critique, criticizing the treatment of Barbara Gordon. Author Brian Cronin notes that "[many] readers felt the violence towards Barbara Gordon was too much, and even Moore, in retrospect, has expressed his displeasure with how the story turned out".[55] Author Sharon Packer wrote: "Anyone who feels that feminist critics overreacted to [Gordon's] accident is advised to consult the source material ... Moore's The Killing Joke is sadistic to the core. It shows Gordon stripped and mutilated, with before, during and after photos of the attack displayed before her bound and gagged father, the police commissioner. She is more than merely disabled".[56] Gail Simone included the character's paralysis in a list of "major female characters that had been killed, mutilated, and depowered", dubbing the phenomenon "Women in Refrigerators" in reference to a 1994 Green Lantern story where the title character discovers his girlfriend's mutilated body in his refrigerator. Author Jeffrey A. Brown noted The Killing Joke as an example of the "relatively unequal violence [female characters] are subjected to" in the major DC/Marvel Comics industry. While male characters may be critically injured or killed, they are more than likely to be returned to their original conception, while "women on the other hand, are more likely to be casually, but irreparably, wounded such as when Barbara Gordon's (the original Batgirl) spine was shattered by the Joker just for fun and has been restricted to a wheelchair for over a decade now".[57]