Joke Over Batman: The Killing Joke written by Alan Moore, reveals the history behind the Joker’s craziness and shows a very demented side of him. The Joker takes his insanity to the most evil level possible after breaking free from Arkham. It is amazing that after he humiliates Jim Gordon’s daughter, Jim Gordon still believes that he should be dealt with “by the book” (Moore 39). Batman, too, towards the end of the novel, offers a truce to The Joker even after the several death attempts he makes on his life. These two men try to show compassion towards the Joker in spite of his insurmountable crimes but, as Harley Quinn says in “Mad Love”, he is a “psychopathic clown” (“Mad”). The Joker’s evil actions are unjustified and thus he is undeserving of sympathy.
Batman, like the Joker experienced a tragedy that turned him into the crime fighter that he is. But unlike the Joker who is already an adult man when his wife dies, Batman is at a sensitive age when he witnesses his parents’ death. The Joker makes a conscious decision to engage in criminal activities for money but the end turns out bitter. The chemical slime the Joker jumps into changes his physical appearance, but has no bearing on his psyche. He prefers to act like a crazed, lunatic and not face reality because for him, “madness is the emergency exit” (Moore 23). Batman does not use his “one bad day” as an excuse to take way innocent lives or to torment the residents of Gotham (Moore 40). Joker spends most of time trying to eliminate Batman. He should learn a life lesson from him: his sad, boring, past is not a justifiable reason to become crazy. Even before becoming the Joker, we realize that he does not have respect for women. He yells at his pregnant wife and insinuates that she become a prostitute. In “Game Over for Owlman!” everything Joker does shred whatever is left of a “decent man” into irreparable pieces (“Game”). The Joker represents evil in its purest form yet, in his treatment towards women. We witness his most cruel acts towards Harley Quinn in spite of all the brilliant ideas she gives (“Mad”). He slaps her around, pushes her outside the window of a skyscraper, and disregards all her ideas. He forces fish into her mouth after she complaints many times that she does not like fish. His treatment of Harley merits no forgiveness or mercy. In “The Laughing Fish” the Joker is described as a “demented, abusive, psychotic, maniac” and his abuse of Barbara Gordon proves just that (“Laughing”). After he puts a bullet through her, the Joker shows no shred of remorse but further humiliates her by ripping her clothes. To add insult to injury, he takes pictures of her in her abused condition. Above all, Barbara Gordon does not do anything to harm or insult the Joker intentionally or accidentally. The Joker’s ill-treatment of women further proves that he does not deserve any empathy. The Joker kidnaps and humiliates Commissioner Gordon in an attempt to drive him crazy with a few doses of reality. He wants to establish that any sane person under the right amount of pressure and circumstance can become a “raving homicidal madman” (“Mad”). The Commissioner is stripped, violated and abused by a bunch hideous monstrosity while he hears the Jokers sick, annoying voice. All of this is more than enough to give the Commissioner nightmares or to send him on a rampage. The photos of his abused daughter may justify beating the Joker into a pulp or strangling the life out of him but, there “isn’t a need to crawl under a rock with all the other slimy things when trouble hits…” (Moore 43). The Joker needs to face reality that he was failure as a husband and quitting his job as a lab assistant was bad idea. In his effort to make the Commissioner crazy he proves that “ordinary people don’t always crack” (Moore 43). On the night that his wife dies the Joker goes ahead with his plans to commit a crime. He is an adult man who, above all, thinks of the money to be gained from the crime. The Joker admits, “I find the past such a worrying, anxious place”, but that is exactly where he has to go to find healing and closure (Moore 23). Until then, he remains an unsympathetic criminal. The Joker does nothing to prove that there is, somewhere within him, a human being capable of compassion or feelings for others. Batman declares in “Mad Love” that “that the only person the Joker loves is his self.” He needs to be taken out of his comfort zone of insanity and put on trial for the crimes that he has committed. Arkham is a haven to him; he says, “You see, it doesn’t matter if you catch me and send me back to the asylum…” (Moore 40). Perhaps with his life on the line, and the freedom of killing others truly taken from him, only then will he repent from his sins. He needs to mourn for the loss of his wife and unborn child and stop using his tragedy of the past as his excuse for killing others.

Works Cited “Game Over for Owlman!” Batman: The Brave and The Bold. Dir. Ben Jones. Perf.
Diedrich Bader, Jeff Bennett, Tom Kenny, and James Arnold Taylor. 2009. Warner, 2010. DVD.
“The Laughing Fish.” Batman: The Animated Series. Dir. Bruce W Timm. Perf. Kevin
Conroy, Mark Hamill, Arleen Sorkin, and Bob Hastings. 1993. Warner, 2004. DVD.
“Mad Love.” Batman: The Animated Series. Dir. Butch Lukic. Perf. Kevin Conroy,
Arleen Sorkin, Mark Hamill, and Bob Hastings. 1999. Warner, 2005. DVD.
Moore, Alan, writer. Batman: The Killing Joke. Art and colors by Brian Bolland. Letters by Richard Starkings. New York: DC Comics, 2008. Print.