Batman The Killing Joke

1. What was your reaction to the text you just read?

Batman The Killing Joke was an interesting read. I've never been terribly into following the story line of batman but since it is such a big part of our culture I've obviously been exposed to it on several occasions. The one thing I ever figured out was where the Joker came from and this story tells it all. Maybe this is one version of it, but it's the first and only one I've seen. It tells Joker's story from when he became the joker, why he became the joker. The whole concept of him loosing his sanity was very interesting to me. The story shows a deeper part of the character, why he is crazy and why he hates batman. He is shown to want everyone to be like him, trying to prove that anyone can go crazy like he did after a bad day, but failing because the commissioner stayed sane. I didn't really understand the ending but it was interesting nevertheless.

2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story with which you were able to connect.

The use of the  fair and the freaks to represent "normal folk" and the commissioner as the freak because he was a normal average man, reminded me of the "Freak Show" season of American Horror story which had the main characters and story plot revolve around freaks at a circus. They were really normal folk, and the other "normal people" in town seemed to be crazy and unusual, more so than the freaks. Joker was trying to point this out in an attempt to make himself look more normal, surrounded  by other "freaks" he placed the commissioner in the position of an exhibit at a freak show. He focused not on his physical deformities, but on his personality and morals and social conduct which to him seem freakish. In the same way in American Horror Story, the normal townsfolk had more freakish morals and beliefs and acted more like freaks than the physically different "freaks" at the show itself.

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

I would not really make any significant changes to the story to adapt it into my medium of choice which would be film. The only think I would really do is may expand on Joker's background with his wife and his job and his attempt to get a job as a comedian. I believe it would add a lot more depth to the character and make it easier for people to connect with him and have more sympathy. Like the latest movie with the joker in it, Suicide Squad, which gave more background on all the villains in order to make them likable as the protagonists of the movie, making the joker more likable would add interest to the story by making people connect with him and like him even though he is a horrible person. It would drive the point home that he is insane and there is a reason for that and that that is the reason for his crimes.