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This is not the perfect Batman story. It’s got several weird choices, some extremely offensive moments and one of the most infamous scenes of violence towards a female character in comic history (story goes that when Moore mentioned the idea of damaging Barbara Gordon’s spine, the higher ups at DC responded to him with “Fine, cripple the bitch��). Flaws aside, it is the perfect Joker story.

These random acts of violence, these weird choices and offensive mockeries�� they fit the Joker’s twisted sense of humor. It shows him at his cruelest.

It also shows him at his most sympathetic.

Alan Moore took his considerable talents and applied it to reworking the Joker’s backstory; to making it absolutely depressing and then adding in the element that the Joker himself is not even sure if it's correct. What’s important is that he believes it�� at least at the time.

The artwork is stunning (especially in the recolored version that is currently in print) and shows the Joker, while almost always grinning, always with sad eyes. I mean seriously, just look at him.





This is one of those comics that needs to be experienced. I could go on at length, but could never do it justice. My suggestion is to just check it out for yourself.

Let me close though with the Joker’s monologue. It’s long, but says more about his character than I ever could, and is one of the best written I’ve ever seen in a comic.

"So... I see you received the free ticket I sent you. I'm glad. I did so want you to be here. You see it doesn't matter if you catch me and send me back to the asylum... Gordon's been driven mad. I've proved my point. I've demonstrated there's no difference between me and everyone else! All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day. You had a bad day once, am I right? I know I am. I can tell. You had a bad day and everything changed. Why else would you dress up as a flying rat? You had a bad day, and it drove you as crazy as everybody else... Only you won't admit it! You have to keep pretending that life makes sense, that there's some point to all this struggling! God you make me want to puke. I mean, what is it with you? What made you what you are? Girlfriend killed by the mob, maybe? Brother carved up by some mugger? Something like that, I bet. Something like that... Something like that happened to me, you know. I... I'm not exactly sure what it was. Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another... If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice! Ha ha ha! But my point is... My point is, I went crazy. When I saw what a black, awful joke the world was, I went crazy as a coot! I admit it! Why can't you? I mean, you're not unintelligent! You must see the reality of the situation. Do you know how many times we've come close to world war three over a flock of geese on a computer screen? Do you know what triggered the last world war? An argument over how many telegraph poles Germany owed its war debt creditors! Telegraph poles! Ha ha ha ha HA! It's all a joke! Everything anybody ever valued or struggled for... it's all a monstrous, demented gag! So why can't you see the funny side? Why aren't you laughing?"

5/5 stars