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Released in 1988, “The Killing Joke” remains one of the most influential stories in Batman history. “Watchmen” writer Alan Moore approached the Joker origin story as a way of demonstrating the similarities between the Clown Prince of Crime and the Dark Knight, ultimately helping popularize the now ubiquitous notion of the two being opposite sides of the same coin. The graphic novel influenced everyone from future DC comics writers to directors Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan, and famously contained the genesis of Barbara Gordon becoming Oracle, after she’s shot by the Joker, who then takes pictures of his victim as she lies helpless on the floor.
“The Killing Joke” certainly wasn’t a comic book for kids, then. Which is why when he was drafted to executive produce the 2016 animated adaptation, Bruce Timm was trepidatious. He’d been given a lot of creative control on “Batman: TAS” but in order to stay faithful to Moore’s story, the film was always going to risk an R rating. Timm, however was used to making more mature content accessible to kids. That point wasn’t lost on him when the adaptation of “The Killing Joke” debuted at Comic Con 2016.
Things didn’t get off to the most auspicious start when, during a Q&A, writer Brian Azzarello was confronted by a fan, later confirmed to be writer Jeremy Konrad, who took issue with Azzarello’s inclusion of an original story that saw Barbara Gordon sleeping with Batman. In Konrad’s eyes, this addition “ended up being about the men in her life” and famously prompted Azzarello to call Konrad a “p****,” kicking off the movie’s debut in less than classy fashion. Which was fitting for Timm, as his whole experience with adapting the story had been a struggle.
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