10 Comics For Batman Fans Who Love The Killing Joke

Who is the Joker? The Dark Knight film toyed around with the Joker’s ambiguous origins, as Heath Ledger’s Joker teased viewers with his conflicting accounts of how he received his scars. In DC Comics, the Joker’s real identity is often a mystery. Some alternate-universe comics have explored the Joker’s real name, such as Jack Napier in Batman: White Knight.

The Killing Joke is one of the best Batman comics ever published. Fans of The Killing Joke should read similar stories that explore the Joker’s origins (or lack thereof), elaborate on the Red Hood identity, or involve never-before-seen origin stories and comics that show off why the Joker is Batman’s greatest villain and the Bat-Family’s biggest threat.

Fans of Batman: The Killing Joke are intimately familiar with the phrase “one bad day.” The Joker teases Batman with the idea that all it takes is one bad day to ruin someone’s life or to transform a seemingly ordinary man into Gotham’s greatest villain––as the Joker himself experienced.

Batman: One Bad Day is a series of one-shots––an anthology starring Batman’s most iconic foes. Each issue features a different villain, from Catwoman to Riddler to Mr. Freeze to Clayface and more, presenting one notable day in their lives. While these one-shots aren’t as critically acclaimed as The Killing Joke, they highlight Batman’s villains other than the Joker.

9 A New Red Hood Emerges In Gotham City

For years, DC Comics readers thought they’d never see Jason Todd again. The Joker brutally killed the second Robin in “A Death in the Family,” but DC wasn’t finished with him yet. Years later, Jason Todd returned–this time as the Red Hood, a vigilante who used lethal force and adopted the persona commonly used by the Joker before his fall at Ace Chemicals.

While “Under the Hood” is not a Joker-centric story, it shows the aftermath of the Joker’s evil acts. Jason Todd is forever scarred by the Joker’s actions, even using the Red Hood mantle to spite both the Dark Knight and the Clown Prince of Crime.

8 Joker Vs. The Bat-Family

The Joker always has a purpose, a plan, and an agenda. He often uses the guise of chaos to mask his intricate sinister plans. The Killing Joke established the Joker’s origins, while “Death of the Family” cemented his hatred for the rest of the Bat-Family.

In The Killing Joke, the Joker targeted Batman’s allies. He shot Barbara Gordon and mentally tortured Commissioner Gordon. In “Death of the Family,” the Joker attempts to dismantle the Bat-Family so that he and Batman can return to their dance, just the two of them.

7 Joker Delves Into The Clown Prince Of Crime’s Mind

Batman: The Killing Joke may have “Batman” in the title, but it’s very much a Joker story. The Killing Joke presents a possible origin story for the Joker while leaving enough wiggle room for future writers to interpret those events, and they have. Joker, by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, is very much a Joker comic with very little Batman.

The events of Joker occur through the lens of Jonny Frost, one of the Joker’s henchmen who picks up the Clown Price of Crime from Arkham Asylum. Joker is darker and grittier than the standard DC Universe, and Bermejo’s art adds a realistic, sinister quality to the Joker never before depicted in comics.

6 Unlock The Secrets Of The Joker’s Origins

The Killing Joke inspired Chip Zdarsky’s “The Joker” Year One” story arc. The evidence can be found on the cover of Batman #142––the Joker removing the Red Hood helmet to reveal his sinister grin for the first time, an homage to one of the final scenes of The Killing Joke after the Joker’s transformation.

The Killing Joke is a Joker origin story, but one of many. “The Joker: Year One” is simply another interpretation of the Joker’s origins. DC wants to keep the Joker’s true roots a mystery, and “Year One” simply adds new layers to the growing mystery while also serving as an interesting Joker comic published right in Batman’s monthly title.

5 Batman Explores Arkham Asylum

Batman is a complex hero, but Batman’s villains are some of the most fascinating fictional characters ever. The Killing Joke showed the potential downfall of the man Joker used to be. Readers caught a small glimpse of the Joker’s mindset, pre- and post-Ace Chemicals.

Readers looking for more analyses of Batman villains should read Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. Batman descends into Arkham Asylum, encountering the Joker, Two-Face and more. Arkham Asylum is as much a psychological analysis of Batman’s villains as it is a beautiful graphic novel.

4 Alan Moore’s Legendary Swamp Thing Comic Run

While the second comic volume of Swamp Thing has absolutely nothing to do with Batman or the Joker, it is one of the best examples of Alan Moore’s tremendous writing skill as a comic book writer, standing right alongside books like The Killing Joke and Watchmen.

Fans of The Killing Joke, who particularly found the writing superb, should check out Swamp Thing issues #20-64. These issues encompass Moore’s run on the series, which predates his work on The Killing Joke by about a year. Swamp Thing was no longer a man transformed into a monster but a monster who absorbed a man’s soul.

3 The Joker Becomes Gotham’s Hero Against Batman

What if the Joker was Gotham’s hero and Batman was the villain? This question sparked Sean Murphy’s imagination when conceptualizing Batman: White Knight. The graphic novel series occurs in an alternate DC universe where the Joker cures his insanity and reverts to Jack Napier.

The Killing Joke teased fans with the man the Joker used to be before his transformation. White Knight fully realizes that character and peels back the layers of the Joker, presenting a pre-villain version of the character who is likable and sometimes humorous in his interactions with Harley Quinn and Bruce Wayne in sequel books like Beyond the White Knight.

2 Batman Vs. The Joker (Post-Zero Hour)

Usually, fans reference The Killing Joke or “A Death in the Family” as the greatest Joker stories. While that’s true, The Man Who Laughs is a brilliant, modern take on Batman’s first encounter with the Joker, inspired by the events of Batman #1 back in 1940 when the Joker and Catwoman first debuted.

Fans who loved The Killing Joke should read The Man Who Laughs if only to see what an early encounter with Batman and the Joker would look like. So many of their modern battles are built on decades of foundation and familiarity, but The Man Who Laughs puts the readers in Batman’s shoes as he looks upon the Clown Prince of Crime for the first time.

1 The Comedian, The Clown & The Criminal

Batman: The Killing Joke answered questions but asked many more. Who was the Joker before his accident? Whatever happened to the Joker’s family before he fell into that vat of chemicals? Batman: Three Jokers was a limited series that serves as a sequel to The Killing Joke and Justice League’s “Darkseid War.”

Batman learns that there are three Jokers––three people who primarily used the Joker identity––one of which was the Joker from The Killing Joke (“The Comedian”). Some fans would disagree with the direction of Three Joker‘s story, but Geoff Johns’s limited series is a good book for new readers interested in a potential future for The Killing Joke‘s Joker.