Post 13 Week 13: Batman: The Killing Joke and analyzed response.
RESPONSE: Batman: the killing joke.
For this week, I had read Batman: the killing joke. I had remembered reading the original version of this print some fifteen years ago and being a younger kid at the time, a lot of the context had been lost. However, with a more matured view and a brilliant recoloring, i felt that this story is a very humanizing and symbolic graphic novel. With the batman stylized in his classic attire and driving a very 1940's themed bat-mobile, i felt that the play on the original era of batman was a nice twist and helped to root it in the classical detective era of pop culture. The characters seem gritty, and hard boiled, almost like the characters and detectives of the film noir world. While batman is flawed in his own ways, his attempted prevention of fate killing off him or the joker is his code of honor trying to do whats right.
Reading Response in class: Batman: The Killing Joke.
Questions:
1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?
I was quite surprised, especially by the symbolic ending and the final joke. For a super hero graphic novel it felt lit like a classic film noir, using a heavy set of light and shadows to portray the heaviness of the story. I felt it was beautifully done, the coloring of the comic added an extra set of life to the panels, and the color symbolism within the joker's backstory is wonderfully done in its slowly intensifying hues. It was a tale of desperation on the batman's part, attempting to prevent the "fate" of him and the joker while also delving into the twisted desperation of the jokers shattered mind. It was a humanizing story for the joker and helped to explain why the joker had become what he was. The ambiguous end leaves the reader to ponder the rest, or read the symbolism within the last joke and the police cars' fading lights. The revised color palette in this updated version of the original story helps to further indicate the gritty and heavy mood of the story, pushing the depressed desperation of the batman in avoiding the inevitable end for the joker as well as the desperation of the joker to forget his troubled past in the only way he knows: through infinite madness.
2. What conections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story which you were able to connect.
I made connections with both the Batman and Joker. With the trauma that both have experienced, I can feel for both parties in this case. It reminded me of a losing battle i had with a loved one, where I was the "sane" party trying to help the "insane" party return to the light of day. I had been through a similar experience to the person with the death of my mother to cancer and i truly empathized with this person, but they had taken a different road through the grief and had heavily started drinking and losing connections with themselves. I hit a fork in the road and had reached out one last time and while it didn't end in a morally ambiguous joke, that friend had broken down in tears and gotten checked in somewhere. While fate wasn't the underlying factor in this the ability of people to suffer differently and coupe with grief in different ways shows in this story. In the case of Batman and the joker, its taking the high road or the life of crime. I don't want to say I took a high road after the trauma, it took time to heal and learn to use the pain for good, but I ended up taking what i had passed through and use it to help better those around me, while my friend had secluded himself, and had begun a bout of self destruction.
3. What changes would you make to adapt the story into another medium? What medium would you you use? What changes would you make?
I would adapt the medium to film, more specifically, the film noir genre of the 1940's and 1950's. I find that the heaviness of the text along with the ambiguity of the text and ending would fit right in with the hard-boiled, morally questioning feelings of the era. I would rework the light work, leaving more of the scenes on shadow and adding extra low key contrast to the characters, leaving out more background/ set to accentuate the intensity of the scenes. The comic already has this sense of violence and corruption of society, with the batman retained as the tainted pillar of justice. In effect, it would transfer quite well to this medium. However, i would add a neo-noir element of a single color use in scenes, similar to the use of a single in the joker's backstory. This would help to accentuate the importance of specific objects in the scenes. I feel the redone verson of this comic does all of this rather well and would transition pretty well to this form of film.
For this week, I had read Batman: the killing joke. I had remembered reading the original version of this print some fifteen years ago and being a younger kid at the time, a lot of the context had been lost. However, with a more matured view and a brilliant recoloring, i felt that this story is a very humanizing and symbolic graphic novel. With the batman stylized in his classic attire and driving a very 1940's themed bat-mobile, i felt that the play on the original era of batman was a nice twist and helped to root it in the classical detective era of pop culture. The characters seem gritty, and hard boiled, almost like the characters and detectives of the film noir world. While batman is flawed in his own ways, his attempted prevention of fate killing off him or the joker is his code of honor trying to do whats right.
Reading Response in class: Batman: The Killing Joke.
Questions:
1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?
I was quite surprised, especially by the symbolic ending and the final joke. For a super hero graphic novel it felt lit like a classic film noir, using a heavy set of light and shadows to portray the heaviness of the story. I felt it was beautifully done, the coloring of the comic added an extra set of life to the panels, and the color symbolism within the joker's backstory is wonderfully done in its slowly intensifying hues. It was a tale of desperation on the batman's part, attempting to prevent the "fate" of him and the joker while also delving into the twisted desperation of the jokers shattered mind. It was a humanizing story for the joker and helped to explain why the joker had become what he was. The ambiguous end leaves the reader to ponder the rest, or read the symbolism within the last joke and the police cars' fading lights. The revised color palette in this updated version of the original story helps to further indicate the gritty and heavy mood of the story, pushing the depressed desperation of the batman in avoiding the inevitable end for the joker as well as the desperation of the joker to forget his troubled past in the only way he knows: through infinite madness.
2. What conections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story which you were able to connect.
I made connections with both the Batman and Joker. With the trauma that both have experienced, I can feel for both parties in this case. It reminded me of a losing battle i had with a loved one, where I was the "sane" party trying to help the "insane" party return to the light of day. I had been through a similar experience to the person with the death of my mother to cancer and i truly empathized with this person, but they had taken a different road through the grief and had heavily started drinking and losing connections with themselves. I hit a fork in the road and had reached out one last time and while it didn't end in a morally ambiguous joke, that friend had broken down in tears and gotten checked in somewhere. While fate wasn't the underlying factor in this the ability of people to suffer differently and coupe with grief in different ways shows in this story. In the case of Batman and the joker, its taking the high road or the life of crime. I don't want to say I took a high road after the trauma, it took time to heal and learn to use the pain for good, but I ended up taking what i had passed through and use it to help better those around me, while my friend had secluded himself, and had begun a bout of self destruction.
3. What changes would you make to adapt the story into another medium? What medium would you you use? What changes would you make?
I would adapt the medium to film, more specifically, the film noir genre of the 1940's and 1950's. I find that the heaviness of the text along with the ambiguity of the text and ending would fit right in with the hard-boiled, morally questioning feelings of the era. I would rework the light work, leaving more of the scenes on shadow and adding extra low key contrast to the characters, leaving out more background/ set to accentuate the intensity of the scenes. The comic already has this sense of violence and corruption of society, with the batman retained as the tainted pillar of justice. In effect, it would transfer quite well to this medium. However, i would add a neo-noir element of a single color use in scenes, similar to the use of a single in the joker's backstory. This would help to accentuate the importance of specific objects in the scenes. I feel the redone verson of this comic does all of this rather well and would transition pretty well to this form of film.
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