I think that the animated adaptation of Alan Moore
& Dave Gibbon’s Batman: The Killing Joke (a comic book story roughly twice
as long as a regular comic) was a decent effort but lacked the emotional punch
it should have. Here’s how I would have done the story in animated form.
Spoilers to both versions of the story of course.
The animated version has the right idea by having
more scenes in the beginning with Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, so that what the
Joker does to her has more of an emotional impact. However, by having that section
completely disconnected from the rest of the movie, it mutes the impact. Plus,
since this is a Joker story, the viewer gets a bit impatient waiting for the
Joker to show up. But by the time he does the viewer has gotten invested enough
in Batgirl’s story, told from her perspective that when the story that’s supported
to be adapted finally turns up, it actually derails the movie that we’d been
watching to this point. So to connect the stories more fully I’d do the
following:
I’d establish that the Joker is so skilled at
escaping that he more or less chooses when he leaves Arkham Asylum. The initial
sequence would therefore also be a clash with the Joker, only involving Batgirl
as well. As Batman and Batgirl tracked the Joker down, Batman would admit that
despite having allies, he still tended to feel isolated and alone during his
war on crime. Whenever he and Batgirl were alone, he’s noticeably let his guard
down in his facial expressions, only to resume the stony face book whenever
others were present. Also, Batgirl would observe that Batman keeps trying to
put the Joker away and the Joker keeps escaping, and that the two of them were
on a broken record. Meanwhile her father, Commissioner James Gordon would get
into a debate with Batgirl as to whether or not the Joker was born evil (I think
it works regardless of whether Gordon knows Batgirl is his daughter for this to
work, but it might work better if it does, for reasons that will become
apparent below).
Eventually Batman and Batgirl would capture the
Joker. By this point Batgirl and her father’s debate would spill into the Joker
overhearing them argue. The Joker would be motivated to not only escape sooner
than usual but also try to drive Gordon mad to prove his evil was the result of
a bad day and not his basic nature. Not realizing that the Joker had escaped,
Batgirl, wanting to prove her own point, and stressing that the two of them
were likely to get each other killed, would convince Batman to visit the Joker
in Arkham. From there we’d head to the story of the comic version of the story
with Batman learning of the Joker’s escape.
After the Joker killed the guy at the carnival he
would remark that Batgirl was the only decent one among the do-gooders, thus emphasizing
that he doesn’t know Batgirl is Barbara Gordon. This would have created further
pathos when he shot and stripped Barbara and captured her father to try to
drive James Gordon mad for what he said before.
The next bit would follow pretty closely the
original story, with Joker remembering one possible version of his past as he
subjects a stripped James Gordon to a mad carnival ride. He’d taunt Gordon with
delight at watching the man who insulted him get dragged down by a bad day,
just as he was, or at least how he remembers it that day.
When Batman was alone with Barbara, his face would
soften and show his anguish, and he would promise to Barbara to really hurt the
Joker for what he did to her. But Barbara would tell him no, because that way
the Joker wins, by dragging them to his level. She’d tell him to try to redeem
him one more time. Batman, touched by Barbara’s strength after the trauma she’d
experienced, would promise to honour her wishes.
This promise would be strengthened further by him
finding James Gordon, having survived the attempt by the Joker to drive him mad
and having him tell Batman to do this by the book. Armed by the strength shown
by both Gordons, he’d be able to first keep his cool and defeat the Joker, and
then, at a point when he really just wants to hurt the Joker, offer to end
their conflict just this once. The Joker would decline and tell his joke about
being alone. Batman would laugh, but a bit uncertainly.
I’d end the story with Batman taking James to
Barbara after James had been patched up. Batman would start to leave only to be
asked to stay by his friends. Batman would think about how his friends, despite
their trauma would heal and welcome him in their world, while the Joker was
alone. Batman would finally realize that with such strong friends he could
never be alone, so the Joker’s joke about being alone was no longer as funny.
Having thus decided this, he’d realize that despite what they’d endured, this
time the joke was on the Joker. The final shot would be of the Joker in Arkham,
now completely broken with no energy to attempt an escape.
