Batman: The Killing Joke (Special Deluxe Titan Edition)4 out of 5 starsBatman: The Killing Joke,
- By
Dee
This is a much hyped Batman story from the pen of Alan Moore, drawn by Brian Bolland and origninally coloured by John Higgins.
Personally I felt the story was fine but not as good as The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Lyn Varley which had a more original take on The Joker. The Killing Joke is a good story but not a great story, I don't think Alan Moore is overly taken with it either. The most annoying thing is the poor joke at the end which let it down, it implies The Joker and Batman shared a moment of humour (and not a good joke either) after the atrocities The Joker had caused.
Brian Bolland's drawing is quite impressive although some of his drawings of The Joker made the character look a bit doe eyed and not as menacing as he should been.
The best thing was the colouring, John Higgins really made the images stand out from the page, Mr Higgin's is a much underated artist and second to none when it comes to colouring.
Unfortunately the new 20th anniversary delux edition has Brian Bolland re-colouring the artwork. I know he didn't like the original colouring but he just hasn't the sense of colour for this kind of job. He's mostly a cover artist and just isn't adventurous enough with colour. The new colouring, albeit clean, lacks any drama, there's no lift to the line work that the original had.
If you buy this graphic novel, buy the original version as the colouring was probably the best thing about it.
