“Understand that sexuality is as wide as the sea. Understand that your morality is not law. Understand that we are you. Understand that if we decide to have sex whether safe, safer, or unsafe, it is our decision and you have no rights in our lovemaking.”
-Derek Jarman
Yes, we have to talk about this
one. Unlike the previous ones we’ve had to talk about, the reasoning for
talking about this one has less to do with the themes and ideas of the comic
and more to do with the background of Kraven’s Last Hunt. For The Killing Joke
is why Kraven’s Last Hunt exists in the first place.
A brief production history of
Kraven’s Last Hunt (told here so I don’t have to get into it when I could be
talking about Kraven’s Last Hunt): the concept of the story began in either
1984 or ’85 (more likely ’85), as a Wonder Man miniseries. The series would be
about Wonder Man being buried alive by his brother, The Grim Reaper, only to
resurface months later. Suffice it to say, this was a crap idea for a story
(not the least of which due to it being about one of the less interesting
members of the Maximoff Family [the kind of family where being the Demiurge
that will destroy the entire Marvel Universe and recreate it into something new
makes you the third most interesting member]), with the only thing surviving
into the final narrative being “the villain buries the hero”.
A few months later (definitely in
’85), DeMatteis is pitching a comic to the head editor of the Batman line, Len
Wein. It’s a rather good idea (or, at least the kind of good idea that can go
to shit if placed in the wrong hands): What would happen after the Joker
actually succeeded in killing Batman? This of course invokes a rather famous
Superman story where Lex Luthor, Genius: “Have Brain Will Travel” kills
Superman. However that story ended with Luthor immediately caught by Supergirl
with the future uncertain.
But what if Luthor got away with
it? What if no one knew he killed
Superman, but the world knew Superman was dead? What would he do next?
DeMatteis’ pitch takes that pitch, applies it to the Joker, and comes up with a
rather surprising answer: he’d go sane. The Joker would take off his mask, and
be like everyone else. The dance would be over, and he would be at peace.
Wein rejected the pitch, citing
that it was far too similar to another comic that was being developed. Some
British bloke named Alan Moore submitted something called The Killing Joke that
was well received by editorial and would be released… once the artist, Brian
Boland, was finished doing the art for it. DeMatteis’ Batman/Joker pitch would
be developed roughly 10 years later as part of the Legends of the Dark Knight
series that was essentially the home to miniseries done by various writing and
art teams who weren’t the main writers/artists of Batman or Detective Comics
(the arc, fittingly called Going Sane, will not be covered in this blog series
as I wish to keep this blog from discussing DeMatteis’ work outside of
Spider-Man as little as possible [otherwise you bet we’d have an entry on The
Piper at the Gates of Hell]. For what it’s worth, Going Sane is much better
than The Killing Joke [though, that’s not saying much as it just has to be the
kind of story that doesn’t make Joe Staton think, “you know, this scene of
anguish needs Barbara Gordon’s tits”]).
Nonetheless, it was rejected. To
salvage the pitch into being something that wouldn’t be as derivative,
DeMatteis recalled a villain by the name of Hugo Strange who, for about two
pages, donned a Batman mask. This got the writer thinking: what if Strange
“killed” Batman and took over the mantel of the Dark Knight? Surely, this time
it wouldn’t be rejected, right?
Between the two Batman pitches,
Wein had moved on to more freelance work and the head Batman editor was Dennis
O’Neil. O’Neil looked at the pitch, and promptly rejected it (if it means
anything, the story sounds like the second and third acts of the ‘94 event
series: Knightfall, of which O’Neil was a co-writer of, so perhaps the idea of
a more vicious replacement Batman was brewing in O’Neil’s mind). Dejected,
after having the story bounced three times, DeMatteis decided to stop pitching
the comic story.
Cut to autumn 1986. DeMatteis is
eating lunch with editor of the Spider-Man line, Jim Owsley (remember him?),
and Tom DeFalco (the editor who bounced the initial Wonder Man pitch). They
were trying to convince DeMatteis to be the writer of Spectacular Spider-Man,
one of three books the webcrawler had at the time. Initially reluctant,
DeMatteis eventually relented and began thinking of what his first arc would be.
His mind drifted back to that “Buried Alive” pitch he had tried and tried again
to work for Batman and Wonder Man.
And so, he decided to rework the
pitch into being a Spider-Man story. He would come up with an all new villain
for the piece, one who would truly test Peter’s abilities. When DeMatteis
pitched the idea to Owsley, he was ecstatic embracing wholeheartedly the
conceit. He loved the new villain, the idea of Spider-Man being buried alive,
all of it.
As many a writer does, DeMatteis
decided to take some time off before continuing to write his comic. While he
was procrastinating, he, like many a fan, flipped through the Marvel Universe
Handbook. For no particular reason, the writer turned to an entry on a rather
dull Spider-Man villain by the name of Kraven the Hunter who was only notable
because he once shot lasers out of his nipples. But DeMatteis, based on a
rather minor trivia point that Kraven was Russian, realized that this joke of a
villain would be the perfect antagonist for his Spectacular run. Owsley was
hesitant, favoring the new villain, but allowed DeMatteis to do as he wilts.
Two final minor things: firstly
Mike Zeck, artist of the comic book event series Secret Wars, was put on Spectacular
Spider-Man, much to DeMatteis’ delight. This, in turn, inspired DeMatteis to add
a deturantagonist, Vermin, to the storyline. And secondly, it was decided by Jim
Salicrup, the editor who replaced Owsley in the time between DeMatteis’ hiring
and Kraven’s Last Hunt, that the story be released over all three of the
Spider-Man titles rather than just Spectacular. Here endeth the history (the
longer version discussed, among other things, why Wonder Man was one of the
less interesting members of the Maximoff Family).
You might have noticed that I just
spent well over a thousand words talking about something that isn’t The Killing
Joke. My reasoning is quite simple: it’s a stinker. It’s not painful to read
like The Dark Knight Returns, but nonetheless is this a lesser outing on the
parts of everyone involved. Other people have gone into the reasons why this
was a stinker, the environment that allowed this to be a stinker, and what the
fallout of this terrible comic was (in fact, I allude to one of these assessments
in my adamant stance that the Batman/Joker pitch was done in 1985).
So instead of doing those kinds of analysis,
I think I’ll go with asking the question “What if The Killing Joke were good?”
Now, this isn’t the typical form of redemptive reading wherein I analyze the
text close enough and create an interpretation of the work that makes the text good.
Frankly, the ideas within the Killing Joke aren’t interesting enough to warrant
that. Rather, I am going to look at the mechanics of the comic and try to
create an entirely new story out of the parts of the old one (effectively, I am
writing fan fiction [don’t worry, this’ll connect to the rest of the blog in a
way that is both surprising and completely obvious]).
Let’s start with the core of the narrative:
the relationship between Batman and the Joker. In theory the graphic novel’s
about the relationship between the two, of how neither one of them could (or
even would) survive long without the other, and their subsequent need for
empathy from the other (be it by accepting treatment or dying). In practice,
the narrative is more interested in the Joker and his banal backstory (made
irrelevant by the more interesting “multiple choice past”) leaving the caped
crusader as more of an inferred character, the lead left a ghost within his own
comic, an archetype with minimal interiority. Why, for example, does Batman
visit the Joker about being boxed into a place where the two must fight to the
death?
The answer is that genre
conventions dictate that their dance either goes on forever or one kills the
other. It’s not that that isn’t something to be explored (for its time, now
it’s extremely rote and assumed), but rather, as is the case of many failed
postmodern exercises, it doesn’t reflect upon the real world in any meaningful
way. Thus, for our new version to work, we must come up with a completely
different answer… what if Batman and the Joker had a relationship prior to the
events of The Killing Joke?
It could have been a friendship,
they could have been lovers, but regardless they were close (since this is my
fan fic, I’m going with they were lovers, because I’m a queer romantic at
heart). What if something happened to them that broke their hearts and pushed
them towards this path. What if this event was what turned the Joker into what
the grinning loon we know him now? Since this is one of our parts, what if the
bad thing was what happened to Barbara (though, not necessarily Barbara, just
someone)? It doesn’t have to have happened directly in the comic (in fact, I
think it would be better left out of the comic entirely as this it the part
that pushes the comic to being the third worst thing by Alan Moore [it worked
for The Dark Knight Returns]), but it happened and the two are trying to deal
with it: a death that haunts the narrative.
The fallout of a traumatic death
and how people cope with it is a common experience within humanity. Indeed, we
could look at it from the context of a failed relationship. Even now, not many
stories tackle the subject of someone’s death tearing people apart that this
fan fic could. Given this turn of events, the two leads could be dealing with
the death in unhealthy ways (as does happen in relationships). The person
taking on the role of Batman could be dealing with the problem via repressing
the emotions of the event, preferring to lash out at key moments. This could,
in turn, cause him to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Meanwhile the
person behind the Joker’s smile could take this as a reason to lash out at
those around him. Being both physically and emotionally abusive to those around
him all the while trying to cope by replacing the person we call Barbara with
someone akin to her (perhaps Harley Quinn could play this part). And neither
one of them truly believes the relationship could be salvaged. The Batman
character would be visiting his Joker because there’s still that glimmer of
hope that maybe they could be saved.
Given that, perhaps we should have
a third perspective, a feminine one (because this story is brimming with
testosterone [though I suppose the role could go to Gordon… better yet, have
Gordon be the one who died and Barbara… oh wait, never mind]) who was also
within the relationship but is coping with the events in a much healthier
manner. Furthermore, she is more willing to accept the possibility that the
relationship could still survive this cruel and unjust tragedy that has
befallen them.
 |
|
This is perhaps the most substantial sign that the events
could
only end in one way: Death. Note the lack of eyes when they were
previously used throughout the text as a key sign that something
was going
terribly wrong with this Batman comic.
|
But alas, not everything is meant
to be. Sometimes, we delude ourselves into believing that love can save us, no
matter what. That all the crimes we have committed in the name of love can be
forgiven if the right person (or people) love us. But our Joker analogue was,
in many regards, a monster that used and abused the people around him. We could
give him sympathy and pathos, but he was still an abuser. Sure, I believe
people can change, that we can be better than we actually are. But the tone of
the story doesn’t imply a pure happy ending where the leads ride off into the
sunset. It leaves off in something ambiguous, with no clear-cut answers. It
could be somewhat definitive, the character wearing the joker mask could die
trying to redeem himself or by his own hubris. But the tone of the story tells
of a sadness regarding these events.
All that is left to do is for the
survivors to try to heal; to hold each other in the rain. I’m not a pessimist;
I don’t believe the world will remain as is forever and always. I believe we
can heal. It’s not going to rain forever. We can come in out of the rain.
(Next Time: The Remake.)
[Photos: Mister Miracle #1 by Tom King and Mitch Gerads]
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