Warning: Spoilers for The Joker #10!
In DC Comics’ seminal graphic novel, The Killing Joke, by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, Batman’s arch-nemesis, Joker, took it upon himself to prove that “one bad day” could break a person, namely the GCPD’s James Gordon. And now, decades after the fact, DC has finally explored the time just after that infamous story ended, and how its brutal events shaped the Gordon family forever.
Seen in The Joker #10, by Matthew Rosenberg, James Tynion IV, and Francesco Francavilla, this issue flashes back to a time post-Killing Joke when the Gordons were still picking up the pieces of Joker’s brutal attack on their family. Shooting and paralyzing Barbara Gordon while psychologically torturing, humiliating, and tearing down her father, James Gordon, Joker broke the Gordons in a way that they are clearly still recovering from when this issue begins.
Opening with Barbara getting frustrated as she learns the trials and errors of coping with her handicap, this post-Killing Joke version of the character has yet to turn her perceived weakness into one of her greatest strengths, as seen in her later appearances as the confidant tech-whiz named Oracle. And as Jim tries to help Barbara, she lashes out, calling herself “broken,” adding that Joker, “…broke me. And he broke you too. But I’m the only one around here willing to see that,” showing fans a pair of Bat-Family members whose recent pain has cut a wide swath of emotional and physical turmoil across their lives, infecting everything they say and do.
Going on to follow Gordon as he arrives at GCPD headquarters, this issue shows that Jim is not actively working at the moment, and as he tries to get back on the clock, is told that the only way he’ll be able to do so is with permission from the Mayor’s Office as he’s been placed on psychiatric leave in the aftermath of Joker’s torture. Arriving back home only to be greeted by his ex-wife and young son, James Jr., it’s relayed to Jim that James Jr. has been, “…obsessed with this man. This comedian person who hurt you,” revealing that James Jr.’s future as a ruthless serial killer began to manifest when first idolizing the worst Gotham villain of them all, Joker.
Finishing things out with a brief visit from the notoriously emotionally inept Batman as he checks in on Gordon in a surprisingly heartwarming way, and it’s safe to say that the events of The Killing Joke hurt Jim and his family in ways that are more hard-hitting and upsetting than fans initially realized. Not only that, but tying James Jr. into all of this to foreshadow a fate that puts him in league with Joker, and you have a perfect coda story to a graphic novel that acts as a definitive moment in these bat-characters’ pasts while showing the very beginning of a hard journey each will take to become who they are in the future.
Finally getting to see what happens after The Killing Joke is undoubtedly a highly anticipated yet tough pill for fans to swallow, as the ramifications of that story are more affecting than expected, especially for the Gordon family. Joker still plagues the characters to this day, and as this issue’s — and The Killing Joke’s — brutal events show, it takes a whole lot for someone to get past the mental and physical strain of being targeted by the Clown Prince of Crime.
