First Trailer For Batman: The Killing Joke Released

Warner Bros. Animation and DC Comics have released the first trailer for Batman: The Killing Joke and it is just what you’d expect.

To this day, Batman: The Killing Joke is still one of the most revered and controversial comic book stories to ever see print. Brilliantly written by Alan Moore with beautiful art by Brian Bolland, it has in many ways come to define not only the Joker, but Barbara Gordon, her alter ego Batgirl and the dynamic between the Dark Knight and the Clown Prince of Crime ever since.

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The Killing Joke can still get people talking, as was seen when DC wanted to use a variant cover by Rafael Albuquerque that paid homage to the book that caused an uproar among fans of the current Batgirl series. DC unfortunately ended up pulling the cover but the whole event just added to the legacy of a comic that has more than stood the test of time.

Given the violent and disturbing nature of The Killing Joke, it has always been assumed that it was one story that fans would never see in another medium. It would never be used as the basis of a big budget Batman movie and most felt that even an animated adaption would have to be too watered down to make the project even viable.

So when Warner Bros. Animation and DC Comics announced that the next project to get the animated treatment was going to be The Killing Joke, most people rolled their eyes and moved onto the next thing.

Everyone agreed that there was just no way Warner Bros. was going to make a Killing Joke that would be faithful to the source material. A movie that was just as disturbing and shocking as the graphic novel couldn’t be done.

Of course, that was before Deadpool showed everyone that yes, R-rated superhero adventures can work and make money.

So it was with some fanfare that DC released the first trailer for Batman: The Killing Joke this week, the R-rated adaption of the classic graphic novel.

I’ll be honest, watching as actual dialogue from the book is spoken by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, the definitive versions of these two characters for me, sent chills down my spine.

The trailer is also incredible effective as capturing that sense of dread that permeated every page of The Killing Joke when I read it all those years ago. You clearly get the sense that this could be the final battle between these two rivals and that nothing will be the same after this.

Related Story: The Killing Joke No Longer A Part Of Batgirl Continuity

The Killing Joke turned the Joker from Batman’s archenemy into a force of nature unto himself. If the movie version can even capture a fraction of that, it should be well worth our time and money. And from what I’ve seen in the trailer, the filmmakers are on their way to doing just that.

Batman: The Killing Joke is set for release sometime later this year.