So I read "The Killing Joke" just now...

[KTULU]

1. uh.... it wasn't that great.

2. what exactly happened at the end there? in this edition theres an afterward from bolland and he says "speaking of which, it's time i revealed what REALLY happened at the end of the killing joke: as our protagonists stood there in the rain laughing at the final joke, the police lights reflecting in the pools of filthy water underfoot, the Batman's hand reached out and..."

and then he doesn't say.

i guess the joke's on me?

[False Profit]

I've never read the killing joke.

don't plan on it, either.

[Chapter]

Yeah, I just read it not too long ago and I didn't find it impressive. I can't even remember the very end, and I didn't read what Bolland said. I'll have to go back and look at it.

[Bobby Digital 2.0]

I read it years ago.

It's an overrated story. Because Alan Moore wrote it people hype it up as the greatest Joker story ever. Even Moore thinks it's overrated. It's also a story that loses some of it's impact as time goes on. For a lot of people that was the first time Joker became "scary" and "Sympathetic" and it's an easy to digest origin for the character.

[Dr Doom]

The Killing Joke mostly gets its rep for pretty much defining the Joker's legacy from that point on. Shooting and crippling Barbara Gordon was so big a deal it was kept into continuity, and the Joker's origin as presented here was made 'official' for that same reason (it's important to note the book wasn't originally meant to be in continuity). Also, despite showing a quite definite origin for The Joker, the line "If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!" truly defined the Joker's origin more than anything. Most importantly, while the book doesn't necessarily offer the most essential read on the relationship between Batman and The Joker, it's the book that does it in its most contained form. It's simply a book that anyone can pick up without prior knowledge and understand that relationship. Batman/Joker 101 in its most accessible way.

Regarding the ending and Bolland's explanation, the joke is indeed on you. It's been speculated that Batman kills him after the joke, thus fulfilling the title of the book. That in itself would've been controversial enough (even for an out-of-continuity story Batman breaking his no-killing rule would cause as shitstorm) but since the book ended up being put into continuity they obviously couldn't go with the Joker being dead either.

[Chapter]

^Oh, I didn't know that about the speculation. That makes sense.

[Jack Roller]

In the joke we can speculate that Joker is the man that explains that the other can walk across on the flashlight beam. He's crazy. Batman is the guy that says he won't because the other guy will turn off the flashlight when he's halfway. He's also crazy - just a different kind. Batman, always the smart guy, figures out the punchline and decides to give The Joker a titty twister.

[Jack Roller]

Bolland's art was great in case anyone that read it was wondering.

[odeisel]

you also have to rememebr the era in which the book was created. I don't know who old someofyou are but this was before the gritty hyper reality era of the anti hero, where Wolverine is slicing through people and regular peopel are getting killed and blown up in comics. There was specualtion that he raped Barbara, there wasa bunch of things that are commonplace now that didn't exist in comics back then.

[Earth-2 Superman]

i always though that it was a very dark story that overtime, was seen as less dark because it became continuity. and yes, at the end batman does look like he kills the joker.