Batman: The Killing Joke & Remembering Kevin Conroy
Vložit
- čas přidán 12. 09. 2024
- We return to #Batyear with heavy hearts after the passing of legendary actor Kevin Conroy.
To get our spirits up, we examine Alan Moore's infamous The Killing Joke. You know, the one where Joker paralyzes Barbara Gordon, then makes her father look at lurid photos of her in an effort to drive him mad. Good fun for the whole family!
IMPERIUS REX- Episode: 183
Check out our Patreon page: / imperiusrex
or look cool like us by grabbing some Imperius Merch: www.redbubble....
"RetroFuture Clean" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
You couldn't ask for better words to hear from Kevin Conroy. Truly amazing sentiment, truly inspiring. And for him to even pull a Dave and mispronounce Imperius Rex...perfect.
It's like he's been watching for years, and got in one last pull! :)
What a legend.
I am sad that Kevin Conroy is gone because he was my Batman growing up.
The Conroy video is incredibly moving. It really brought a tear to my eye. Not only was he the best Batman but the best Bruce as well. Rest In Peace the true voice of the Dark Knight.
It's really Brian Bolland's art that puts Killing Joke in a league of its own. Even Moore attests to that.
Can't argue that. Neil might. I can't.
I never got that from the joke at the end. That’s a great way to look at it. I interpreted it as Joker saying to Batman “you wear a bat suit, you’re just as crazy as me. How could you save me when you need help as well.”
That's a great take too! I totally see that.
Still sad about Kevin Conroy. I met him at NYCC a few years ago and he was such a lovely man.
I've heard NOTHING but great things about him. Truly one of the good guys.
Kevin's death hit me hard too, I cried like a baby. Thankfully I received a cameo from Kevin for my birthday a year ago and re watching it made me feel a lot better. RIP to Vengence, to The Night, to Batman.
Man- those cameos, right? Who would've thought how much of an impact they can make on fans, especially in situations like this. A wonderful keepsake for a legendary human being. Glad to hear you were able to get a shout out from Batman as well!
That was amazing... Insane shoutout. The channel must already feel like it made your dreams come through
To hear our names spoken by the man who brought Batman to life for us as children- it was beautifully surreal. Truly a gift.
R.I.P. Kevin Conroy.
You were Vengeance. You were the Night. You were Batman. But you were also yourself.
Wonderfully said.
Great video from Kevin. Sad to hear of his passing
The ending makes perfect sense. It would mean that moore made the ending open for interpretation, just like watchmen.
So sad about Kevin, absolute legend
The definitive Batman.
Kevin was absolutely the all around definitive Batman (much as Mark Hamill is so for Joker). Sad to see another legend of the super-hero world leave us this year 😢 But their work shall live on!
Batyear Forever ✊🖖
Such a loss. Grateful for the monumental legacy he left behind though.
Justice is a function of love.
I disagree that Batman's compassion is out of place at the beginning or uncharacteristic. He is one of the smartest things on the planet, of course he's verbose. I like to think that plea isn't the mask of Bruce Wayne or the Batman but what lies betwixt.
The beating heart that drives the Crusade.
Yeah- I'm rethinking my comments a little in hindsight- some of the moments that I initially labeled out of character might be more of a reaction to how the Grim and Gritty Batman has taken over- while at the time, he wasn't quite so eager to just wallop the shit out of everyone he came across. And like Kevin said- his desire to try to rehabilitate Joker, even after all of that- it's a side of Bats that we don't see as much as we should anymore.
R.I.P Kevin.
Kevin O' Neill too.
Just ordered this absolute edition.
My first absolute as I got it for a bargain v good condition £14.
Love Moore.
Great book to get in Absolute. I told myself I’d never take the plunge on absolutes but Daytripper and Moore’s Swamp Thing made me break my rule
@@ImperiusRex Yeah man as a rule they're way too expensive and I'm happy with omnibuses as my limit.
I still love my trade paperbacks which allot of omnibus and absolute collectors seen to look down upon these days....
I'll always love them.
@@geminisundone Trades are my go-to. Trades and hardcovers.
Editorial loves retconning this origin. In Hush returns they try to say it was the cops that killed his wife because.......yeah, I guess. Then in Three Jokers they make it out that he was very abusive.
Yeah... sometimes you just gotta know when to stop.
Imperium Rex does sound pretty cool (and is a good way out of the inevitable Marvel lawsuit lol)
Well, a couple of things about this that I have in my mind right now: first, Moore has said that he doesn't like Batman that much, and that he prefers Sups. No surprise he doesn't think too highly of it, the fact that he regrets crippling Barbara or that according to him, it contributed to an unnecessary darkening of comics during the 90s.
On a related note, of the few bat stories he's written, his favorite is one featuring Clayface III (Preston Payne) in a Batman or Detective annual.
Second, the origin of the Joker had been told before in a Silver Age story. That's where Moore took the concept of him being Red Hood and falling into toxic waste, but he added the tragic family story
Very interesting- somehow, I never knew Moore did a Clayface story... which I am now tracking down to read immediately. He seems like the perfect character for Moore to play around with!
@@ImperiusRex It's "Mortal Clay" from Batman Annual 11 indeed
Reading it tonight! Thanks for the tip!
thank you for this amazing video! ❤
Thank YOU for the continued support and views! :)
@@ImperiusRex ❤
It was nice to see Multiversus be his lasting work.
Kevin Conroy as batman on some VHS cassettes cemented my childhood nerdyness RIP
His reach was FAR. I imagine everyone who grew up in the 90s experienced Batman through his voice. And that clamshell Mask of the Phantasm VHS box.
@@ImperiusRex surprisingly it wasn't phantasm it was the less regarded sub zero feature length I wore out on cassette!
@@richardgreathead5735 Ah- somehow I never saw that one!
@@ImperiusRex it's one of the best depictions of mister freeze in media (minus Arnie in the Clooney film)
Might need to check it out... we may be cooking up (of cooling down) a Freeze special this holiday season.
Neal Adams, Tim Sale and now Kevin you gotta stop putting on the batgirl suit
I've been saying this for years about The Killing Joke, a story even Alan Moore himself will say was phoned in, it's a better Two-Face story than a Jokester story. Why would Batman care if "one day we'll kill each other."? If it's his best friend Harvey Dent, it makes sense. Why Gordon? Well if it's former District Attorney Harvey Dent it makes sense (and would add a tone of weight to the three working together in Long Halloween). One Bad Day...what the fuck do you think happened to Two-Face?!(Bizarre that both Jokester & Two-Face was acid...man there's something in Gotham acid) One day on the verge of defeating organized crime, the next a mutilated husk dead set to run crime. Oh and the obvious rape of Barbara which everyone dismisses because no one can fathom the Jokester having a fuck, or a cock. Dent I'd buy doing that. The remorse at the end from Jokester (the only truly brilliant moment in the book imo) would have even more heft from Harvey. And Batman would absolutely share a laugh with his best friend way before he would some stranger in a purple suit.
I could go on.
TL;DR Killing Joke, great story, wrong character, so it's frustratingly meh.
Lots of fair criticisms to levy against Killing Joke, this is a new one to me. And you’re absolutely onto something!!😮
Yeah- that's a pretty brilliant shift. I would love to see what Moore would've done with some of the other rogues, had he the chance- or the interest- in telling more villain-centric stories. And I agree- this whole premise would've been perfect for Two-Face. Their shared past makes Batman's need to save him way more relevant.
Little Jimbo is in the original just checked but never noticed before 😀 I much prefer the original colours they just add to the madness especially in the fairground section.
Thank you for your service JB. I wonder how they got that past editorial in the 80s?
I agree on the colors- having looked at the comparisons, I think I prefer the garish colors of the original as well. Which doesn't always vibe, but in this case I felt like they were paramount.
Batyear Forever...I love it.
Also, Judge Dredd/Batman crossover may be a fun story to cover, Alan Grant playing with his two signature characters.
Not bad... we've got a couple crossovers in the pipeline... one of them involves a certain horned hero, another an intergalactic game hunter... stay tuned!
@@ImperiusRex You gave me a great hint, but like if that intergalactic hunter likes Jungles, Cityscapes, and Antarctic Pyramids...
R.I.P Kevin Conroy. Best Batman ever.
Killing joke… Good joker story. Disturbing.
Meh Batman story.
Meh Alan Moore.
Yeah- not even a top 10 Moore for me.
You guys been hitting the gym I see 😎
Trying to get back at it!
Batman lost his voice