“The Killing Joke”: First Look At Animated Feature

In a world where Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice has suffered an 81% decline in one single week since it’s opening day, it shouldn’t be surprising that Batman faithful fans return to the perfect medium for the Caped Crusader- animation.

The Hero of Gotham has always been best when in cartoon form, Batman: The Animated Series being the best example of the dark flavor of storytelling available through the television medium.  The voice casting was perfect, the stories were engaging, and the music was stellar.  Ask around, I guarantee you the majority of Batman fans will say their favorite Bruce Wayne/Batman was voice talent Kevin Conroy and their favorite Joker, Mark Hamill.  Tara Strong will also be lending her voice this time, as Batgirl.

Luckily for DC Comics animation faithful, we get both actors returning for a long rumored and FINALLY happening film, “The Killing Joke”.  The story (which was recently retconned by DC Comics into a “didn’t really happen, was just a dream”) was originally written by Alan Moore and published in 1988 as a one-of tale where The Joker shoots Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, damaging her spine and paralyzing her from the waist-down.

Here is the sneak peak teaser trailer and a BTS featurette:

http://dai.ly/x41nkfy

After the recent success of Fox-Marvel’s Deadpool, the general consensus is this new animated story will carry a hefty R rating, hopefully meaning no punches will be pulled, and we’ll finally get the Batman-Joker story we’ve always wanted.  Batman: The Killing Joke will be released in a direct-to-video format sometime later this year.