If you’re anything like me, you can’t wait for The Dark Knight to hit theaters this summer. Starring the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, the sequel to 2005’s Batman Begins will retell Batman’s first encounter with his most recognized villain, as well as one of his most tragic. Like its predecessor, The Dark Knight will likely draw much of its material from Batman’s comic roots while putting a slight twist on the canon. Batman Begins relied heavily on characters and situations created by Frank Miller in the classic Batman: Year One, which was written in 1987 as a more modern take on the Bat’s comic origins – just like Begins reboots the film version of the Caped Crusader by tossing Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher’s movies out the window. Batman Begins also used characters from the The Long Halloween like Carmine Falcone, though it played with that character’s interpretation rather heavily. So if you want to get a head start on The Dark Knight and get some hints as to where the story may be heading, it would make sense to scour Batman’s print history where the film’s writers likely got their material. But where to start?
Batman: The Killing Joke written by Alan Moore (1988)
When it came time to educate Heath Ledger on the incredibly complex character he was about to portray, he was given one comic to study: Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore. In addition to serving as an origin story for the Joker, The Killing Joke also included one of the most shocking moments in comics history – a moment that forever changed the DC Universe. The Killing Joke provided a glimpse into the Joker’s mind unlike anything we’d seen before, creating a new understanding of the tormented character. If you want to get a preview of the much darker and sadistic Clown Prince of Crime that will be portrayed in The Dark Knight, as compared to the odd “don’t leave him with the kids” Joker that we got from Jack Nicholson, be sure to snag Batman: The Killing Joke which conveniently enough is being re-released next week in hardcover format.
Batman: The Man Who Laughs written by Ed Brubaker (2005)
Think of The Man Who Laughs as something of an alternative history to the forthcoming The Dark Knight, as both attempt to tell the tale of Batman’s first encounter with the Joker. Much like The Killing Joke, The Man Who Laughs provides a stark contrast to the more playful Joker we’ve seen in other formats. Most importantly though, we get to see Batman’s attempts to come to terms with a villain unlike any other he’s encountered before. We also get to see the Joker in command of a group of thugs dressed like clowns, much like the preview footage we’ve seen of The Dark Knight’s bank heist scene. A final shared trait with The Killing Joke is the fact that The Man Who Laughs also got a new hardcover re-release, released only two months ago. Be sure to snag it before it becomes impossible to find again.
Batman: The Long Halloween written by Jeph Loeb (1996)
I mentioned already that The Long Halloween was a source of inspiration for Batman Begins, so it’s no surprise that a 13-issue series featuring every notable member of Batman’s rogues gallery could provide material for more than one film. While Begins lifted mob boss Carmine Falcone from the comic, The Dark Knight will bring in Sal “The Boss” Maroni and Harvey Dent. Besides giving you a glimpse of just about every single one of the Bat’s notable villains, The Long Halloween chronicles his early career and follows his uneasy relationships with both James Gordon and Harvey Dent. By the end, the series evolves into a Two Face origin story, which if you’ve been following any of the The Dark Knight’s production news, you can count on factoring into the story. If you read through The Long Halloween in advance of Batman Begins, it’s about time to break out the trade paperback and give it another thumb-through before The Dark Knight hits this summer.
Did I miss any?
