10 Comics You Loved As A Teen (But Should Never Return To)

10. The Killing Joke

The Killing Joke
DC Comics

Every now and then an entry comes along where you can literally hear guns cocking in the distance, but stay put, chill out, and let me explain why one of the most important Batman tales of all time isn't... actually... all that good.

On a purely technical level, The Killing Joke is masterful. Brian Bolland turns in the work of his career here, and whether you prefer the original colours or the ones from the Deluxe Edition, The Killing Joke is still a plainly stunning comic to look at it. It's also a book filled to the brim with iconic moments, while its discussion surrounding the duality of Joker and Batman is peerless in many regards. So why has the magic suddenly worn off in the three decades since it first hit the shelves?

Well, for all that The Killing Joke succeeds as a Batman/Joker story, it's its legacy that's more difficult to reckon with. In typical fashion, Moore himself has gone on the record to lament his Batman comic, describing it as a "regrettable misstep" in a Q&A session a few years back, while others have equally taken issue with the book's treatment of Barbara Gordon, who the Joker seriously maims in a bid to turn the Dark Knight's staunchest ally, Commissioner Gordon, insane.

These critiques are only worsened by the fact that comics legend Len Wein reportedly told Moore to "cripple the bitch" when he first informed him of his plans for Batgirl, with The Killing Joke now often decried by fans for typifying the "women in refrigerators" trope (although this story would take a nicer turn when Babs became one of the few disabled heroes in the superhero genre as Oracle).

Lastly - although it's not exactly the book's fault - it's fair to say that TKJ has inspired a near unending wave of material that seeks to explore the Joker's origin, even though the comic definitively states that not even the Clown Prince himself is aware of his beginnings. Every year a comic, film or some kind of adaptation seeks to explain the inexplainable, and they all go some way in lessening the legend of DC's most iconic supervillain.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.