10 Incredible Comic Book Panels That Changed Everything

1. Batman Gets The Last Laugh

Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke is a lot of things. Controversial? Yes. A brilliant Batman/Joker tale? Absolutely, and the final scene provides a fitting endnote to the pair's relationship, no matter which way you look at it.

The other year, famed Bat-scribe Grant Morrison hopped onto Kevin Smith's much beloved podcast, Fatman on Batman (a great episode to watch, by the way, along with the Dennis O'Neil one), and put forward the view that, at the end of TJK, Batman actually kills the Joker. No, seriously, Batman totally kills the Joker. Just listen:

“Killing Joke’s good. And I kind of like Killing Joke’s… we talk about this, no one gets the end, because Batman kills the Joker… that’s why it’s called the Killing Joke. The Joker tells the killing joke at the end, Batman reaches out and breaks his neck and then the laughter stops, and then the light goes out, because that was the last chance of them crossing that bridge.”

Although The Killing Joke is very much a part of mainstream DC continuity, which should, supposedly, eliminate such an interpretation, Moore's ending is certainly ambiguous. Personally? I side with Morrison on this; not least because it provides a sense of finality to the pair's relationship, but also because it proves even Batman has its limits.

Take your pick in regards to which colours you prefer, but there's no denying that those closing panels provide the perfect definition to what is, most likely, the medium's most iconic relationship.

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Are there any panels out there that you're particularly fond of? How about The Killing Joke's ending? Let us know in the comments below!