10 Incredible Comic Book Panels That Changed Everything

by Ewan Paterson

1. Batman Gets The Last Laugh

DC Comics

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!

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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.