DC Comics will revisit one of the most chilling confrontations in comics history in Batgirl #47, featuring the Joker and Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl. The official preview offers a glimpse at a scene that will be familiar and terrifying to longtime followers of the Bat-Family of characters. The cover deliberately references one of the iconic stories in Batman lore, promising "devastating" consequences for all involved.
The preview for Batgirl #47 alludes to The Killing Joke, a one-shot graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Brian Bolland, first published in 1988 and adapted to an animated film in 2016, routinely mentioned as one of the most influential Batman stories of all time. The story centers on a classic duel of wits between Batman and Joker, but The Killing Joke's singular traumatic event begins when Joker knocks on the door of Barbara Gordon's apartment.
DC's official solicitations for May 2020 promise a restaging of the Batgirl/Joker confrontation, to tie in with the "Joker War" event storyline. Batgirl #47 comes from writer Cecil Castellucci and artist Robbi Rodriguez, with cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli and a variant cover by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson. The synopsis teases the story in the classic form of a knock-knock joke:
Knock knock! Who’s there? The Joker. The Joker who? The Joker who’s here to have a nice chat with Barbara Gordon! Don’t miss this devastating tie-in to “Joker War”!
Without detailing the full horror of the infamous Killing Joke scene (and without diving deep into the several versions of Barbara Gordon and Batgirl who co-exist in the DC multiverse), it's relevant to note that Joker inflicts a crippling gunshot injury to Barbara, who is left with paralysis in both legs. Following the events of Killing Joke, Barbara took on a new identity as Oracle, cyber ops/computer whiz ally to the Justice League, the Birds of Prey, and virtually every superteam with tech support needs. Later, Barbara regains the use of her legs and resumes the costumed identity of Batgirl, owing to the ever-complicated machinations of DC Comics continuity, including one or two reboots of the entire DC Universe.
In its time, the pivotal scene in The Killing Joke was regarded as one of the most frightening depictions of gun violence in the comics genre, and arguably carries that dubious distinction to this day. One of its viscerally terrifying aspects is the simple setup, which riffs on the form of knock-knock jokes as interpreted by the Joker himself. The trope of an unknown person at the front door is as fearful as it is mundane, whether it's The Monkey's Paw, Psycho, or The Purge. On the other hand, because the original scene was so disturbing, it merits revisitation in the new context of the Batgirl ongoing series. Who, indeed, is there?
Batgirl #47 is scheduled to arrive on May 27, 2020.
Source: CBR
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