The ending to "The Killing Joke"...

[Yugo]

What do you guys think happened? I, myself, have no idea. At one moment I think Batman laughed, then just grabbed him and dragged him to the police car as a means of catching the Joker off guard. At another moment I'll think the Joker decides to give sanity a chance and let Batman help him...Thoughts?

[Dark Victory]

Alan Moore left the story open for interpretation, but I believe Batman killed Joker. Throughout the book, he's been trying to drive a sane man crazy and yet, the most sanest non-emotional one-Batman is actually the one who goes crazy. You knew that after seeing Batman smile, he'd lost it.

[Joker]

Seeing as it's in continuity, and the Joker is alive and well, the whole "Batman killed him thing" is completely ridiculous and in no way possible. Batman laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. The joke summed up their relationship, the art implies it even more (with the thin stream between their feet representing the gap from the joke), and Batman finally got the joke, and so he laughed.

Batman killing Joker after his entire speech about how it takes more than one bad day to mess someone up, and that there was just something wrong with the Joker to begin with would also be incredibly stupid. As would him promising Gordon that he would bring him in by the book, and then killing him in cold blood.

[Jorriss]

Given what Gordon said prior to Batman capturing him I assumed that Batman simply took him into custody.

[Yugo]

Originally Posted by The Joker

Seeing as it's in continuity, and the Joker is alive and well, the whole "Batman killed him thing" is completely ridiculous and in no way possible. Batman laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. The joke summed up their relationship, the art implies it even more (with the thin stream between their feet representing the gap from the joke), and Batman finally got the joke, and so he laughed.

Batman killing Joker after his entire speech about how it takes more than one bad day to mess someone up, and that there was just something wrong with the Joker to begin with would also be incredibly stupid. As would him promising Gordon that he would bring him in by the book, and then killing him in cold blood.

What's the continuity? I'd like to read it.

[I Am The Knight]

Originally Posted by The Joker

Seeing as it's in continuity, and the Joker is alive and well, the whole "Batman killed him thing" is completely ridiculous and in no way possible. Batman laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. The joke summed up their relationship, the art implies it even more (with the thin stream between their feet representing the gap from the joke), and Batman finally got the joke, and so he laughed.

Batman killing Joker after his entire speech about how it takes more than one bad day to mess someone up, and that there was just something wrong with the Joker to begin with would also be incredibly stupid. As would him promising Gordon that he would bring him in by the book, and then killing him in cold blood.

Agreed

[Grommers]

Originally Posted by Yugo

What's the continuity? I'd like to read it.

The continuity is the universe batman lives in, its all the books/comics that take place in the same world that DC has made, it would take months to read it, and hundreds or thousands of dollars to get all the necessary books/comics.

[Two-Face Killer]

I actually thought they hugged. The light disappears between them and I thought that implied they embraced, as weird as that is. Batman taking him into custody makes more sense so that's probably what happened.

[The Joker]

Originally Posted by Dark Victory

Alan Moore left the story open for interpretation, but I believe Batman killed Joker. Throughout the book, he's been trying to drive a sane man crazy and yet, the most sanest non-emotional one-Batman is actually the one who goes crazy. You knew that after seeing Batman smile, he'd lost it.

Batman would have to be pretty weak minded to have let Joker's story drive him crazy like that and break a rule he swore never to break.

And as was already mentioned, Joker was very much alive in the comics after this.

[agentzelda]

Alan Moore's view of the universe is too complex and ultimately too humane for an ending which involves Batman snapping. It is a moment of mutual recognition: each is in his own way as insane as the other, only each expresses it differently. The joke itself sets up the ending: Batman smiles because he sees that it is actually funny, though in a tragic and ironic way: he's the guy who dares to jump across the chasm, and who trusts in the flashlight beam, and the Joker is the guy who won't make the jump, but who cannot trust the other guy to leave the flashlight on. The headlights seen in the distance are presumably those of a police vehicle that will take the Joker back to Arkham.

[Drz]

Originally Posted by Yugo

What's the continuity? I'd like to read it.

Its the whole Batman universe, if it wasn't for The Killing Joke, Barbaro Gordon would still be batgirl but now shes the wheelchair girl Oracle. :P

[agentzelda]

The Killing Joke is in the odd position of having been intended as a one-off, stand-alone graphic novel, but having influenced continuity within the "canon". The role of Barbara Gordon had such an impact on readers and editors that the decision was made to go with her plight and let her rise to the challenge. TKJ also influenced some rethinking of the Joker's origin story, though arguably Moore's treatment is the most genuinely sympathetic.

[Motown Marvel]

i think batman ripped off jokers head and bat-pissed down his neck. its all there. read between the lines.

[The Guard]

What happened? Batman and Joker shared a laugh. The joke had some meaning. The gap between them narrowed.

That's about it.

[Quinzel]

You aren't supposed to know.

Even in the deluxe edition, when giving his "reasons" for the ending, he cut himself off.