Was BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE ever meant to be an Elseworlds?

[Philip Portelli]

Over on the Back Issue Facebook group, there is some contention that Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's groundbreaking and influential Batman: The Killing Joke (1988) was originally intended to be an early Elseworlds story with no consequences in the regular DC continuity.

Despite DC putting out Batgirl Special #1 (Jl'88), actually titled "The Last Batgirl Story" and a crippled Barbara Gordon first appearing as Oracle in Suicide Squad #23 (Ja'89), some have stated that it was the book's popularity that somehow forced DC to consider it canon. 

Had the book been crafted as an Elseworlds, i.e. an Imaginary Story, why would Moore and editor Len Wein need permission from DC's higher ups to cripple Barbara Gordon, given the multitude of deaths seen in later Elseworlds titles?

Also, the removal of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl made room for the new Huntress book which started with its #1 in April 1989.

Have any of you heard that BTKJ was initially a Elseworlds?

[Fraser Sherman]

Resurrecting the Joker is indescribably beyond stupid.

I also hate that the Lazarus Pit has gone from some fantastic thing to almost mundane.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

"Oh, we're including Marvel now!"

You said "any comic book villain."

"I was going for a more 'in-world' reaction if he sexually assaulted Barbara."

Funny you should phrase it just that way. Yesterday I left off the word "reality" from one of my responses.

"And if he's able to get the Batman to kill him then, in his mind, he has won."

What I should have said was, "Fine, then 'in his mind' he has won The way I see it, every day the Joker draws breath he has won (as long as in reality he dies).

"Because that is his stance!"

Again, free will (not to mention common sense) gives one the right to alter his stance in light of new evidence.

"If Batman were to kill the Joker because he attacked someone he cared for and NOT the scores of people that the Joker killed previously then not only is it hypocritical but self-indulgent."

Yeah, well, Batman is hypocritical and self-indulgent.(That's kind of his thing.)

"If someone tried to kill the Joker, you know and I know that Batman would do everything in his power to save him!"

I'll agree with you there. I remember the story in which the Joker died, through no fault of Batman's own, and Batman revived him with a dip in the Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pit. 

Stupidest Batman story I ever read.*

*(I reserve the right to change my stance in light of new evidence.)