A REALLY cool piece of comic lore as popped up recently and this is the story thanks to my favorite comic news source CBR:
As if recent renewed debate about its ending weren’t enough to demonstrate that, after 25 years, Batman: The Killing Joke can still spur discussion, now new original artwork has surfaced indicating the scene depicting the torture of Barbara Gordon was initially far more graphic and sexualized.A photo of the inked page (below, definitely NSFW) was tweeted Sunday by Bill Hynes, a former employee of Gosh! Comics in London, revealing a naked and bleeding Barbara among the montage of images shown to her father James Gordon. In the published comic, by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, that shot is replaced by a close-up of Barbara’s face.
Indeed, whether the Joker raped Barbara Gordon has been long debated, with some readers insisting the violence was physical and not necessarily sexual. This page now may cast the scene, and the already-controversial comic, in a slightly different light.
Read the full article at CBR.COM
Here are my thoughts:
This doesn't change anything for me in the story. Everyone is going to assign their own assumptions to the story whether the art is “graphic” or not. That’s something about the comic medium I love and this is one story that uses the readers imagination masterfully and it’s made this into one of the greatest Batman stories of all time.
For instance for me the Joker has never had any interest in sex. Whether in his day to day life or in his crime it’s never been a priority or focus for him so I never saw this scene as one where he sexually violated her. This is all about humiliating, torturing, degrading and just plain beating down the Gordon’s in the most sadistic way possible. So, check check and check.
Although I do have to say this is a really cool piece of comic lore and if anyone ever does get their hands on this art they’ll either get a pretty penny for it or hold onto it and be transformed into a Geek God from it’s power. How’s that for an origin story!
Doing my best to keep up with the "cool" comics guys,
~Steve
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