"...with great power..."

Talk of the impending Fantastic Four reboot fills me with a sense of dread that, once again, we're going to get the blimmin' origin story again. You see, this is one of my bugbears about superhero movies; more often than not each one is the blimmin' origin story, either for its hero or its villain, and really, it's getting tiring...

I'd like to see more movies in which we dispense with the origin, and just get down to the business of telling a good story. We don't need to know how they got their powers, how the hero's parents were occupied and all that David Copperfield kind of crap.

For example, I grew weary with the most recent Spider Man film which, once again, told us the origin story we'd already seen only a few years before. Fine, if you're rebooting, then reboot; just recast, and get on with the latest story. We didn't need to see Peter being bitten by the radioactive/genetically modified spider again. We all know it. 

Take James Bond... every time he's recast we don't feel the need to go back to the beginning again. And, heck, in his case we just jumped straight in, and didn't even get anything involving a Bond near the start of his career until the 21st film. Also, the films don't bother giving us a load of guff about how the bad guys turned bad.

Yet, superhero films feel the need to do this all the blimmin' time...

Sometimes you just want the baddie to spring up, with no backstory, and just cause chaos and anarchy. Which is, of course, what happens in The Dark Knight with The Joker. BAM! He's there, chaos reigning, and it's great. We don't need to know where he comes from, and the fact that we never find out is great. 

Of course, you will now cite the whole Two Face thing, but it's a rare occurrence of an "origin" tale actually working (although I'd take issue it's not a pure origin story, and is more of a plot point) given that it absolutely ties in to one of the films themes being "you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain", which is exactly the arc Harvey Dent goes through in the film. It works.

There are other exceptions I could cite; but I just find myself growing weary at the constant retelling of the same stories. 'Cos with the origin stories you either keep them faithful to the original comic stories we know, or you change them beyond recognition. If you change them... what's the point? 

"...I've been thinking..."

Last week I read something very odd... it was an interview that Grant Morrison did last year talking about the ending of Alan Moore's Batman story, The Killing Joke;

"No one gets the end,” the writer says, “because Batman kills The Joker. [...] That’s why it’s called The Killing Joke..."

Hang on a minute...? What? I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to take umbrage here... No-one gets the end...? I remember getting The Killing Joke fairly soon after it was published, and to me it was always quite clear that once the Joker's told the asylum joke, and the pair of them laugh that Batman killed the Joker... 

Yes, it occurs off-panel, and yes it's done in such a way that it could be read another way if you were so inclined. But, really, I'd thought the death interpretation would have been by far and away the prevalent opinion. The sudden cessation of laughter would surely point to that, too?

I mean, the whole thing kicks of with spiel from Batman in which he explicitly states that the only way the relationship between the pair of them will end is if one of them kills the other. I mean, how more obvious could it be that it's ending with the Joker's death? 

It's, really, the only logical explanation for the ending. Batman kills the Joker... 


I mean, whatever next; Gwen Stacey's not dead?