Based on Alan Moore's 1988 graphic novel of the same name, Batman: The Killing Joke traces the rise of the Joker from his early days as a struggling stand-up comic to his eventual evolution into the Clown Prince of Crime after a fateful encounter with Batman that changes both of their lives. Batman hunts for the escaped Joker, who terrorizes Commissioner Gordon and Barbara Gordon to prove a diabolical point mirroring his own fall into madness.