Welcome to the five hundred and seventy-sixth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the first five hundred (I actually haven't been able to update it in a while). This week, learn whether Batman was intended to kill Joker at the end of The Killing Joke! Did David Choe almost do an X-Men comic book? And who was the Titans Leader in Armageddon 2001?

Let's begin!

NOTE: The column is on three pages, a page for each legend. There's a little "next" button on the top of the page and the bottom of the page to take you to the next page (and you can navigate between each page by just clicking on the little 1, 2 and 3 on the top and the bottom, as well).

COMIC LEGEND: The intent of the end of the Killing Joke is that Batman kills the Joker.

STATUS: I'm Going With False

My buddy John Trumbull was complaining about this one the other day, and I realized that I've never featured it before, so here ya go!

The Killing Joke was a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland where the Joker tries to prove that "one bad day" can pretty much destroy anyone, even someone as noble as Commissioner Gordon, so the Joker breaks into Gordon's home, shoots his daughter, Barbara and then tortures Gordon. In the end, though, Gordon is still strong enough to tell Batman to ARREST Joker, not kill him.

So Batman and Joker have a confrontation (my copy of The Killing Joke is the re-colored version)...









For years, there has been debate over the ending of the book - did Batman KILL the Joker there? Brian Bolland even mocked the ambiguity in his afterword in the re-colored edition, stating:

Speaking of which, it’s time I revealed what really happened at the end of The Killing Joke: as our protagonists stood there in the rain laughing at the final joke, the police lights reflecting in the pools of filthy water underfoot, the Batman’s hand reached out and….

Again, people had been discussing this for years, pretty much as soon as the book came out. However, when Grant Morrison went on Kevin Smith's Batman podcast back in 2013 and Morrison said that that's what happened, well, then people went REALLY nuts with it...

And honestly, I don't care if you want to buy into the theory. That's cool with me if you think Batman kills Joker at the end of the book. I'm firmly with Chad Nevett - authorial intent does not define what happened in a comic book (or any book). So I'm not here to tell you that Batman does NOT kill the Joker.

No, the issue here is just whether Alan Moore actually intended that to be the ending. And that seems to be pretty clearly no.

First off, Alan Moore had to receive permission from his editor, Len Wein, to have Barbara Gordon be crippled by the Joker in the comic book. So he got permission to cripple Barbara Gordon, but then just has Batman kill the Joker? Come on.

Secondly, Alan Moore is famous for his detailed scripts and the script for the Killing Joke is pretty darn clear...



There is no way that Moore INTENDED Joker to die at the end of the comic. Now, could you read it as happening anyways? Sure, go right ahead.

Thanks to John Trumbull for indirectly reminding me to do this one!

Check out some entertainment and sports legends from Legends Revealed:

Was Vicki Vale Going to Die Originally at the End of Tim Burton’ Batman?

Did CBS Create An Alternate Version of Gilligan’s Island Where The Boat DOESN’T Get Lost to Show How That Was a Better Idea for a Show?

Did Steven Tyler Write the Lyrics to “Walk This Way” on the Wall of a Stairwell?

Did an Owner Correctly Predict That His Stadium Would Be Home to the World Series of 1926…Just Not HIS Team?

On the next page, did famed graffiti artist David Choe almost do an X-Men comic? And how pissed off was he when it DIDN'T happen?

COMIC LEGEND: David Choe was going to draw Brian Wood's NYX and he had an epic meltdown when the project was canceled.

STATUS: True

David Choe is a famous graffiti muralist best known for the murals he did for the Facebook offices.



Choe famously accepted Facebook stock options in lieu of cash for his payment for the murals and when Facebook went public in 2012, those stock options were worth somewhere in the ballpark of $200 million dollars.

A couple of months back, I talked about how Brian Wood was going to be the original writer on NYX.



Well, as it turns out, Choe was going to be the artist on that series!

Here's a Jubilee drawing by Choe....



At the time, though, there was a bit of a disagreement between Wood and Choe and Marvel over whether their NYX series had ever been officially approved. They felt that it had been and then Marvel had then canceled the project, while Marvel's position was that it was still in the proposal stage.

Choe then posted an online screed against Marvel's Editor in Chief Joe Quesada that was quite out there. You can read the whole thing here, but do note that it is very much NSFW.

Here's a heavily edited snippet:

Joe is an idiot because: FOR WASTING MY F***ING TIME. I hate it when f****ers f****ing do that. For future reference ,to all the idiot;s out there DON’T WASTE MY F****ING TIME(especially when I’m watching DAWSON’s CREEK)When I put out, comics I self publish ‘em put em out exactly how I want .and they sell out and win awards. I can go upstairs into my room right now and draw something, anything, and sell it tomorrow to someone in this country for more , than those idiots were probably gonna pay me to draw that entire book, (which was gonna look better than anything those f****ers put out). This is what I do for a living and that makes me the luckiest happiest guy around, I don’t need to do your bulls***, I’m not some f****ing kid from the Joe Kubert art school, with a portfolio and ripped off Rob Liefield drawings trying to break into the industry, you just so happened to get a hold of me at a weak moment, and swing the word"x-men" in front of my face, and that’s the only reason I decided to do it. Just to do it. Not for money , not for fame, just for the chance to take a stab at my hero’s who I read growing up in the 7-11, like I owed it to myself or some shit. Anyways so I got lured in ,even with all the bulls*** I heard about Marvel, and I put aside all my projects and put my heart into the X book. And then the book got approved ,(reminder the book which was your f****ing idea to begin with), so don’t go around ok ing books that were your idea in the first place if your gonna p***y out, and if you are ,at least own up to it like a man, you f****ing p***y.

So...yeah, not a happy camper. Can you imagine a Brian Wood/David Choe NYX book? That would have been awesome.

Thanks to reader Ian A. for suggesting this one!

Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed at Spinoff Online: Did George Lucas originally intend on killing Darth Vader off in the second Star Wars film because he wasn't that good of a villain?

On the next page, who was the Team Titans mysterious leader in Armageddon 2001?

COMIC LEGEND: The Team Titans leader was originally going to be Danny Chase.

STATUS: True

In honor of Marv Wolfman Day, I figured I'd do a legend involving Marv.

Armageddon 2001 involved a mystery of who became the mysterious Monarch. As we discussed in one of the very first comic book legends, it was going to be Captain Atom, but that ending was leaked so DC changed it to Hawk of Hawk and Dove.

Anyhow, the New Titans Annual tie-in to Armageddon 2001 (written by Marv Wolfman) also introduced the Team Titans - the Titans of the future!

The Titans of the future are led by the mysterious "Leader"....





Originally, the plan was for the leader to be known other than Danny Chase, the Teen Titans' answer to Cousin Oliver from the Brady Bunch!



The idea behind Danny was to add another young hero to the Titans as Changeling was getting a bit long in the tooth to be the young guy on the team. Fans were not...well...you know, fans of the character. Eventually Danny was written out of the book, but he returned during Titans Hunt.

New Titans editor explained to my buddy Bill Walko for The Titans Companion:

Walko: Back to Team Titans. One unanswered question was the original identity of the Team Titans leader. Although ultimately revealed as Monarch, that was not the original intent. I believe originally the idea was to have Danny Chase be revealed as the Team Titans leader.

Peterson: That was true. That was part of the idea of making Danny Chase tolerable. We could make him like John Conner from Terminator 2. He goes from whiny kid to leader of the rebellion.

Instead, Danny was killed at the end of Titans Hunt. In the end, it turned out that MONARCH was the mysterious leader (Hawk WAS a Titan!) and the Team Titans were all part of his villainous conspiracy.

Thanks to Bill Walko and Jonathan Peterson for the information!

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com. And my Twitter feed is http://twitter.com/brian_cronin, so you can ask me legends there, as well!

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Here's my book of Comic Book Legends (130 legends - half of them are re-worked classic legends I've featured on the blog and half of them are legends never published on the blog!).

The cover is by artist Mickey Duzyj. He did a great job on it...(click to enlarge)...



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Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you all next week!