The Relevancy of The Killing Joke

Batman as a character has been known for many things in his stories. Dark, grim, nearly depressing, and brutal in its storytelling. Sometimes Batman can be dark in its subject matter, and how it relates to modern society. And no where is this more the case in its overall subject matter than the famous story Batman The Killing Joke.
In most cases, Batman would be the main character, and the story would unfold from his perspective, but in this case, the spotlight is entirely on his greatest arch nemesis The Joker. Primarily as it follows his origins as the villain, and madman he has become. Although he doesn't have a name at first, the character is roped into a world of crime to help support his family, before a turn of the worst happens, and his wife with their about to be born child is killed in an accidental fire. So on the night he lost his family, he also had a job with two gangsters, and nearly lost his life in the outcome. Except in this case the only thing he really lost in that event was his humanity.
Years later as the titular villain, Joker manages to escape from his prison in Arkham Asylum, and permanently scar Commissioner Gordon, and his daughter in multiple ways. For the start, he shoots Barbara and cripples her, then he kidnaps Gordon and makes him experience a traumatizing realization that his daughter is no longer able to walk. All while Batman tries to find, and stop Jokers Madness does the story of The Killing Joke play out.

Throughout the story, I was genuinely moved with the storytelling, and the illustrations on the pages. It really felt like Alan Moore was attempting to make as gritty, and as grounded a Batman story can be, without losing the identity of what makes the characters in their universe fell unique.

The connections made with the story are themes of sexual assault, but mostly insanity, and traumatization. This can run particularly with The Joker himself, as during the story when he loses his family, it feels like he can no longer live on with his life, as he lost the one he truly cares about. Even before his wife and pre born child passed on, he still felt like a failure and couldn't be any better for them. So in a way, it makes The Joker before he went insane more relatable as a character than when Batman/Bruce Wayne lost his parents when he was a child.

The changes I would make to the story would be to make the designs of the characters less groveled/gritty in design and make it more of a cell shaded appearance. This would follow in the same color style of the novel itself, and be more modern designed, but it would still follow in the spirit of the story. Finally if it were to be adapted into another form of media, I would make it into a movie, but instead of animation or live action, it would be in the same style as the comics, and every scene would be a transition form one comic layout to the next. This will give it a more graphic appearance, and feel more faithful to the original novel in style.