Mark Hamill Voicing the BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE Segment of BIRDS OF PREY

The animated film Batman: The Killing Joke is not the first time Mark Hamill voiced The Joker in that storyline. The first was in The WB’s ill-fated and ill-conceived comic book TV show Birds of Prey from 2002. The second time was in the video game Batman: Arkham Knight.

Though The Joker was present briefly in Birds of Prey, it was another actor physical portraying him. Mark Hamill provided the voice-over for that incarnation of The Joker (Roger Stoneburner). Why the show’s producers didn’t physically have Hamill portray the character in the blurred out segment of the pilot episode is unknown. Just getting him to voice The Joker was probably a get for Birds of Prey‘s producers.

Trying to summarize a large portion of one of the greatest Joker story-lines in one scene was not a good idea. Birds of Prey was a dim-witted show to begin with. By including The Killing Joke within it, the series could have been much more. Instead of exploiting and exploring that segment of Batgirl’s life (before and after the shooting), it was washed away. I actually watched the entire pilot episode of Birds of Prey when it originally aired. That was before I learned how to spot under-written material a mile off and avoid it.

To be fair though, back in 2002, Birds of Prey was far ahead of its time. The social and TV sphere were not ready for a full-fledged comic book TV series, especially one propagated by second and third-tier characters, Smallville being the exception. Birds of Prey was trying to be palatable and was completely edge-less because of it. The Cape, M.A.N.T.I.S., and The Crow: Stairway to Heaven had more edge than Birds of Prey. Watch the end of the clip (below), it makes no sense.

Watch The Joker / Batman: The Killing Joke TV show clip from Birds of Prey and leave your thoughts on it below in the comments section. For more TV show clips, visit our TV Show Clip Page, and consider subscribing to us by Email, “following” us on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ or “liking” us on Facebook for quick updates.

Bird of Prey The Killing Joke clip