Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a mini-series written and drawn by Frank Miller and published by in four issues by between February and June of 1986.
Don't get Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (DKR) confused with the 2008 Dark Knight movie. They are two distinctly different tales. DKR is set twenty years into an alternate future in which superheroes are strangely absent, and super-villians are either jailed or dead. Ordinary criminals now fill the void, and a gang known as the "Mutants" are holding Gotham City to ransom.
Batman has not been seen for ten years following the death of the second incarnation of Robin (Jason Todd). Bruce Wayne, whilst battling a drinking problem, is still a rich man. We learn that for years he has been funding the rehabilitation of Harvey Dent, to the point where "Two-Face" seems to have disappeared, and Harvey Dent is released back out into society. When Dent returns to crime, Batman is forced out of retirement. After recapturing Dent, Batman then goes after the mutants, defeating their leader, and fuelling the media's obsession with the re-emergence of the Dark Knight.
Having spent tens years lying catatonic in a psychiatric hospital, the Joker emerges after hearing reports of the return of Batman. When the Joker escapes, Batman finds himself asking the same question many readers will have asked time and time again. If Batman had killed the Joker in their first meeting rather than locking him up, only to have him escape again and again, how many lives would have been saved?
When the Soviet Union invade nearby Corto Maltese, the US government send in Superman to naturalise the threat. The Soviet Union respond by launching a nuclear attack on US soil, causing massive power loss and social upheaval. When Batman gathers the former "Mutants", who now call themselves "Sons of Batman", and forms a small army, and restores order to Gotham, and making it the safest city in the US in the process, the US government is publicly embarrassed. When Superman is then ordered to naturalise the Dark Knight it's clear that something has to give.
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a classic not only in terms of the Batman saga, but also for the comic format as a whole. It covers themes including social alienation, the mass media's influence on society, the cold war and government corruption. It is also one of the books that Frank Miller is most well known for. The plot is dark, and has a constant feeling of foreboding as you turn the pages. You'll find yourself constantly asking, is this the end of the Dark Knight?
If nothing else, it teaches us that you can teach an old dog (or bat?) new tricks.
You'd be lucky if you found 9.4 CGC graded copy of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1 for anything less than $100US, with the 6th Edition Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Trade Paper back worth upward of $55US for a 9.8 CGC graded copy.
26 Jul 08
6:36 am
[...] although a majority of the hero and villain community have are now either dead or retired (ala. The Dark Knight Returns). The main villain of the piece now appears to be the establishment. The primary story traces the [...]