Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

Best Batman Story Ever...

If any comic has a claim to have truly reinvigorated the genre, then The

Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller--known also for his excellent Sin City

series and his superb rendering of the blind superhero Daredevil--is probably the top contender. Batman represented all that was wrong in

comics and Miller set himself a tough task taking on the camp crusader

and turning this laughable, innocuous childrens cartoon character into a

hero for our times. The great Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing,

the arguably peerless Watchmen) argued that only someone of Millers

stature could have done this. Batman is a character known well beyond the

confines of the comic world (as are his retinue) and so reinventing him,

while keeping his limiting core essentials intact, was a huge task.Miller

went far beyond the call of duty. The Dark Knight is a success on every

level. Firstly it does keep the core elements of the Batman myth intact, with

Robin, Alfred the butler, Commissioner Gordon, and the old roster of

villains, present yet brilliantly subverted. Secondly the artwork is fantastic--

detailed, sometimes claustrophobic, psychotic. Lastly its a great story:

Gotham City is a hell on earth, street gangs roam but there are no heroes. Decay is ubiquitous. Where is a hero to save Gotham? It is 10 years since

the last recorded sighting of the Batman. And things have got worse than

ever. Bruce Wayne is close to being a broken man but something is

keeping him sane: the need to see change and the belief that he can

orchestrate some of that change. Batman is back. The Dark Knight has

returned. Awesome. --Mark Thwaite

Features:

I'm sure there are people who can more elegantly, or more intelligently say

why this is a good comic book; people who've been reading batman since

its first incarnation ever, or who can point to those comics that have

followed after, and say how The Dark Knight Returns affected them and

brought deeper, more serious issues into batman comics.

But, even from the position of only a moderate comic reader (I never buy comics as 'comics'. I wait until they've been compiled and bound into more

lengthy volumes and then shipped to the book stores) I still know enough

to say that this is a truly great comic.

I've heard that it revolutionized batman, and made it darker and more

serious; and it certainly is serious.

Set in a time after Batman has retired, following a government bill which

has affected the ability of all superheroes to perform their vigilante duties,

Gotham city is in the grip of crime once more, held sway beneath a terrible

gang called 'The mutants'. Naturally, batman decides he's had enough,

and once more begins his duties as the masked hero.

The stories are solid, but could have been ruined in lesser hands. As it

was, Frank Miller penned a dark tale with issues aplenty to study. The

biggest, overlying tale is the continual war with the russians raging on in the background; a war that takes an even darker turn towards the end.

The tension is always building, and the great climactic end is a pleasure to

read again and again.

As for the art, I've always lauded Frank Miller as one of my favorites. Nitty

and gritty, Superman and Batman have never looked so tough before or

since. The image of Gotham and everyone throughout it is constantly a

dreary, gloomy colour, which breeds an atmosphere of just how far the city

has fallen (though of course, Gotham was never exactly known for being a

utopia).

With great storytelling and great art, this is a must-have for anyone who

ever claims to be a batman fan.

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