Lynn Varley

If you only have one Batman graphic novel, it MUST be this one.

Miller, whose comics evoke darker worlds than their creators had envisioned, takes the helm of this project to envision a future in which Batman has retired.

Criminals run amok, and some of Batman's rivals have returned to crime, even though they've been supposedly "cured." Bruce Wayne, now in his silver years, resumes the cowl of Batman, coming out of retirement, to fight the new waves of villains.

At his side is a self-appointed show more Robin, the 13-year-old Carrie Kelly, who manages to save Batman just as many times as he manages to save her.

This darker future Gotham seems to fit the Batman mythos, especially in wake of the Burton Batman films. Miller gives us the gritty future, and while it may be bitter, it tastes the way it should.

As I said: If you only have one Batman graphic novel, it MUST be this one. So, if you don't have it yet, go out and get it right now. show less

I'm not familiar with Batman comics, so maybe there was stuff here that would've held more meaning if I knew, say, what happened to Jason (I'm familiar with the broad strokes but haven't read the comic, itself) or what Oliver was spouting off about (yeah, I have no context for this at all). But most of this just seemed nonsensical.

Why return to crime-fighting at all, Bruce? Is it PTSD? If so, the deployment of that motivation needed to be a lot more consistent. Are you suffering from show more dementia? That would certainly be in keeping with all the harping on about how old and slow you've gotten, but you seem a little too sharp to be struggling with an age-eaten brain. Am I just supposed to assume you've lost your effing mind? Because there needed to be more Killing and Maiming (instead of navel-gaze-y philosophizing about it), if so.

Without any of this to go on, this entire comic feels like an excuse to plunge the Batman into DARKNESS. (No, really. Like DARK DARKNESS. Like we're not messing around. Like fighting crime means the ABYSS will STARE BACK. And shit.) Maybe I'm too old or have read too much Profiler!Mulder fanfiction or remember too clearly how it felt to read Watchmen early on in my comics-reading life, but this didn't feel like a fresh, startling take on crime-fighting or superheroes or violence or chaos or the corruption of power or...anything. It felt mostly like a treatise on how growing old in your career will make you bad at it.

...Which. I appreciate. Because there are way too many old-guard authors still writing books who need to be told to either stop writing or get a better editor. But this seems an odd focus for a Batman comic, let alone a legendary Batman comic. And the momentary glimpses of Bruce's realization that he kinda sucks at his job don't make for compelling literature.

And all that other stuff? The navel-gaze-y bits about how killing the killers might be the only way to stop the cycle of violence...or how the world only makes sense if you make it! (what? is that a serious existential question or just poor traumatized Bruce trying to sound tough?)...or how vigilantism is, like, too big to judge in crime-ridden Gotham. All of that seems so narrow in scope, so petulant and childish.

Reading this, I had the exact opposite experience that I had whilst reading Superman: Red Son. That book asks some serious and terrifying questions about power and how we justify its use and where those ideas originate from and how little control we might have over their formation. This book, on the other hand, was akin to being stuck with That Asshole at a cocktail party, ranting about his childhood and his therapy and how everyone who disagrees with him is automatically wrong. No big questions, no insights into the greater world...just a guy reveling in the muck so people will think he's edgy and gritty and, like, DARK. (And shit.) show less

As much as I disagree with Frank Miller's overall worldview and have grown tired of the pessimistic look at superheroes that he helped inspire, there was a time when he made some absolutely fantastic comic stories. This is one of them.

Set in a world where Batman has been retired for ten years, Superman is the only sanctioned superhero and is working secretly for the government (in fact, we learn there is an FCC rule preventing any mention of the Big Blue Boy Scout), and all superheroes are show more either retired or in hiding/prison; the world is a mess. Crime seems to be at an all-time high, especially in Gotham, and an older, bored Bruce Wayne has finally had enough.

This is a story about endings. It's the end of James Gordon's run as commissioner, the end of Bruce's retirement, the end of his torturing himself over Jason Todd, the end of the criminal group known at "the Mutants," the end of the never-ending chase between Batman and the Joker, the end of Superman allowing himself to look the other way, and possibly the end of one of the oldest comic book hero friendships in existence.

But, it is also a story of beginnings; the beginning of a career for a new Robin, the beginning of a new commissioner's turn at the helm of the GCPD, the beginning of a new war on crime, and the beginning of a whole new chapter for the Batman.

This is one of those graphic novels that I tell anyone who comes to me interested in quality comic book stories. It's always worth a read. show less

Deserves its classic status for the transformative concept of an aging Batman returning to duty in an ambivalent city while suffering from the aches and pains associated with his age. The images are distinctive and beautiful and the overall atmosphere created by these comics/graphic novel is unique and exciting. In two of the chapters it also creates a fascinating Superman character who is an ambivalent tool of the U.S. government activated to fight cold war battles while doing minute show more calculations of how his actions will minimize the threats to human (and animal) life.

In telling its stories, the Dark Knight Returns traverses a wide range from Gotham's villains to the President of the United States and much in between, with large sections narrated by a Greek chorus-like device of newscasters or arguing talking heads on TV screens.

But, at least for me, it still suffers from plots that at times are overly elaborate and hard to follow, drawing on comic book mythologies I'm not familiar with, and has cartoonish set piece battles. It seems like it is just about as good as a comic book can get, but (apologies to fans of the genre), it is still a comic book. show less